How do I fix external hard drive not detected?

The possible reasons why an external hard drive might not be detected are  below:

• Not reject external hard drive by using safely remove function mostly.
• Unexpected power shut down or insufficient power supply while using external hard drive.
• File system issue due to cross-platforms.
• Physical failure (Ex: Broken USB connector、inside hard drive failure...etc.)
  ※ If it is physical failure, it is necessary to get the repair or replacement, please contact us.
  
  

If your external hard drive is not detected, please try these steps first.

1. Try connecting the drive to a different port on computer or using it on a different computer.
2. If possible, please try a different USB cable to make sure if the LED light of the drive flashes and the drive can be detected.
3. Open disk management to check the drive if it can be detected.

Here are some ways to open disk management:
Windows 7:  Right-click Computer, select Manage and select Disk Management.
Windows 10/11: Right-click (or long-press) the Start button and select Disk Management.


※Kindly remind, data will be erased when you try below troubleshooting steps.

1. The hard drive shows "No media" which means that the drive is defective. Please contact us to get further repairment or replacement.

2. The hard drive shows as Not initialized and Unallocated.

• Right-click Not Initialized hard disk, and choose "Initialize Disk".
• Select the disk and choose MBR or GPT (If your hard drive is 3TB or above, please select GPT) as its partition style, click "OK" to start.

• Right-click on the unallocated space on your  drive and select "New Simple Volume".

• "Specify volume Size" is the amount is set to whatever your drives maximum capacity is. (You can create multiple partitions the size can be reduced to account for additional partitions.) Click "Next".

• Set the volume size, drive letter, and file system as NTFS to the new hard drive until finishing the process completely. 

3.The hard drive shows as RAW.

Solution 1. To fix RAW disk by reformatting to NTFS in Disk Management.

• Connect your RAW external hard drive to your computer. Go to "This PC" > "Manage" > "Disk Management".
• Find and right-click the RAW hard drive and choose "Format".
• Select the file system (NTFS) and assign a drive letter to your hard drive.
• Click "Start" to format your RAW hard drive. When formatting has been completed, click "OK".

Solution 2. To fix RAW disk by using Diskpart command of Windows

• Open command prompt window: press “Win+R” at the same time and input “diskpart.exe” in the Run dialogue window and press Enter.
• Please enter "list volume", it will list all the available partitions and drives. 
• Please enter "select volume n" (Here "n" presents RAW drive letter, as example, volume 7 is shown as RAW and is the target partition to select.)
• Please enter "format fs=ntfs" and press Enter to format RAW partition to NTFS and make sure if the drive can be detected.
  
  

4. No drive letter appears.

• Please select and hold (or right-click) the volume for which you want to add a drive letter, and then select Change Drive Letter and Paths.
• To add a drive letter if the drive doesn't already have one, select Add.
• Select the new drive letter, select OK, then the process is done.