New external HD not fully detected by Win 10

[Clifford L Sanford]

Recently acquired a new HD and encloserue for use as an external hard drive. When plug it into the USB port Win 10 gives an audible cue that it has detected it. The encloser light flashes a few times and then stays on. The new drive does not appear in the file explorer. A check under disk management does not show the presence of the new drive. A check under the disk manager in disk drives shows a usb 3.0 super high speed usb device driver is present an working correctly. A post on the web siuggested ignoring that report and updating its driver. Another suggested a uninstall an reinstall of the driver. Neither of these showed a change in the disk manager or made the drive detectable. How do I manually force the drive detection and get a drive letter assigned.

 

[webworkings]

If the drive needs USB 3.0, I have to ask, is the one you are connecting it to actually 3.0?

I would also suggest connecting it to another computer to see if it works with that. If it does, then you know the problem is with your computer and can work from there. If it doesn't work on the other computer either, then the problem is either the drive or the enclosure.

 

[Clifford L Sanford]

If the drive needs USB 3.0, I have to ask, is the one you are connecting it to actually 3.0?

I would also suggest connecting it to another computer to see if it works with that. If it does, then you know the problem is with your computer and can work from there. If it doesn't work on the other computer either, then the problem is either the drive or the enclosure.

Yes it was connected to the 3.0 USB port. The enclouser is labelled as being 3.0 capable. Yes I did try it on another laptop and got the same problem. Out of curosity I tried it on a 2.0 port. That had the exact same problem.

 

[webworkings]

Sounds a lot like the enclosure may be your problem. I would suggest returning it and see if you can either get another one of the same, or try another brand.

 

[Clifford L Sanford]

10-4 Just curious what clue points you too the enclosure and not the drive. Both are brand new. I ask only for future reference. Thanks for your input.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

Have you partitioned/formatted the drive? This is required before it can be seen by File Manager.

 

[Clifford L Sanford]

Have not partitioned or formatted it yet. Wanted too. Had been told that this is not possible yet. Is this possible without Windows 10 recognizing the drive and assigning a drive letter.

 

[Clifford L Sanford]

Have not partitioned or formatted it yet. Wanted too. Had been told that this is not possible yet. Is this possible without Windows 10 recognizing the drive and assigning a drive letter.

 

[Clifford L Sanford]

Found a You tube video showing how to format the same exact enclosure by a process I never had heard of. The initializing process as it was called automatically open a window after clicking on disk manager. When I tried it the window never appeared and I could find no way to force it to open. Thus I'm back to having no way part ion it, format it and get a drive letter for it. I don't recall ever getting a new drive that was not preformatted. Both PC's had the same result.

 

[webworkings]

Then there is likely a problem with it. I would consider returning it.

 

[Clifford L Sanford]

Then there is likely a problem with it. I would consider returning it.

I purchased another box and it did not solve the problem. i began to consider a bad hard drive in spite of it being advertised as new. I tried the drive and box on a public computer at the library. Amazingly the library PC did detect the drive and assigned it a drive letter. In addition I was able to use the file explorer and found that the hard drive has a handful of files and folder left on it. Interestingly one folder was named "system32". I now suspect that this drive at one time had been used as a backup or recovery drive. None of the library had administrator rights to these PC's and thus it could not be reformatted and partitioned. How can I erase the drive and start clean. I can't find anything on the web that seems to be able erase a external hard drive without having W10 assign a drive letter. Anything I could try would be highly risky if and could end up wiping out the internal c: drive in the PC. 🙁

 

[webworkings]

You are going to then have to connect it to another computer that will allow you to clear the drive. Or take it to a tech that can do it.

 

[Clifford L Sanford]

I contacted the only remaining computer service shop left in my area. The tech informed me that you can only format and partition a new hard by going thru the control panel.......to disk management. He stated that you can't go to the disk management window via the W10 search function. It will take you to it, you just can't use it. I found that the disk management window was grayed out. I checked and found that I was logged in by my administrator account. What else is left.

 

[webworkings]

If the computer won't see the drive at all, you need to resolve that first. Apologies for any miscommunication.

 

[Clifford L Sanford]

You are going to then have to connect it to another computer that will allow you to clear the drive. Or take it to a tech that can do it.

Problem solved. The service shop discovered that the drive had nine part ions on it. One partion had the previously discover operating system folder labelled system 32. It did not appear that they used any special software to eliminate the partions. FYI I had tried resolving this with a Easus download. When that failed I contacted their tech support department and was told that their software could not help without the PC showing up in the greyed out disk manager program of W10..

 

[webworkings]

Glad you got it sorted.

 

[desaiaseel]

I would suggest returning it and see if you can either get another one of the same, or try another brand.

 

[webworkings]

I believe that was suggested a while back.