In the last few years, external hard drives have become very popular. The demand for HDDs appeared due to their convenient size, the ability to connect USB cable to any computer, large capacity, and affordable price.
The most popular drives sold today have a USB 3.0 interface and capacities of 1 or 2 TB. The most popular HDD brands list includes Seagate, Western Digital, Toshiba, and ADATA. Of course, you can also buy larger ones, but they are not so often chosen.
Such an external drive is nothing more than an ordinary HDD disk enclosed in an additional case, allowing it to be connected to a computer with a single USB cable. To employ such a device, almost as any other, users plug it into the USB port of any computer. Normally, the HDD is automatically detected by the computer and immediately provides access to the data stored on its platters. However, it is not always as we would like it to be. Sometimes the drive is not recognized by the computer, and users are not able to access the data stored on it.
Reasons for a computer not recognizing hard drive:
1.
The computer’s USB port does not have enough power to run the drive. Currently sold HDDs have more and more capacities. They also need more and more power to start. Especially in older computers, there may be such a problem with the drive.
The current efficiency of USB ports in older computers is about 500 mA. It was designed for USB devices with much less power or for USB devices that had their own external power supply. Nowadays, most devices are manufactured in such a way that they do not require an external power supply – plug it in, and it’s ready. That’s why these kinds of troubles happen.
2.
The USB port on the computer or on the external drive may be damaged. – USB ports mounted on modern external drives are much more complicated than those used in the past. These are usually USB 3.0 ports, which results in a multitude of pins in the plug. Often, during intensive use, multiple connections, carrying, pulls, or falls, such a port can wear out or physically break off. It is enough to damage one pin for the drive to fail to start or be damaged.
3.
The external drive itself may be damaged. Very often, users come to us with a non-working external drive, hoping that there is no significant damage and that the drive can be fixed in 15 minutes. Unfortunately, damage to the external drive is usually associated with more severe issues. The delicate mechanisms of the drive often break down as a result of falls, hits, or changes in temperature. Hard drives with such damage can only be fixed by a professional data recovery service.
4.
The file system on the external drive is incompatible with the operating system used on the computer. A file system is a technique for managing data within a given operating system. Thanks to the use of this system, the system user can have easy and free access to data.
Basic functions within the file system include opening and closing files, creating and deleting files, as well as saving and deleting data. Unfortunately, each operating system manufacturer has its own independent file system that is incompatible with the other one. Thus, Windows, macOS, and Linux usually use NTFS, HFS+, and EXt3, respectively. Opening HFS partition files under Windows will fail.
5.
There might be a logical disk error as well. Such damage results not from physical but from logical damage to the structure of the data stored on the HDD. These are commonly considered to be minor bugs, but in most cases, they are not. In fact, they can become a much more significant threat to your data rather than physical damage.
Often, users try to fix these types of errors themselves with the help of a friend, which often results in the final loss of data.
6.
Accidental data deletion. We often receive cases where the user or someone they know accidentally deletes important data.
Of course, these are just some of the reasons why the computer does not detect the external drive. Through many years of experience in the data recovery field, we have had various cases, and each of them was different.
A computer is not recognizing an external hard drive?
If you have detected any of the data loss symptoms mentioned above, it is recommended to unplug your HDD right away and contact a reputable data recovery company. Using the hard drive further on will damage it, even more, leading to more severe issues with the drives.
The data recovery process is a complicated and difficult procedure to perform. It should be entrusted to professionals with years of experience and competency.
The PITS engineering team has recovered thousands of HDDs, SSDs, RAID arrays, etc. Still, our company proudly maintains a 99% success rate across the United States.
Facing data inaccessibility on your hard drive, contact us at (888) 611 0737 or fill in the request help form. Our customer service representatives will gladly help you with the issue and start your data recovery case.