While traditional hard disks came with large storage capacities, many new devices come equipped with SSDs that have significantly smaller storage capacities. This leads to many users keeping ready a secondary hard disk with a larger capacity.
However, sometimes users have reported an error where the external hard disk is not recognized by their Windows 10 computer. This can be very frustrating if you have some important data stored on the drive. Here I shall discuss how you can troubleshoot hard disk not detected error easily using the solutions provided above.
How To Fix Hard Drive Not Detected In Windows 10?
If you see the hard disk not detected in Windows 10, the first thing you should do is check if you get any error message for the same. This will help you find the exact cause of the error, and narrow down the solutions which you need to follow. If you do not get any error message, you can follow the generic solutions provided below.
Solution 1: Restart Windows
One of the easiest solutions you can implement to solve the hard drive error is to restart the Windows operating system. While this may seem silly, restarting your PC may be all you need to do to solve the error. When you restart your computer, the data is rearranged in the boot sector, which should free any cache data preventing Windows from recognizing your hard disk.
Check if hard drive shows up after restarting Windows. Your error should now be resolved.
Solution 2: Check For Damage To Data Cable
To eliminate the possibility of any physical damage leading to the computer not recognizing hard drive, you should check for any damage to the connecting cables. If there is any damage to the data cable, your computer will not recognize the hard disk.
An effective way to check this is from the BIOS setup. Under the boot configuration options in BIOS, check if the hard disk shows up. If the hard drive does not show up in BIOS as well, you can confirm that there is something wrong with the data cable or the connection ports.
First, look for any bent or misaligned pins. If there is any problem with the port, you may have to take the hard disk to the service center for repairs. If there is no damage to the port, check the cable. There is a possibility that a fold or crease may have damaged the internals of the cables. Try connecting the storage device using another data cable.
If the disk connects using the new cable, you can confirm that there was some damage to the cable that led to hard drive not detected error. Check this Seagate support page for more information on the same.
Solution 3: Reinstall USB Controllers
The USB controller drivers are responsible for controlling the connections made to your computer using the universal serial bus ports. If the USB driver is misconfigured or corrupted, there is a possibility that the hard drive connection is being denied by the controller itself.
One of the easiest solutions to this is to reinstall the USB controller drivers. This can be done via the device manager, and you will need to follow these steps for the same:
- Open the device manager console, either from a Run dialog (enter devmgmt.msc) or from the WinX menu.
- Expand the Universal Serial Bus controllers section.
- Here, locate the USB port, and right-click on it.
- Select the Uninstall device from the right-click context menu.
- Restart your computer.
You should see the generic drivers installed for the USB controller drivers. If this controller was leading to hard drive not showing up in Windows 10, it should now be resolved.
Solution 4: Disable USB Selective Suspend Settings
On portable devices like laptops, Windows can turn off some devices in order to save additional power. If you are not plugged in while using the hard drive, you can see hard drive not showing up if the USB selective suspend settings are enabled.
Check out how to disable USB selective suspend settings here. Once you have disabled this setting, check if the error persists.
Wrapping Up
So there you have it. Now you know how you can troubleshoot if you see hard drive not detected in Windows 10. Comment below if you found this useful, and to discuss further the same.
