External Hard Drive Not Showing Up? Try These Fixes (Updated for 2025)

Innovations such as the iPod and smartphones equipped with cloud-storage apps made it easier than ever for people to access their files on multiple devices. External storage drives became available before either of those inventions, and they remain essential for anyone who wants to retrieve content or move it between computers. When an external hard drive works correctly, it appears as a desktop icon shortly after you plug it into a USB port. You can then click on the icon to view the drive contents or drag files onto the drive’s icon to copy them to that device.

However, you might hit a snag after discovering the external hard drive not showing up after plugging it into a port. The reasons for this common problem generally fall into two categories — issues with the drive or problems with the computer. 

Why Is My External Hard Drive Not Showing Up? The Top Reasons

Hard Drive and Port Problems	Insufficient power	Dysfunctional cable	Broken port	Drive corruption
Computer-Related Aspects	Incompatibility	Outdated Windows drivers	New partition needed	Excessive CPU stress

Luckily, some of the solutions are easier than you think, and take only minutes to do. 

Restart Your Computer 

The advice to try turning something off and then on again has become a trope, but the tip has validity in this case. Excessive CPU stress can sometimes cause your hard drive not to appear on the desktop. Try implementing a potential fix by unplugging your drive, restarting the computer and giving the machine enough time to fully reboot before reconnecting the hard drive. 

Ensure the Drive Is Getting Power

Another easy option is to check that the drive seems active once you connect it. That indicates the computer gives it sufficient power. Many drives have a light that illuminates or flashes to show an active device. You can also lightly place your hand on the top to see if you feel the slight vibration of the drive spinning. You might also hear it rotating. 

Not all external hard drives get enough power solely from the USB port. Some of them need additional sources, like a wall outlet. Read the instructions that came with your device to see if that’s the case here, or try connecting the plug more firmly to the outlet if you know it needs supplemental power. If you have the drive connected to a power strip, some have switches that activate them. 

Connect the Drive to a Different Port

One of the simplest things to do is to try a different USB port on your computer. Some ports don’t cooperate nicely with certain drives. Also, if you haven’t used the particular port in a while, it may be that it’s no longer working at all. The easiest thing to do is connect the drive to a different port.

If that’s not an option, carefully clean the seemingly faulty port with a can of compressed air to dislodge accumulated debris. Hold the container 1-3 inches from the port and dispense the contents in short bursts. Doing that may be enough to make the port functional again, provided dust buildup was the problem. 

Use a Different Cable With the External Hard Drive

USB cables are similar to phone and laptop chargers in that they can stop working due to things like age or physical damage. Swap the existing cable out for a new one and see if that does the trick. 

Cables get bent, pulled and caught in laptop hinges during use. Those things can cause damage, even if you don’t see it on the outside. Luckily, replacements are usually inexpensive, so fixing the problem of your hard drive not showing up could be as easy as switching to a new cable. 

Try a Different Computer and Operating System

If you discover an external hard drive not showing up and you have both PC and Mac computers in the household, try plugging the device into a machine running a different operating system.

Something that people often forget is that you need to format a hard drive to make it work with both platforms. That’s because they use different file systems. So, a Windows-formatted drive may not appear on a Mac and vice versa. 

Update the Windows Drivers

If you have a Windows machine, the drivers responsible for the USB drives can sometimes have problems that make them unrecognizable. Go to the Device Manager and expand the menu sections associated with the Universal Serial Bus and Disk Drives. If you see a yellow exclamation mark next to any listing, that’s a sign that you need to reinstall the driver. 

Check the Drive in Disk Management

Another Windows-based tip is to see if the drive appears in Disk Management. Launch that part of Windows by pressing the Windows key + X. Then, see if you see the external hard drive appearing in the list of hard drives. It’ll normally appear below your primary and secondary drives. 

You may see the external hard drive in Disk Management, but notice that it only shows allocated space. In that case, you’ll need to create a new partition for it, and there’s a tool within Disk Management that walks you through how to do that. 

However, when you have the external hard drive not showing up in Disk Management, too, that means the issue could be hardware-related and happening due to a drive fault. 

Address Potential Hard Drive Corruption

Hard drives can become corrupted due to seemingly minor mistakes, such as not ejecting the accessory before removing it from the USB port. If you believe that might be the reason for the hard drive not showing up, try to recover files from the drive first. 

Next, try the numerous built-in drive recovery tools within the Windows operating system, if applicable. Similarly, Mac users have the First Aid and Disk Utility tools to help. 

Be Future-Minded About an External Hard Drive Not Showing Up

Hopefully you’re not in a situation where the external hard drive that’s not showing up has irreplaceable files. Many people have had that happen to them, though, so you wouldn’t be the first. One of the best proactive things to do from here on out is to back up your files in multiple ways and places. Then, a hard drive not showing up is an inconvenience rather than a crisis. 

Another way you can plan for the future is to purchase a solid-state drive (SSD). They can still fail, but are less likely to break than non-SSD drives because they have no moving parts. Purchasing access to cloud storage is another accessible solution, especially because many vendors bill you for subscriptions monthly or yearly. You can usually then access cloud-stored files on any internet-connected device, making it easy to pull up files on your phone when needed. 

Take Action, But Consider Getting Professional Help

The tips here are all things you can try at home. However, if none of them work, think about taking your dysfunctional hard drive to a computer specialist who can try to recover the files from it. Depending on what the external hard drive contains, you may deem that unnecessary.  But, in any case, at least the option exists. 

If you try this option, tell the professional all the things you’ve already tried to resolve the issue of your hard drive not showing up. That can save them time, so they’ll focus on the steps most likely to bring a positive resolution.

Original Publish Date 10/17/2022 — Updated 12/1/2025