Buffalo External Hard drive doesn\'t show up under Computer.

jpress1206

Honorable
Mar 28, 2012
3
0
10,510
When the hard drive is plugged in, it registers under Devices and Printers but does not show up under Computer. I cannot retrieve my saved data. Help please!
 

jpress1206

Honorable
Mar 28, 2012
3
0
10,510
Directly connected to the computer and it has been tried on a MAC and now on a Dell. Did not work at all on the MAC. It downloaded the driver and let's me access the properties and such...
 

firo40

Splendid
have you ever used this drive before becuase if not your going to have to format it before you use it. On your dell, Go into the control panel, then click adminstrative tools, then click computer managment, then click storage. When the window opens click the external drive and click format this will set the drive up for use. Enjoy
 

jpress1206

Honorable
Mar 28, 2012
3
0
10,510
firo40, yes this drive has been used before...just not on my computer. Do I still format it? I'm sorry, I'm not a techie. It is being used by one of classes and they need to pull some saved work off of it.
 

lovetotinker

Honorable
Apr 7, 2013
1
0
10,510
i am also having the same problem, i took the hard drive out of the housing and hooked it up to the computer and it recognizes the drive but does not show up under my computer. and idea's ??
thanks in advance for your time.

 

Sunn487

Honorable
Apr 7, 2013
3
0
10,510


Has is shown in Disk Management?
If so, you could assign a new letter to it for activating it:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/cc757491%28v=ws.10%29.aspx
Doesn't work?
Try to format it. (Before you format it, you'd better copy off all your important data at the aid of data recovery software. Just search "drive data recovery tool" over the internet and select an efficient one according to your needs.)
Or, you also should to read this article to figure out your problem:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/330140