External Disk Drive Suddenly Stopped Working

[rochelleayes]

My external hard drive is suddenly not showing up anywhere on my computer except my device manager. It was working completely fine a few days ago and showing no sign of slowing down, all of this mess just happened overnight. It doesn't show up on windows explorer, disk management or even in the cmd (using diskpart and list disk), however it DOES show up in the device manager. The disk itself also seems to recognize that it's been attached to my laptop, because whenever it is connected it's little white light lights up and it starts whirring like it always does (not too loud, it doesn't sound broken). I used the SeaTools app on Seagate's website(my drive is from Seagate) and that app doesn't show my external drive either. I should also say that right around the time this disk offed itself my laptop also became extremely slow... taking really long to restart, shut down and boot up, much longer than before. I have no idea what is happening or why and I would greatly appreciate some help.

 

[hang-the-9]

If you only see it in device manager that means it sees the USB connection but not the drive. Try using the drive in another enclosure or directly on a desktop computer. This may be an issue with some external drives due to some of them having custom connections or encryption in the hardware.

 

[v.pramoth]

I have exactly the same problem. I have tested it on Windows 8.1/10..the problem is still the same. But when I plugged it into a Windows 7 pc, it was slow to show up but works fine and files can be accessed. But still the problem remains the same on Windows 8.1/10. Any solution to this?

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

I have exactly the same problem. I have tested it on Windows 8.1/10..the problem is still the same. But when I plugged it into a Windows 7 pc, it was slow to show up but works fine and files can be accessed. But still the problem remains the same on Windows 8.1/10. Any solution to this?

Please start your own thread even if you think your issue is the same --- we can only deal with one person per thread.

Furthermore, it's bad manners to jump in to somebody else's thread with your own problem.