external drive shows in disk management but not in partition or file explorer

[virgil69]

My inateck external drive shows up in disk management but not in partition or file explorer, so I can't access it.

Windows8.1, custom build.

Thank you.

 

[BigBadBeef]

Hey... isn't this the second time this year you're pestering about this year? How many times do I have to tell you that you have to assign it a drive letter?!? 😀

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hey, virgil69!

If it's the external is a new one, you'd need to initialize it first, then partition and format it. Here are 2 tutorials that can walk you through these procedures:
How to initialize: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=20b6gk
How to partition and format: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=2kfI6L

If you have data on it, then as @BigBadBeef mentioned you should assign a different drive letter to the external. And here's another tutorial that can shed some light on how to do that: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=aLqCzk

Best of luck & keep us posted!
SuperSoph_WD