HP Laptop Not Recognising Any External HDD's

[invaderzimngur]

Hey, my niece recently got a second hand HP Laptop (Win 8) and tried to use a WD Elements external HDD to transfer her files from her old laptop (Win 7 I think) to the new one, however this new laptop can't recognise the Elements HDD or any other external HDD for that matter.

I've tried 4 different HDD's (Which all work on my home desktop which is Win 10), 1 of them results in a blinking light with nothing showing up in Disk Management, the WD Elements external shows up in Disk Management but it isn't initialised and cannot be initialised in either GPT (Device storage size issue) or MBR (Fatal device hardware error), and the 2 other external's I tried don't even get enough power to make the light come on.

The only device that has been recognised so far is a little thumb drive I had laying around, it showed up instantly with no dramas.

I should point out I've tried every device in every available USB port, 1 USB port doesn't work at all with anything, another doesn't seem to work with any device other than her USB nano transceiver for her wireless mouse and the last port is the one that provided the information I typed above.

I have tried many things I've found on the net, but I'm starting to think it's the laptop itself and not the drives as they all work perfectly fine on my desktop system.

If anyone can suggest something that'd be great, if there are any details you need please ask.

 

[Scottray]

Since you get some of the USB ports to sort of work, it sounds more like a software issue than a hardware issue. First, write down the Windows 8 activation code, just in case. Next, try a Windows 8 refresh. If that doesn't work, try a reset (https://newatlas.com/how-to-windows-8-pc-refresh-reset/32801/).

 

[invaderzimngur]

Since you get some of the USB ports to sort of work, it sounds more like a software issue than a hardware issue. First, write down the Windows 8 activation code, just in case. Next, try a Windows 8 refresh. If that doesn't work, try a reset (https://newatlas.com/how-to-windows-8-pc-refresh-reset/32801/).

I've already tried a refresh, so I'll just go for a full reset now. Will report back!

 

[invaderzimngur]

Since you get some of the USB ports to sort of work, it sounds more like a software issue than a hardware issue. First, write down the Windows 8 activation code, just in case. Next, try a Windows 8 refresh. If that doesn't work, try a reset (https://newatlas.com/how-to-windows-8-pc-refresh-reset/32801/).

Hi, so I tried the full reset and it's still busted. It wouldn't even finish installing the device hardware, it got like 1/12th done and just sat there for hours no moving.

If we can't figure it out the only work around I can see is if we use high capacity thumb drives to at least get some of her files on there.

 

[Scottray]

One more thing that you can try is to update and/or reinstall the usb drivers. Go into the device manager and see which make/version of usb drivers are in use. Then, go the the HP support site and see it there's any updated drivers for the laptop. You can also try updating the usb drivers directly from the device manager, i.e. right click on the usb devices in the device manager, select properties and it's in the Driver tab.