I cannot see my Toshiba Ext. Hard Drive on my computer but is in the Device Manager

[hami01]

I cannot see my Toshiba Ext. Hard drive on my computer, but it is listed in my device manager. as a Healthy (OEM Partition). There is no drive path or letter showing; it does not give me any options to except Help when I "Right Click"

I have been researching all the forums and nothing helps

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Welcome to Tom's Hardware, @hami01!

Is this external HDD a brand new drive or do you have data stored on it already?
I'd strongly recommend you check if the HDD is listed in Disk Management in Windows. If it's a brand new drive, you will need to Initialize it and then Partition & Format it through there in order to make its capacity available through My Computer/This PC (File Explorer).
Keep in mind that these steps are recommended only if you don't have any data on the drive. Initializing and formatting the HDD would wipe out the drive and erase all its contents!

If the drive has data on it and you somehow are not able to access it, then I'd suggest you swap the USB cable and the port where the external is connecting to your computer. If you have access to another PC/laptop, you should also check how it would get recognized there.

Let me know how it goes and keep me posted with the troubleshooting details!
SuperSoph_WD

 

[hami01]

Welcome to Tom's Hardware, @hami01!

Is this external HDD a brand new drive or do you have data stored on it already?
I'd strongly recommend you check if the HDD is listed in Disk Management in Windows. If it's a brand new drive, you will need to Initialize it and then Partition & Format it through there in order to make its capacity available through My Computer/This PC (File Explorer).
Keep in mind that these steps are recommended only if you don't have any data on the drive. Initializing and formatting the HDD would wipe out the drive and erase all its contents!

If the drive has data on it and you somehow are not able to access it, then I'd suggest you swap the USB cable and the port where the external is connecting to your computer. If you have access to another PC/laptop, you should also check how it would get recognized there.

Let me know how it goes and keep me posted with the troubleshooting details!
SuperSoph_WD

 

[hami01]

Yes. It's a brand new drive. I have tried it in my new chromebook and it shows as a valid drive. It's also listed in the device manager on my old lap top. How do I initialize it? I can't read my thumb drive from any USB ports either on this laptop

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hey there again, @hami01!

You should refer to the hyperlinks I shared in my previous post ('Initialize it' & 'Partition & Format it').
Once you go to Disk management in Windows, you should be able to see this external HDD as 'Not initialized', when you click on it, a pop up window named 'Initialize Disk' should appear. If the hard drive is 2 TB or less, you should use the MBR partition table (Master Boot Record). However, if the HDD is larger than 2 TB, you will need to use the GPT (GUID Partition table) while initializing the drive. The difference is that MBR doesn't work with larger than 2 TB HDDs, so you won't be able to access the whole capacity if the external is bigger.

Once you complete the initializing stage of the drive, it should appear as one black volume ('Unallocated'). In order to make the HDD accessible through Windows (This PC/My Computer), you will have to format it as well. You should do that by right-clicking on the black-bar volume in Disk Management and selecting 'Create New Simple Volume'. Following the steps in the wizard will make this external drive properly accessible through the file explorer (This PC/My Computer).

If you are facing issues with other external USB-powered devices, then I'd strongly recommend you go to the laptop manufacturer's official website and make sure you got the latest USB Hub controller drivers installed for your model and operating system from there.

Let me know if you have any additional questions!
Good luck!
SuperSoph_WD