MY 1TB toshiba external hard drive doesnt appear on my PC. white light flashes thats all

[andiwerewolf]

Hi My 1tb external hard drive isn't working on my PC.
It appears in hidden icons that I have something plugged in but that's as far as it goes
what do I do?

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Welcome to the community, @andiwerewolf!

I'd recommend you check how the HDD appears in Disk Management. Posting a screenshot from there might be pretty helpful as well. If you haven't tried this already, try using a different USB cable and another USB port on your computer when connecting the external hard drive.
If you are able to see the external HDD in Disk Management, you might also want to try changing the drive letter . It could help you get the HDD properly recognized and accessible through the file explorer (My Computer/This PC).

Keep me posted & Good luck!
SuperSoph_WD

 

[ut3n11]

SuperSoph_WD
I have the same problem.
Per your advice I brought up disk manager and the WD doesn't even appear on the list.
Any more advice?

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

SuperSoph_WD
I have the same problem.
Per your advice I brought up disk manager and the WD doesn't even appear on the list.
Any more advice?

Welcome to the community, @ut3n11!

I'd recommend you create your own thread in the Storage section of the forum and let more people engage with your issue and suggest solutions. It would be really helpful if you share more details about the issue and the drive itself. Does it appear in Device Manager at least? I'd also advise you to try using a different USB cable and a different USB port on the computer to check if the WD drive will appear then. If you have access to another PC/laptop, you could try connecting the HDD there as well and see how it will get recognized. Make sure you backup all important data from the HDD as soon as you gain access to the files! This is the surest way to avoid the potential data loss.

Keep me posted with the troubleshooting details and let me know if you create another thread/topic.
SuperSoph_WD

 

[ChazzerB314]

Have Device Manager open when you plug in the external HDD. Something "should" change in the screen. You may have to do this a few times to catch what changed and when you figure it out, right click and check the drivers for updates.