My external HDD Hard drive does not show up in file explorer but shows up in Device manager. Disk manager doesn't help.

[Jackal_999]

I have been through disk manager and when I right click the drive, I cannot click to change the letter or to format the drive. Please help.

 

[basroil]

If the disk is a new one, go to disk manager and click initialize. If that doesn't work, double check to make sure the power and USB connectors are attached properly. If all else fails, RMA.

If it's a disk that was working before, try using it on another computer. If no computer recognizes it, it might just be broken.

 

[Jackal_999]

If the disk is a new one, go to disk manager and click initialize. If that doesn't work, double check to make sure the power and USB connectors are attached properly. If all else fails, RMA.

If it's a disk that was working before, try using it on another computer. If no computer recognizes it, it might just be broken.

The disk has a backup of my computer on it and that computer automatically backs itself up every hour. It gets recognised by that one but I cant reset anything because of the backup.

 

[basroil]

The disk has a backup of my computer on it and that computer automatically backs itself up every hour. It gets recognised by that one but I cant reset anything because of the backup.

It's probably your backup program that's causing the issue, so either stop doing that backup (and once an hour is ridiculous for most people, generally once a week is enough) or check the program's settings to disable exclusive use.

 

[D_Know_WD]

Hi there Jackal_999,

Do you have any other data stored on the drive except for the backed up one? In case you do, it may be a good idea to back it up until you sort this out.

After that, you can test the drive with one of these: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/282651-32-best-diagnostic-testing-utility
In case the drive is in a healthy state, I would agree with basroil and say that the backup tool could be causing this.

If you don't have important data stored on the drive, you can reformat it(data destructive process) and see if the issue persists. In case you can't do that through Disk Management, you can use some third party tool that can wipe the drive.

If you have some spare cables, will not hurt to attach the drive with them as well.

Let us know how this goes,
D_Know_WD