What to do if the external hard disk is not working

[anbey]

my 500 gb toshiba external hard disk is not taking. when it connected in computer nothing showing what to do

 

[phil22]

First make sure it's not just a drive letter issue. Sometimes Windows forgets to assign a drive letter when you plug in an external drive and you then have to assign one yourself.

Go into Disk Management:

Control Panel > Admin Tools > Computer Management > Disk Management

In the bottom-right panel showing the drive ribbons, look for the ribbon which represents your external Toshiba.
It will have no drive letter and will be labelled as "Raw" with no drive name.

Right-click that ribbon and choose "Change Drive Letter & Paths".
Click "Add".
Choose a letter.
Click 'OK' and wait for the drive letter to be assigned to that drive.

 

[RetiredChief]

If the disk does not show up as a drive in disk management it may be a USB issue.
How are you plugging the drive into the usb port?
If you are using just a cable from the HDD to a USB port, the problem is most likely insuffient power to HDD.
USB 2 ONLY provides about 2.5 Watts (0.5 Amps @ 5V), and most HDDs require more than that ar startup and when reading and writting to the drive.
.. For external HDDs I always use a Powerd USB hub between HDD and USB 2 port. This provides up to 2 Amps or 10 Watts.
.. Alternative is to use a two headed USB cablethat will plug into 2 usb 2 ports. Note Prefer the previous method.

Added: USB3 provides more power than USB2. So most USB3 external 2.5" HDDs wil work when plugged into a USB 3 port.

 

[maxinexus]

Plugin the HDD and restart your PC. I have to do this for one of my older comps and it works.

 

[Descartes]

First make sure it's not just a drive letter issue. Sometimes Windows forgets to assign a drive letter when you plug in an external drive and you then have to assign one yourself.

Go into Disk Management:

Control Panel > Admin Tools > Computer Management > Disk Management

In the bottom-right panel showing the drive ribbons, look for the ribbon which represents your external Toshiba.
It will have no drive letter and will be labelled as "Raw" with no drive name.

Right-click that ribbon and choose "Change Drive Letter & Paths".
Click "Add".
Choose a letter.
Click 'OK' and wait for the drive letter to be assigned to that drive.

 

[Descartes]

I have the same problem but in my case, my Toshiba external hard disk is not even showing in the disk management. Actually it was working properly a week ago but now when I connect it on my HP laptop its make the sound that is connected and even the light on the hard disk is on but its not showing anything. I don't know what to do