[SOLVED] Windows doesn't recognize hard drive; but android does

[mcgge1360]

I'm fairly proficient in managing hard drive volumes and such, so I've tried all I can think. The (portable USB) hard drive does not show up in disk management, file manager, or device manager. Just confirmed. It shows up as "...SCSI Disk Device", but updating drivers does nothing. It has been tested on multiple computers and USB ports, including motherboard, case, and hub USB ports, 2.0 and 3.0. The drive wasn't formatted, re-partitioned, cloned, or anything of the sort. It just stopped working on windows one day.

I would maybe think it's clashing with another drive for letter (I think it was usually (F:)) but in that case It would still show up in other windows computers. (The 6TB is a desk drive, not it)

I was ready to pull the drive from the case and plug it into SATA (making it not longer portable for me) when I tried one last thing. Plugging it into my phone (with a USB-C to USB-A adapter). Surprisingly, it worked. All my files show up there and are accessible as if nothing is wrong. How can I get this working again on the PC (preferably without erasing over 1 TB worth of files)? TIA!

Edit: Side note - Windows makes the "USB connected" sound when I plug it in

 

[mcgge1360]

For those with similar problems I'll give my solution:

It seemed to be a power issue. My phone (being strong on the battery side) was enough to spin up the drive, but the USB ports on my PC were not (apparently). When I plugged it into my monitor USB hub, it booted up just fine. Why? The monitor powers the USB ports by itself and just sends the data to the PC. I would assume this happens because the drive is getting older and has more resistance/weaker motors.