External Hard Disk Detected But Not Opening? Fix It Now!

See your external hard disk detected but not opening? Do not worry. We will tell you how to fix it without losing data on your external hard drive.

Zoey

By Zoey / Updated on September 13, 2024

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How do I fix external hard drive detected but not opening?

 

My external hard drive is not opening, but it is showing up in my computer. How can I open it?

- Question from Quora

External hard disk is a common choice for you to store lots of data. When you connect your external hard disk to your computer to access data, you may encounter some accidental issues. Here comes the common one: external hard disk detected but not opening on your computer.

External Hard Disk

Take it easy. In this article, we will tell you the causes and how to solve the external hard drive showing up but not opening error clearly.

Why is my external hard drive detected but not showing my computer?

Like other external hard drive issues, for example, external hard drive not showing up, the most common cause is that plugging problem. In addition, there are some other possible reasons for such an external hard drive issue.

  • Equipment failure on your external hard drive.
  • Outdated disk driver on your computer.
  • Virus or malware attacks.
  • Improper operation to remove the external hard drive.

How to fix external hard disk detected but not opening

If you meet an external hard disk detected but not opening in Windows 10, 11, 8, or 7, you can try these solutions here to fix such an external hard drive error effectively. If you need to access data on your external hard drive, you can go to the next part to recover data from an unresponsive external hard drive directly.

Solution 1. Check the USB port and cable

The problem on the USB port and data cable is the most common cause of the external hard drive showing up but not opening issue. Thus, once you can not open your external hard drive, please check the situation of external hardware in two aspects: USB port and cable.

  • Try to change a USB port to plug your external hard drive to see if it turns to normal.
  • Try another data cable to connect your external hard drive and the computer.

Solution 2. Restart your device

There is another simple method that may work effectively: rebooting your computer. In most cases, your external hard drive issue will disappear after restarting the computer. Thus, please go to the Start menu to choose the Restart option on your computer.

Solution 3. Repair problems with Troubleshooter

If there are some bugs and problems on your computer, it is possible that you can not open your external hard drive. To find and repair these problems, you can try Windows Troubleshooter if you met external hard disk detected but not opening in Windows 11, 10, 8, and 7. Follow the easy stepwise guideline here.

1. Go to the Start menu > Settings.

2. Choose Troubleshoot, and click on Run the Troubleshooter under the Hardware and Devices tab.

Run Hardware and Devices Troubleshooter

3. Then, Troubleshooter will scan problems on your computer. If there is any problem, you can fix it and then restart your computer.

Solution 4. Update the disk driver

If the disk driver is outdated on your computer, you will meet some issues when you want to open the external hard drive. Updating the disk driver can solve most of them. If cannot, you can try to uninstall and reinstall the driver.

1. Go to open Device Manage on your computer.

2. Click on Disk drives > right-click your external hard drive > choose Update driver.

External Hard Drive Update Driver

Solution 5. Repair disk with command

You can recover external hard disk using CMD. Likewise, you can repair your external hard drive with command as well. Here is a brief tutorial and you can refer to it.

1. Run Command Prompt from the Start menu.

2. Input the CHKDSK command as follows.

For example, chkdsk X: /r /f  

X is the external hard drive letter. /r & /f are the parameters of CHKDSK.

CHKDSK Repair

How to recover data from an external hard drive not opening

If you meet the external hard disk detected but not opening issue unfortunately, but you need some important data on the external hard drive, here comes the solution. You can recover data from an external hard disk not opening with a professional data recovery tool - MyRecover.

No matter what condition your hard disk is in, MyRecover can help you recover data from it with a few clicks.

Powerful features in MyRecover:

Recover deleted data, lost data, and hidden data from external hard disk easily.
Able to retrieve 200+ types of data. For instance, Word, PPT, Excel, Photos, Videos, Audio, Emails, Webpages, and Compressed files.
Work well with Windows 11/10/8/7 and Windows Server 2022, 2019, 2016, 2012, etc.
Keep recovered data with its filename, format, and path kept

Here is an easy guideline to recover data from an external hard disk via MyRecover.

Download Software Windows 11/10/8/7/Server
Secure Download

1. Connect your external hard disk to your computer properly. Hover the mouse over the drive, and click Scan.

External Hard Drive Start Scan

2. MyRecover will perform Quick Scan and Deep Scan automatically. You can see all your deleted and missing files from the external hard disk here.

External Hard Drive Scanning

3. Choose the files that you need to recover. Then click on Recover X files. And please choose a safe path to save your recovered files.

External Hard Drive Recover Files

Final words

That’s all about how to solve the external hard disk detected but not opening issue. You can try any method in the article. Do not worry about your data safety. Once your data is lost from an external hard disk, you can use MyRecover to get it back quickly.

Zoey
Zoey · Editor
Zoey works as an English editor of AOMEI Technology. She provides tech information about backup and restore, mobile data transfer, and so on for AOMEI. She hopes that her articles will be greatly helpful for users. She is fond of music, film, and photography.