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

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

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.

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• Outdated disk driver on your computer.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.

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.

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.

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 - FastRecovery.

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

Powerful features in FastRecovery:

● Recover deleted data, lost data, and hidden data from external hard disk easily.
● Able to retrieve 1000+ 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.
● Organize and display data by Type or Path, allowing you to sort, search, filter, and preview files. 

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

1. Connect your external hard disk to your computer properly. After launching FastRecovery, click Deleted Files Recovery. You can also choose a more suitable alternative, such as Disk Data Recovery, Partition Formatted Recovery, etc. All of them can help you retrieve data without causing any damage.

2. You'll see all available drives. Hover the mouse over the drive, and click Scan.

3. It will perform a Quick Scan automatically to find all your deleted and missing files. You can select files by Type (default) or Path, and combine them with options to sort, filter, search, and preview files. 

4. Choose the files you need to recover and click Recover. Please choose a NEW path to save your recovered files. Otherwise, your data may be overwritten. 

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 FastRecovery to get it back quickly.