I am unable to access external Hard Drive

I am unable to access external Hard Drive

Hello Alec Ealdwine!

I can understand how important these data are for you but do not worry, we will perform a few trouble shooting steps to get your external hard drive detected without losing your valuable data.

1. First and foremost, we need to update a few firmware/drivers on your desktop/laptop. To do this, you either need to have the driver's disk provided by manufacturer or we can download them from a manufacturer’s support site. The firmware/driver we need to update are – Express Chipset Family, Management Engine Interface and Card Reader. You can update them from the driver’s disk. If not, then log in to manufacturer’s site and get into the driver’s and download section. Enter your system service tag number, select your system OS. Once you have done this, you will find these drivers under “Chipset” category. Most likely, your issue will get resolved by performing these steps, if not, then let’s go on to the second step.

2. This step is basically to retrieve your valuable data which we do not want to lose. There are quite a few data recovery software which we can use. I would vote for Recuva because I am personally using it and more over, it’s a free recovery tool. Alternative option would be the drive recovery Stellar, GetDataBack or Data recovery wizard. Connect your external Hard Drive and install one of these free/trial versions on your desktop/laptop. Once installed, then try to extract the files saved on the external hard drive and save it to different locations such as the pen drive, CD/DVD or another external hard drive.

3. In this third option, we will try to connect your external hard drive to the desktop system for which we require SATA cable. Once we have the SATA cable, unscrew the desktop lid and connect the power connector cable to external hard drive and the SATA connector on the desktop motherboard. You will find more than one SATA connectors on the desktop motherboard. Turn on the system once done and it should detect your external hard drive. If it fails, consider it as an External hard drive failure.

4. You may also try exploring the option of connecting your External hard drive on to any other desktop/laptop systems besides yours. This will help us isolate the problem if it is with USB port of the External hard drive itself.

5. Another option is to carry the External hard drive to the manufacturer if it is in warranty. This will help you to get the issue resolved either by fixing up the drive or replacing it with another one.