External HDD not recognised in the explorer

  • Thread starter Thread starter Thefarmer
  • Start date Start date
T

Thefarmer

I bought an external HDD for my notebook. I'm now very
surprised to see that it is recognised in the hardware
list and that it seems to be running. But when I open the
explorer I cannot find the HDD. Any help or advice around?
 
Two likely possibilities, the drive may not be formatted and/or not assigned
a 'letter' by WINXP. Both possibilities can be addressed by going to
Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Computer Management>Disk Management click
Action Tab then All Tasks where you will see all drives. Highlight the
external drive and format if necesary and/or assign a 'letter'.
 
Right click on My Computer, click Manage, click Disk Management. Does
it appear in there? What are your options when you right click on the
drive? You may simply need to assign it a drive letter. The other
thing you can try is using it in a different port or on a different
computer and see if that helps.
 
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