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I plugged in my roughly 3year old external harddrive which i havent used for maybe a month into my laptop. It does not show up in "Computer" with the other drives. I looked in computer management storage areas (to see maybe if it has errors, somehow isnt formatted etc) and it isnt listed.

Theres an LED that lights up when i connect the usb into my laptop so A) After I connected the usb port i do see it light up B) Because i see its on i know its plugged in. I also can hear it spinning.

Anyways so it does somewhat work. I just dont have the drive showing up. What can i do?

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  • What's the make and model of the external hard drive?
    – Tog
    Jan 2, 2012 at 11:24
  • Does it show up in the Device Manager? Do you get the "bee-boop" sound? Jan 2, 2012 at 11:34
  • Have you ever had it connected to this particular computer before? Is it recognized by another computer? You might want to check out this Microsoft KB article.
    – CharlieRB
    Jan 2, 2012 at 21:28

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Is the hdd USB powered or does it have separate AC-Adapter? Did you connect the hdd directly or through a hub? Are other drives connected via USB? Possibly the the drive pulls to much power from the USB.

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    It magically fixed itself. I did check if the usb or adapter was loose but somehow after shutting down my computer, move my desk aside, pull the adapter completely out then back in and doing the same with the usb port. The computer found the drive after rebooting. I could swear i reboot before doing this. It would be really strange if the LED was on but the drive didnt have enough power (it is a wall plug). But thats what i think may have been a problem.
    – user3109
    Jan 3, 2012 at 2:56

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