Friday, July 22, 2011

External USB Harddisk not detected by Windows 7

Ok I had a 1.5 TB external harddisk, which was working fine. However one day all of a sudden, Windows 7 stopped detecting it. I tried to connect it to another computer which had Windows XP and Windows 7. Both OSes detected it. I spent a week trying to figure out what happened. Here is how I fixed it
unplug the external HDD

At the command prompt, type the following lines, pressing ENTER after each line
set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1
cd %SystemRoot%\System32
start devmgmt.msc

device manager will open...

click 'show hidden devices' under View...

expand all the nods under device manager

there would be many greyed out  entries or entries with exclamation marks in device manager. Usually these nodes are displayed under this node 'Non-plug&play devices'. Uninstall all these  under all the nods and thn restart the computer and plug the HDD to the computer and check if it works.
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7 comments:

  1. UnknownDecember 14, 2013 at 6:28 AM

    You saved my ass :)
    Cheers from Jordan \m/

    ReplyDelete
  2. AbhinavJanuary 10, 2014 at 8:44 PM

    The problem I am facing is this - My system (Windows 7) freezes every time I try to connect. This is making getting to cmd prompt difficult. Any suggestions?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. End GdgtSeptember 22, 2014 at 8:58 PM

      You can do everything with command prompt and device manager before you plug-in the HDD. Also disable autoplay option for external drives in Windows. Then tryc onencting the drive.

      However if windows hangs while connecting a drive, it usually means the Drive has some serious issues (like damaged MFT..). YOu can try connecting it to another PC to make sure your drive is not the culprit here.

      Delete
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    ReplyDelete
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