Why there are some computers can not detect my external hard disk?

Question

I tried to plug in the USB slot of my external hard disk to my computer's friend. However, after finished installed and there was an icon of the system stray indicated that the hard disk was plugged in, there was not hard disk drive appeared on My Computer. There were only drive C and D, but my external hard disk drive was not there. How can I solve this problem?

Answer 1

Is your friend using WindowsXP or Windows98? If he has Windows98 your external drive must be formatted in FAT32 mode in order for it to be recognized by his system.

If he DOES run WindowsXP, make sure you are plugging your drive into a "main" USB connection and not a card "add on" for USBs. Try using other USB slots to connect to his computer.

I just added an external harddrive to my system and these are a couple of things that I was told to check to make sure my drive functioned correctly.

Good luck.

Answer 2

1.) Make sure the computer has the drivers installed. Some computers will have a suitable driver (or the correct one) available and they will detect the hard drive accordingly.

2.) Give the computer a few moments to detect and READ the drive. It might take a minute or so.

3.) Reboot the uncooperative computer.

4.) Make sure the hard drive is not damaged.

5.) Make sure the USB port is not damaged or turned off in the BIOS.

Good luck.