When you would like to access your data stored on an external hard drive, you need to connect it to a computer. In this course, you may suffer a case that the drive can’t be detected. This article will expose the 7 top reasons for this issue.
Most of us are accustomed to using an external hard drive for data backups. But, unfortunately, the drive can be inaccessible at times. For example, you may have encountered such a case that your external hard drive can’t be detected by their machines, such as computer. In this case, you will not see anything happening on connecting it to your machine, such as no sounds, no auto-play popups and also, the drive will not show up in device manager interface. It means that you will be unable to access the drive data as normal.
As this case is pretty common for many factors, thus, you had better always have several copies of your valuable data. For instance, when you find your external drive undetectable, you still can resort to the other data backups, without needs to attempt data recovery on the undetectable drive, such as PST recovery, etc. But, it’s still vital to know why the drive cannot be detected on your machine, which is playing an important role for you to verify and solve this issue. Thus, here we will introduce the 7 primary reasons behind it.
1. Drive Physical Damage
One of the most common reasons is that your external hard drive is physically damaged owing to your improper handling, such as violent dropping or knocking, excessive squeezing and so on. As long as a drive suffers severe physical damage, of course your machine will not detect out it.
2. Drive Wear and Tear
Similar to physical damage, if your external hard drive wears out, the drive will be undetectable as well. In general, this scenario is often caused owing to overuse. As you know, when you read or write data to a drive, the drive will spin up. Thus, if you frequently read or write data, the drive will wear out faster.
3. Lost or Corrupt Drive System Files
As we all know, all devices work by replying on system, such as operating system or file system. The same holds true for hard drives. Therefore, if the system files supporting the external hard drive get compromised or deleted by accident, the drive will be undetectable, too.
4. Faulty Connection
Faulty connection between the external hard drive and your machine, such as a computer is another very common cause. Generally, drive gets connected via USB port and cable. Thus, if something wrong occurs to the port or cable, drive will be unable to get connected properly.
5. Abrupt System Termination
When you connect the hard drive to your computer, but suddenly your computer system suddenly gets terminated, freezes or hangs there and so on, the drive will not be detected too.
6. Sudden Power Surges during Data Transfer
Sudden power surges when the external hard drive is used for data transfer will make a great impact on both your computer and drive. More specifically, after unexpected power surges, your computer may shut down. Then, after you reboot it and re-insert the drive, the drive may not be detected out.
7. Virus/Malware Infection
Furthermore, virus or malware is also a non-negligible cause for an undetectable external hard drive. You have to know that today’s viruses have been much more powerful than what we think. If your hard drive has been virus infected, it can be unrecognizable too.
Author Introduction:
Shirley Zhang is a data recovery expert in DataNumen, Inc., which is the world leader in data recovery technologies, including SQL Server corruption and outlook repair software products. For more information visit www.datanumen.com
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