The mere thought that your data could be lost for good is enough to put you in a state? That’s completely normal. Digital file backup solutions are a real godsend for all of us. We store almost everything on them, from the least important files to the most sensitive. Losing them overnight can be quite difficult. What should you do if your hard drive isn’t recognized by your computer? We looked into the question depending on the operating system.
Finding the source of the problem
Generally speaking, storage devices not being recognized usually stems from a variety of causes, some of which are recurring and well identified. First, you’ll need to stay calm and carefully analyze where the failure comes from that is causing your computer to report your storage device as not recognized. Among the causes of this hard drive failure, there are two main possible sources :
A hardware failure on the device
This usually occurs following an impact on the enclosure or wear on the connection areas. Indeed, it’s common that, following a fall for example, internal parts shift or the partition table is affected. This will render the storage device unreadable by the system. The OS will systematically offer to format the unrecognized hard drive to allow it to be read again. However, this can compromise data recovery, which is not the desired outcome.
A software failure of the device
It can result from a change to the hard drive’s read configuration, an attack by malicious software, or missing drivers. In the first case, the change to the read configuration may have been made deliberately or completely unintentionally.
In the case of a virus attack, some of your data will be damaged, but will overall be recoverable.
As for missing drivers, this happens when a new disk is connected to a system. It can also happen that drivers have been accidentally deleted. You can use smartdiskchecker software to check the health status of your hard drive.
Hard drive not recognized on Windows : what to do ?
While it’s true that the hard drive not recognized issue is fairly common on Microsoft’s OS, what should you do when faced with it ? Before applying any technical solution on your Windows computer, you should try restarting your PC. You should also check that the connections are properly made to the USB port. If the situation remains unchanged, three solutions are available :
- Forcing the system to recognize the storage device may allow it to be read again. To do this, you need to access Disk Management from the Windows « Control Panel » application.
- If the external hard drive appears, you’ll need to create partitions on it, then format it so it becomes readable again. This will make it possible to install data recovery software to retrieve the lost data.
- If the unrecognized hard drive doesn’t appear at all, you should visit the website of your external hard drive or USB drive’s manufacturer. There you can find specific USB drivers to install on the motherboard.
External hard drive not recognized on macOS : what to do ?
Macs don’t have the same configuration and management of external drives as computers running Windows and Linux. As detailed above, if you’ve managed to identify the source of the hard drive not recognized issue and it turns out to be software-related, there are a few Mac OS-specific solutions :
- First, restart your machine. It’s common for drive issues that aren’t visible on Apple devices to simply be linked to a MacOS bug. Restarting can, in some cases, fix the problem.
- If that isn’t effective, it’s possible your Mac hasn’t been configured to display external drives on the desktop. They should still appear in Finder. If that’s not the case, more technical means are needed.
- To try to fix the hard drive not recognized issue, you’ll need to reset the NVRAM. Here, you first need to shut down the device. Then, turn it back on while simultaneously holding down the Option – Cmd – P and R keys. This should restore the ability to read your external drive.
Now you have an idea of what to do when facing a hard drive not recognized issue. However, as in some of the scenarios mentioned above, data loss on the storage device can be unavoidable. For important data recovery from a formatted hdd, you can turn to the services of data recovery professionals, Chronodisk.