Sometimes, when you connect your external hard drive to a Windows PC with a USB port, you may find the external hard drive is not recognized. There are many reasons taht may cause the "external hard drive not recognized" issue or "WD external hard drive not recognized". You can find multiple solutions in this page to solve this issue when you meet the problem one day.

Causes of "external hard drive not recognized" issue

Computer not recognizing external hard drive error/issue can be caused by the following situations:
 
      1. USB driver has become unstable, outdated or corrupt
      2. USB ports become faulty, damaged or broken
      3. Partition issues on your external USB device
      4. USB device is malfunctioned or damaged
      5. The wrong file system in an external drive
      6. Virus infected PC
 
You can follow below-explained solutions to resolve "computer not recognizing external hard drive" problem.

Solutions to Fix the Error

Solution 1: Disconnect the computer from the power supply

Sometimes, a very simple trick can fix not detected USB device problem. Follow below steps to apply this trick.
 
       1. Turn off your computer by using Windows Shut Down option
       2. Disconnect the power cable from your computer and wait for a few minutes
       3. Reconnect the power cable and Start your computer.

Solution 2: Making Windows to recognize the drive

If current USB port doesn't detect the drive then, try to connect it to another USB port. Unplug the drive from your USB port and try to plug it into another USB port on your computer. If it works in the new USB port, you just need to change the external hard drive to a port that can be used normally. If no USB port recognizes the device, try another solution.

Solution 3: Update USB device driver

If all USB ports are working fine then you need to check for latest USB driver installed on the computer. Because sometimes old drivers can prevent the drive to connect to the PC and shows device malfunctioned message.

1. Press Windows + R key together and then, type devmgmt.msc in the run dialogue box and click on OK.
2. Expand disk drivers and right click on the connected external USB drive.
3. Click on properties and select Driver tab.
4. Click on Update Driver Software and follow the further instruction to update driver.

solution 4: Change the drive letter 

Check whether you can see your external USB Drive in Disk Management, then rename or change the drive letter. To do this, follow the below steps.
 

1. Right-click on This PC or My Computer and click on Manage.
2. Select Disk Management.
3. Right-click on the connected external drive and choose Change Drive Letter and Paths.
4. Click Add, and then assign a new drive letter from the drop-down list and click OK.

About another solutions，please read: 7 Ways to Fix "Computer not Recognizing External Hard Drive" Error