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How To Connect External Hard Disk To Laptop Windows 10

My external USB hard drive, with eleven,000 photos from Windows 7, isn't recognised past Windows 10. How do I transfer them to Windows 10 for futurity safekeeping? Jaki

The Universal Series Double-decker (USB) connects billions of keyboards, mice, joysticks, printers, external hard drives and other peripherals to roughly 1.5bn personal computers, and more than than 3bn mobile phones use the smaller Micro USB and newer USB-C versions. Information technology mostly works pretty well but most people have probably suffered from a USB device declining or not being recognised.

Lots of things can go incorrect. The port, the connecting cable, the power supply and the external hard bulldoze (EHD) tin all suffer from physical and/or electric faults.

Some external difficult drives draw their power from the USB port and they may non become enough. This can be a problem if the PC's motherboard does not supply enough power to the USB port yous are using or if the drive is plugged into a non-powered hub. EHDs that have their ain ability supplies tend to work more reliably.

USB cables tin can neglect after prolonged use, though this is more likely to happen to the Micro USB cables used with mobile phones. External hard drive cables rarely fail unless they get the same sort of abuse. However, if y'all have two devices that utilize the aforementioned type of cable, you lot tin swap them over to see if that solves the trouble.

Alternatively, information technology could exist a software trouble. For example, it could be the lack of a suitable commuter, a corrupted driver or a conflict with some other USB device.

If you lot do not take a backup and cannot become the drive to work, it may be worth rolling dorsum to Windows 7 and making a backup before reinstalling Windows 10 – or enlisting the help of a friend who is still running Windows 7.

Back upwardly, back up, back up

USB flash drives are useful for creating cheap backups.
USB flash drives are useful for creating cheap backups. Photograph: Alamy

Y'all should never lose information because an external USB hard drive fails. Ideally, you lot should have at least three copies of your photos stored on different media and at least ane should be kept in a different place. Schofield's Second Law of Computing states that data doesn't really be unless you have at least 2 copies of it.

You tin support your photos to thumb drives, SD cards, optical discs (CD, DVD, Blu-ray), external hard drives, a local network server or an online service. These include Amazon Photos, Apple's iCloud, Microsoft OneDrive, Google Ane and 3rd-party services such every bit pCloud and Mega.NZ. Run across my recent answer to "Where's the cheapest place to store 500GB of data online?"

Diagnostic software

The major difficult drive manufacturers have the about experience in debugging difficult drive problems and some accept free software to help. The leading examples include WD'due south Data Lifeguard Diagnostics and Seagate'south SeaTools for Windows. Yous may already have one installed. If non, cheque your EHD manufacturer's website for a tool that could discover and ready your missing drive.

Simple debugging

Most USB failures are glitches. Often, if a device is non recognised past one port, it will work when plugged into a different port or a different PC. If not, the traditional arroyo – basically, turning your PC off and on again – often works.

Beginning, unplug the EHD, unplug information technology from the mains and unplug and straighten the data cablevision. Second, restart your PC and wait for two minutes (because Windows 10 keeps loading things in the background even later it claims to exist ready for use). Third, plug the connecting cablevision into the EHD, making sure information technology is firmly seated. Finally, plug the EHD back into the mains, turn it on (if it has a transmission switch) and plug the USB cable back into the PC. With luck, either the PC volition recognise the external drive or detect it as a new device and install it with a suitable driver.

Turning a PC off and on does non work as well as it used to because of Windows 10'south Fast Startup system. Ideally, we want the PC to forget everything and make a fresh outset. With Fast Startup, Windows 10 stores core parts of retention, including the drivers, in a hidden file chosen hiberfil.sys and just reloads this file when yous plough it back on. You lot could temporarily disable Fast Startup just I'd just move on to the next step.

Uninstall, reconnect

Device Manager is the program you need to manage drivers and see whether there's a problem.
Device Manager is the program y'all need to manage drivers and meet whether there's a problem. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian

If a reboot doesn't make Windows renew its USB drivers, you tin can do it manually. With the EHD plugged in, go to the Offset bill of fare and type or paste the words "Device Manager" into the search box, then run the app that comes upward. Next, click the arrow (>) next to "Deejay drives" in the Device Manager program to see a list of the drives that your PC knows nearly. Expect for the drive that is non being recognised. It should be obvious from its proper name, which might exist something similar "WD Ext HDD 1021 USB Device" or "WD MyBook" or "Seagate Expansion Desk", or whatever.

Right-click on your EHD and select "Uninstall device" from the pop-upward carte du jour. When that has finished, unplug the USB cable.

Look a minute, then plug the USB cable back in. Windows should see the drive and install a commuter. Your EHD should and then appear in the "This PC" department of Windows ten'southward File Explorer.

If this doesn't work, use the Settings app to run Windows Update, restart your PC and effort once more. Windows Update delivers new drivers and software patches when they become available.

Some – usually obscure – USB peripherals use special drivers that yous can simply download from the manufacturer'due south website. If Windows hasn't found the best commuter, it might be worth looking for one. If yous find 1, follow the same procedure but select "Update driver" from the menu.

In passing, users who have no bug with external drives can nonetheless apply Device Director. The default setting for USB drives allows their quick removal. This reduces the risk of data corruption when users unplug drives without thinking. Select "Backdrop" from the popular-upwards menu, go to the "Policies" tab and change the default to enable write caching in Windows. This improves functioning but you must employ the "Safely Remove Hardware" option before unplugging devices.

Trash your USB controllers

USB ports are handled by USB host controllers. To see them, click the arrow next to "Universal Serial Bus controllers", which volition exist at or near the bottom of the alphabetical list in Device Manager. Every bit earlier, right-click each host controller and select Uninstall. In one case you have finished, restart your PC. Windows volition automatically reinstall the USB host controllers with clean, fresh versions.

Beyond this, there is not much you tin practice. If a PC has serious issues, you could always reinstall the BIOS firmware and update the motherboard's chipset drivers. The latest versions should be available from the PC or motherboard manufacturer'southward website. Withal, non-technical users should never take to do this type of thing unless prompted.

For example, you lot may have washed a firmware update concluding year because nigh large PC suppliers rolled out fixes for the Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities covered in an earlier answer. Merely it shouldn't be necessary for a simple problem like a USB drive non being recognised.

Rescue your data

Sometimes taking out the hard drive and putting it into a new enclosure is the only way.
Sometimes taking out the hard drive and putting it into a new enclosure is the only mode. Photograph: Alamy

All hard drives fail, typically after v or more than years only sometimes later on a few months. This is why we need backups. Sometimes EHDs fail just the drive still works. If y'all don't have a backup and cannot afford a professional data recovery service, this is a last resort.

USB drives are just cheap hard drives in (usually) plastic enclosures. Y'all tin can easily make your own by ownership a large hard drive and a separate enclosure. If your EHD doesn't work just you tin can hear the drive spin up when it is plugged in, you can try removing the hard bulldoze and installing it in a new enclosure.

Research your EHD online to find out how big the drive is (2.5 inch or 3.5 inch) and the type of bulldoze (commonly SATA), so y'all can buy the correct enclosure. Plastic enclosures are cheap and mostly skilful enough. Metal enclosures with built-in fans are better for cooling a hard drive that is in constant use and making it final longer.

Have you got a question? Electronic mail it to Ask.Jack@theguardian.com

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/askjack/2019/aug/08/how-to-make-windows-10-recognise-an-external-hard-drive

Posted by: doanewiteld.blogspot.com

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