Windows 10 does NOT recognise my external drive!

[Ganador]

Help! I installed Windows 10 on my new Acer laptop a few months back... everything worked well for a while... but now my Toshiba external drive is not recognised when I plug it into any USB port (either 3.0 or 2.0). It is there in the Device Manager... but will not come up when I open the Windows Explorer.

I have tried the usualy suggestions on the internet... like open DV and delete, then plug in again... but that does not work for me... any ideas please?

[Forkinhades]

Try your drive in another computer.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Thaivisa Connect mobile app

[ThaidDown]

Does the drive show up in 'Disk Management' and if so does it have a drive letter?

 

(Have had this in the past when Drive letter suddenly went missing)

 

[Ganador]

Fork mate, thanks for your reply... the external dirve...  it does work in all other computers... my own desk computer PC and friends computers also. There is no problem with the Toshiba external drive. Some thing has happend to the Acer laptop with the Windows 10 updatesw.

[Ganador]

4 minutes ago, ThaidDown said:

Does the drive show up in 'Disk Management' and if so does it have a drive letter?

 

(Have had this in the past when Drive letter suddenly went missing)

 

 

Tnak you TD, yes it is there in the Disk Management, not problem. But not in Windows Explorer... i just get local disk F drive.... cannot be opend because  I/O device errror....

 

[RichCor]

When you plug the drive into your own desktop computer PC, how does it say the drive is formatted (Simple Basic NTFS)?

 

Have your run SFC or DISM on the problematic Acer laptop?

 

How to Repair Corrupted Windows System Files with the SFC and DISM Commands

howtogeek.com  |  article

 

System file check (SFC) Scan and Repair System Files & DISM to fix things SFC cannot

answers.microsoft.com  |  microsoft community forum

[chrisinth]

3 hours ago, Ganador said:

 

Tnak you TD, yes it is there in the Disk Management, not problem. But not in Windows Explorer... i just get local disk F drive.... cannot be opend because  I/O device errror....

 

 

Try changing the drive letter in Disk Manager to any other available one. I have come across this before (albeit not with W10) and it has worked for me.

[Carib]

Maybe this helps;

 

Try going to control panel >>> Security and maintenance >>>  open the maintenance part on that page and click on check for solutions. Let it run, if it did find something do a restart. 

 

Updating the usb port drivers could maybe be of help too.

[maxpower]

With io error you should not move on until you have tried another usb drive / flash drive to quick check drivers. I am guessing the drive manager shows healthy partition with letter.

The clue should be in the windows logs.

[bendejo]

All good sleuthing suggestions above.  If there is still a problem go to "Device Manager" , find the entry for the drive and uninstall.  Then unplug the drive and reboot.  After reboot is complete plug in the drive -- what should happen then is that Windows will do a fresh install of what the drive needs to work properly.

 

 

[Ganador]

11 hours ago, chrisinth said:

 

Try changing the drive letter in Disk Manager to any other available one. I have come across this before (albeit not with W10) and it has worked for me.

 

Thanks for your suggestion Chris. The Disk Management application opens blank and does nothing. The Device Manager shows the Toshiba external drive and I tried to uninstall then reconnect, but that doesnt help either. Search for new driver shows that current driver is up to date.

[Ganador]

The external drive shows up in windows explorer as Local Drive F.  When I try to open Drive F, I get this message: I/O DEVICE ERROR

[maxpower]

4 minutes ago, Ganador said:

The external drive shows up in windows explorer as Local Drive F.  When I try to open Drive F, I get this message: I/O DEVICE ERROR

 

Does the PC read other USB devices ok - sd card for example. What does running chkdsk /R F:  do ?

[Ganador]

Hi Max. Yes the USB ports accept my DTAC aircard.... thats how I am on internet now. Also accepts my Android Smartphone ....and PC can read all my phone files connected by USB... and charge up smart phone battery as well.

 

Running chkdsk /R F ? How do I do that please?

[maxpower]

In the win10 search box type CMD then click Command Prompt. You will then be in a command prompt window. Type chkdsk /R F:

So its chkdsk space /R space F:  then press enter.

 

[Ganador]

6 minutes ago, maxpower said:

In the win10 search box type CMD then click Command Prompt. You will then be in a command prompt window. Type chkdsk /R F:

So its chkdsk space /R space F:  then press enter.

 

 

Ok I did this Max, but I get error message:

Access denied. You do not have sufficient privileges.

You have to invoke this utility running in elevated mode.

 

.

[maxpower]

After you search using CMD you see a menu with command prompt. Right click command prompt and select run as administrator.

[thinkingman]

Same with me on my iPod.  It is incredibly frustrating. I gave up and used another computer.

 

Microsoft--The world is our beta site!

[Ganador]

17 minutes ago, maxpower said:

After you search using CMD you see a menu with command prompt. Right click command prompt and select run as administrator.

 

Ok, I did that. And that brings me to the black screen and    C: \windows\system32>

 

I type at the prompt:   chkdsk  /R  F:      then press enter. ...

 

and i get another error message....

THE DRIVE, THE PATH OR THE FILE NAME IS NOT VALID

[maxpower]

OK. To avoid data loss I will not make any more suggestions. The fact that this drive works on another PC does not give a positive clue. Windows can be fussy with drives and vary from one machine to another. The symptoms indicate a corrupt file system that your windows 10 is not happy with. I suggest you back up the data on another PC and then re-visit the problem with some hard action.

[Ganador]

Ok Max.... maybe I can take my PC to a computer repair shop in Bangkok city....

.

[maxpower]

1 minute ago, Ganador said:

Ok Max.... maybe I can take my PC to a computer repair shop in Bangkok city....

.

 

Good idea. It may be a simple fix and better to let a tech guy probe the system.

[Chicog]

What is the model/part number of the Toshiba drive?

Maybe Google for that + "windows 10 errors/problems" or whatever.

 

Look for Toshiba Support forums first.

You may find someone else has had the same problem and found a fix.

[Pib]

When you are in Windows Disk Management, are you sure it shows a "drive letter" versus only showing a drive is there.  It needs to also show a drive letter with Disk Management unless being a system reserved/special/unallocated partition.

 

And you can remove and reassign the drive letter by right clicking on the driver within Disk Management.   If my memory serves me right what happened to you happened to me last year after a Win 10 update, but reassigning the drive letter fixed things.

 

Notice below where I have an external drive plugged in to a USB port and I name it Backup Drive....notice how it has a drive letter assigned.  Without a proper drive letter assignment Windows can not fully see/access the drive.

[Ganador]

58 minutes ago, Pib said:

When you are in Windows Disk Management, are you sure it shows a "drive letter" versus only showing a drive is there.  It needs to also show a drive letter with Disk Management unless being a system reserved/special/unallocated partition.

 

Hi Pib. Thanks for your reply. When I open Disk Management it shows just a BLANK empty screen.

With a small message at the bottom of the screen:

"Connecting to Virtual Disk service"

But nothing happens, even if I wait 10 minutes.

 

* In Windows Explorer the external drive shows up as Local Disk F.

 

* In Drive Manager the Toshiba external drive is there. I have tried to uninstall it... and then plug and play, but that does not work either.

 

[Ganador]

Just now, Ganador said:

* In Drive Manager the Toshiba external drive is there. I have tried to uninstall it... and then plug and play, but that does not work either.

 

Sorry, I mean that Device Maanager does recognise the Toshiba drive. I have tried to uninstall the toshiba, then "plug and play" but not successful. Still opens as Local Drive F in Windows Explorer.

[Chicog]

You're not using McAfee Antivirus are you?

 

Or  a Guest OS like Hyper-V or VMWare?

[Ganador]

1 minute ago, Chicog said:

You're not using McAfee Antivirus are you?

 

Or  a Guest OS like Hyper-V or VMWare?

 

Nope... i only have the free AVAST app.

 

[Pib]

2 hours ago, Ganador said:

 

Hi Pib. Thanks for your reply. When I open Disk Management it shows just a BLANK empty screen.

With a small message at the bottom of the screen:

"Connecting to Virtual Disk service"

But nothing happens, even if I wait 10 minutes.

 

* In Windows Explorer the external drive shows up as Local Disk F.

 

* In Drive Manager the Toshiba external drive is there. I have tried to uninstall it... and then plug and play, but that does not work either.

 

Maybe give this try as I see it listed as a possibly remedy  when googling the problem regarding disk mgt and virtual disk service whether in Win 7, 8 or 10.

https://raywoodcockslatest.wordpress.com/2014/11/18/disk-management-unable-to-start-or-connect-to-virtual-disk-service/

 

I would also select Command Prompt (Admin) and run this command:  sfc /scannow 

If there is any Windows Systems files corruption this command will try to fix it.   

[Ganador]

55 minutes ago, Pib said:

Maybe give this try as I see it listed as a possibly remedy  when googling the problem regarding disk mgt and virtual disk service whether in Win 7, 8 or 10.

https://raywoodcockslatest.wordpress.com/2014/11/18/disk-management-unable-to-start-or-connect-to-virtual-disk-service/

 

I would also select Command Prompt (Admin) and run this command:  sfc /scannow 

If there is any Windows Systems files corruption this command will try to fix it.