# Solved: SeaGate External Hard Drive Not Recognized



## calibretto

I have a SeaGate external drive and for some reason my computer will not recognize it. It makes the noise that it knows something has been plugged in, but I never get the icon in the tray and I never get a drive letter. I've tried plugging it into another computer and it works fine there. That computer recognized it and all of my files are still on the drive. I can plug an iPod in and it recognizes that just fine. Can someone please help me??


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## Elvandil

See if it shows up in Disk Management

Right-click Computer > Manage > Disk Management.

If it's there, right-click and remove any partition that may be there (if there is no data on the drive). Create a new one and format it NTFS with the default options. You can change the drive letter, too, if you don't like what you get.


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## calibretto

i tried that already. it doesn't show up in disk management. my computer is not seeing the drive at all.


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## RealMode

calibretto said:


> I have a SeaGate external drive and for some reason my computer will not recognize it. It makes the noise that it knows something has been plugged in, but I never get the icon in the tray and I never get a drive letter. I've tried plugging it into another computer and it works fine there. That computer recognized it and all of my files are still on the drive. I can plug an iPod in and it recognizes that just fine. Can someone please help me??


U try to connect external HDD via USB right? 
First u have to be sure that USB port from MB or case works fine, plug something else and see if the new hardware is recognized. Try all your USB free ports, or plug into a port that is already taken by other USB peripherals.


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## calibretto

I tried that already as well. The hard drive is recognized on another computer. I only have two usb ports and I can plug my iPod into either of them and it's recognized just fine. I've also tried using the usb cord that came with my hard drive to connect my phone to my computer and it can see my phone as well. This makes absolutely no sense.

That's what I find so weird about this. It seems like it can't be the hard drive because it works fine on another computer. But it also seems like it can't be my computer because it can see other hardware just fine.


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## RealMode

calibretto said:


> I have a SeaGate external drive and for some reason my computer will not recognize it. It makes the noise that it knows something has been plugged in, but I never get the icon in the tray and I never get a drive letter. I've tried plugging it into another computer and it works fine there. That computer recognized it and all of my files are still on the drive. I can plug an iPod in and it recognizes that just fine. Can someone please help me??





calibretto said:


> I tried that already as well. The hard drive is recognized on another computer. I only have two usb ports and I can plug my iPod into either of them and it's recognized just fine. I've also tried using the usb cord that came with my hard drive to connect my phone to my computer and it can see my phone as well. This makes absolutely no sense.
> 
> That's what I find so weird about this. It seems like it can't be the hard drive because it works fine on another computer. But it also seems like it can't be my computer because it can see other hardware just fine.


Well, it is very strange. Your mainboard isn't recognize the external USB driver. I`ve no clue what the problem source can be :| very confuzing issue :down:


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## calibretto

For those interested, I thought I'd post what I discovered last night w/ this hard drive.

Number one, know that this was driving me insane. All of my files are on this hard drive. Imagine being able to access your files from everyone else's computer, but not from your own.

I was playing around in Device Manager, unplugging and replugging the hard drive. Finally I found that although it wasn't listed under Disk Drives or Removable Storage, it was listed under USB controllers. It had a little x on the icon. Upon right clicking it I found that it had somehow become disabled on my computer. I'm not sure how that happened. I know I didn't do it.

Either way, the problem is fixed now, so I'm going to mark this thread as solved.

Thanks for all your input guys!  Hope you had a great holiday!

calibretto


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