My Western Digital External Hard Drive Not Showing up? How to Resolve

Why is My WD External Hard Drive Not Showing up on Computer?

When you try to access a WD external hard drive that’s plugged into your Windows, you may find that it doesn’t show up in File Explorer—or in a more serious case, it doesn’t appear in Disk Management either. You’re not alone; this is a common issue. It can prevent you from accessing the content on the hard drive and even lead to data loss from the drive.

Prior to exploring detailed recovery solutions, identifying the underlying cause of the problem will enable you to find a fix more quickly and prevent this error from happening once more. Here are the most common causes:

🔔Loose or Faulty Connection

If the USB cable is damaged, or the port is faulty, your WD drive may not be detected. Sometimes using a different USB cable or plugging into another port solves the issue.

🔍Drive Letter Conflict

If Windows does not automatically assign a drive letter, the WD drive won’t show up in File Explorer even though it’s connected.

📌Outdated or Corrupted Drivers

A corrupted or missing USB/WD driver may prevent your system from recognizing the device. Updating or reinstalling the driver often fixes this issue.

💡Hidden or Unallocated Partition

Sometimes the drive is recognized but the partition is hidden or unallocated. In this case, it won’t appear in File Explorer but will still show up in Disk Management.

🛠️File System Corruption

If the drive’s file system (NTFS, exFAT, etc.) is corrupted, your computer may detect the hardware but not display it properly, or it may ask you to “format the drive.”

🔨Disabled USB Root Hub

On some systems, the USB Root Hub settings might disable power to the external drive, causing the drive cannot be detected.

How to Recover Data from a Not Showing Up Hard Drive

Before trying to fix the problem, it’s critical to secure your data. When your WD external hard drive not showing up in File Explorer, any repair attempts could lead to accidental data loss. A reliable hard drive data recovery tool like MyRecover can scan your WD external hard drive, even if it’s not visible in File Explorer and allow you to recover important files.

MyRecover features a visual interface design, allowing non-professionals to quickly get started and complete data recovery. It covers most data loss scenarios, such as recovering lost data from formatted USB drives, deleted partitions, unallocated drives, emptied Recycle Bins, crashed systems, and more. MyRecover supports the recovery of over 1,000 file types, such as documents, videos, audios, photos, compressed files, emails, and more.

4 Steps to Recover Data from Not Showing Up WD Hard Drive

Step 1. Download and install MyRecover on your computer from the secure channel. Connect the WD external hard drive to your computer.

 MyRecover

Easy & Powerful Hard Drive Data Recovery Software

• Compatible with all storage devices: USB drives, HDDs, SSDs, SD cards, etc.
• Dual scan modes: Quick Scan for speed, Deep Scan for thorough recovery.
• Support NTFS, FAT32, exFAT, ReFS in Windows 11/10/8/7 & Windows Server.

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Step 2. Launch it and choose the WD external hard drive to scan for lost files, then click "Scan". Once the quick scan finishes, you can click "Deep Scan" to find more lost files.

Step 3. Choose the files you want to recover from the recoverable lists and click "Recover".

Step 4. Select a location different from the not showing up hard drive to save the recovered files.

When the process is completed, the message "Files have been recovered successfully" will pop up, you can check the recovered files by clicking on the destination folder path or "Browse" button.

How to Fix "WD External Hard Drive Not Showing Up" Error

Once your files are safe, you can confidently proceed with troubleshooting. Try the following solutions one by one to fix WD external hard drive not showing up Windows 11/10 until the drive shows up.

Fix 1: Check the Connection

Loose or faulty connections are one of the most common reasons for WD external hard drive not showing up in File Explorer. This is the easiest and most effective methods to solve the issue.

Step 1. Disconnect the drive from the computer and reconnect it using another cable.

Step 2. If the hard drive still isn’t recognized, you can try connecting it to another computer. If it still doesn’t work, please move on to the methods below.

Fix 2: Change the Drive Letter Conflict

If the WD drive has no assigned letter or conflicts with another device, Windows may detect it but fail to show it up. Check the drive letter conflict in Disk Management.

Step 1. Press "Win + X" and choose "Disk Management" to open it.

Step 2. Locate your WD external hard drive in the list.

Step 3. If there is conflict, right click on it and choose "Change Drive letter and Paths".

Step 4. Assign a new drive letter.

Fix 3: Run Hardware and Devices Troubleshooter

Hardware issues with the hard drive can also cause it to fail to be recognized by the system. Windows has a built-in troubleshooter that can detect and fix hardware-related problems. You can try this method to fix hardware issue.

Step 1. Press "Win + X" and choose "Windows PowerShell (Admin)".

Step 2. Type the following command "msdt.exe - id DeviceDiagnostic" and press "Enter". Then it will automatically scan your system error and attempt to solve it.

Fix 4: Run CHKDSK Command

File system corruption can prevent your WD external hard drive from being recognized. Running CHKDSK command can effectively fix file system error.

Step 1. Open "Command Prompt" and run it as administrator.

Step 2. Enter the command "Chkdsk G: /f /r" and hit "Enter" key. Replace the drive letter "G" with your WD hard drive letter. Wait for the scan and repair to complete.

Fix 5: Update or Uninstall Drivers

Outdated or corrupted drivers often cause WD hard drive not showing up issues. Update or uninstall drivers may fix the issue. Here's how:

Step 1. Press "Win + X" and choose "Device Manger" to open it.

Step 2. Expand "Disk drives" and right click your WD external hard drive.

Step 3. Choose "Update driver", then click "Search automatically for updated drives".

Step 4 (Optional). If updating doesn’t help, select "Uninstall device", then restart your computer and reconnect the drive.

Fix 6: Turn on USB Root Hub

If the USB Root Hub is disabled, your WD Passport not showing up Windows 10/11 may occur. You can active the USB Root hub to make the hard drive recognizable to solve this issue.

Step 1. Press "Win + X" and choose "Device Manager" to open it.

Step 2. Expand "Universal Serial Bus controllers" and right click on a USB root hub, then click "Properties".

Step 3. Select "Power Management" tab, uncheck the "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" option.

Follow this same process to turn on every USB Root Hub listed, reboot your PC, and then verify whether your WD external hard drive shows up on the PC.

Fix 7: Show Hidden Devices

Sometimes Windows hides inactive devices, making it look like your drive isn’t detected. Try this method to reveal the drive and get access to the files.

Step 1. Open "Device Manager" as mentioned above.

Step 2. Select "View" section and choose "Show hidden devices". Then you can check under "Disk drives" the WD device if listed.

Fix 8: Check Drive State in Disk Management

To check if the hard disk is detected, you can try accessing the Disk Management tool. If the disk is offline, the drive is not initialized or has become RAW, it may not show up in File Explorer.

For Offline Disk

Step 1. Open "Device Manger" and locate the WD external hard disk.

Step 2. Right click on the offline disk and choose "Online" from the context menu.

For Unallocated Drive

Step 1. Open "Device Manger" and right click on the unallocated drive.

Step 2. Choose "New Simple Volume" and set the size for the new volume, then click "Next".

Step 3. Choose a new and different drive letter for the drive, then click "Next".

Step 4. In the Format Partition window, choose a file system based on your needs and check the "Perform a quick format" option, then click "Finish" to start the process.

For Uninitialized Disk

Step 1. Open "Device Manager" and right click the uninitialized disk, then choose "Initialize Disk".

Step 2. Select MBR or GPT partition table based on your needs and click "OK" to start the process. Initialization will create a new partition table on the disk, enabling the Windows system to recognize the disk structure.

Step 3. Format the WD external hard drive following the method used for unallocated drives, and it will become usable again.

In more unfortunate cases where you haven’t recovered the hard drive data in advance, MyRecover can also help you recover data from the formatted external hard drive.

The End

When your Western Digital external hard drive not showing up, it’s usually due to simple issues like connection problems, drive letter conflicts, or outdated drivers. By following the above steps, you can often resolve the problem quickly in Windows 10 and 11. Before doing this, don’t forget to protect the data security on the hard drive by using a professional data recovery tool like MyRecover.

For advanced requirements, the MyRecover's Professional Edition gives you unlimited data recovery, full file previews, and even recovery from unbootable systems. With it, you can ensure that your important files are never lost.