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31 July 2023  Amanda J. Brook  Senior Product Manager
 

Summary
When connecting a mobile hard disk to a computer and it is not recognized, first identify the cause and address basic physical failures. If unresolved, repair the internal failure and recover lost data before proceeding with further repairs.



Table of contents

table iconI. What are the reasons why the mobile hard disk cannot be recognized?
table iconII. Use Renee Undeleter to recover mobile hard disk data
table iconIII. How to fix the fault that the mobile hard disk cannot be recognized?
How to recover files from an external hard drive not detected

I. What are the reasons why the mobile hard disk cannot be recognized?

There are many reasons why an external hard drive cannot be detected in Windows, the reasons mainly include the following aspects.
● The USB cable is faulty.
● The USB port is faulty, and another port needs to be replaced.
● The hard drive is damaged or has a bad file system.
● The partition table or boot sector on the disk is corrupted.
● The hard disk drive cannot be recognized due to external force damage.
● There is a problem with the driver in Windows.
● Virus infection and malware attack.
You can try to replace the USB data cable and USB port and reconnect to the computer to see if the problem is solved. If the mobile hard disk is still not recognized and cannot be displayed in the file explorer, it is recommended that you go to “Disk Management” to check the mobile hard disk. Status, if it is displayed as RAW, not initialized, unallocated, etc., you can use professional data recovery software to recover the data of the mobile hard disk first, and then repair it.

II. Use Renee Undeleter to recover mobile hard disk data

1. What is Renee Undeleter?

Renee Undeleter It is a software specially used to restore various data files. When you accidentally delete important files, empty the recycle bin, or format the disk/storage, you can use this tool to retrieve the lost data. The software covers four functional modules, including file recovery, format recovery, partition recovery and image creation. Therefore, it can help you solve all possible data loss problems that may occur during system use in an all-round way, which is very convenient.
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Supported devices SD card, SDHC, SDXC, USB flash drive, hard disk and computer.

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2. How to use Renee Undeleter to recover hard disk data?

As a professional data recovery software, Renee Undeleter not only has comprehensive functions, but also is very simple to operate. The specific operation steps are as follows:
Step 1: Download, install and run Renee Undeleter, select the (Partition Recovery) option on the main interface.
Note: Do not install on the disk that needs to restore data, so as not to cause data overwriting.
Select partition recovery option
Data recovery function introduction:
File Recovery – Quickly retrieve files lost due to accidental deletion or emptying the recycle bin.
Formatted Recovery – Quickly recover files lost due to inaccessible or formatted partitions.
Partition Recovery – Analyze and get partition information and perform a full scan of the entire partition.
Create Mirror – You can create a mirror image for a partition to back up the current partition state.

Step 2: Next, select the drive device to be scanned, and click (Next). Select (default setting) on the advanced setting interface.
Select target device for partition recovery
Step 3: After that, the software will analyze the drive device. After the analysis, a prompt window of “Select the partition you need to scan” may pop up. You can select the corresponding partition according to your needs. will be longer.
Partition recovery scans the data inside the drive
After scanning, you can preview the files in the preview window on the right, then select the files you need to restore, and click the (Recover) button in the lower right corner to restore the selected files.
Partition recovery scan result presentation
Step 4: Next, select the target folder, click (Browse) to select another disk to save the recovered files, and then click the (Recover) button to start the file recovery command, you just need to wait patiently.
Partition recovery data recovery interface
The above are the detailed operation steps of recovering data with the help of Renee Undeleter. When the data is recovered completely, we can proceed to the next step of repairing the faulty hard disk.

III. How to fix the fault that the mobile hard disk cannot be recognized?

1. Format the mobile hard disk

When you see that the file system of the mobile hard disk is RAW in Disk Management, it means that the file system of the mobile hard disk cannot be recognized by the Windows system, so the files in the mobile hard disk cannot be accessed. Formatting the mobile hard disk in disk management and setting it to a file system supported by the Windows system will solve this problem. The specific operation steps are as follows:
Step 1: Connect the mobile hard disk to the computer, and then press the (Windows+X) keys on the keyboard at the same time. Then in the pop-up list, select the (Disk Management) option.
Disk Management Options
Step 2: Next, find the removable hard drive that needs to be formatted, right-click it and select the (Format) option.
formatting options
Step 3: Select the required file system: FAT32, NTFS or exFAT (click here to view the introduction of FAT32, exFAT, NTFS file system), check (Execute quick format), click (OK) and follow the instructions to complete the format the process of. Restart the computer after the formatting operation is complete, and then reconnect the mobile hard disk to the computer to check whether the problem is resolved.
perform a quick format
Kind tipsIf the status of the mobile hard disk in Disk Management is not initialized and unallocated, please click here to know the steps of initializing the hard disk and creating partitions. After initializing the hard disk and creating partitions, the mobile hard disk can be displayed normally in the file explorer.

2. Update the driver of the mobile hard disk

If your external hard drive is still not recognized using the above methods, then you can also try updating the drivers to fix it. The specific operation steps are as follows:
Step 1: Connect the unrecognized external hard disk to the computer.
Step 2: Next, press the keyboard’s (Windows icon + R key) at the same time to open the Run window. After entering the command (devmgmt.msc), click the (OK) button to enter the Device Manager.
Enter the device manager command
Step 3: Next, expand the “Disk Drive” list, right-click to select the unrecognized mobile hard disk, and select the (Update Driver) option.
Select the update drive option
Step 4: Next, select the (Automatically search for updated driver software) option, and then follow the instructions in order to complete the update of the mobile hard disk driver.
Select the Automatically search for updated driver software option