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2 August 2023  John Weaver  Senior Program Developer
 

Summary
Discover solutions for common issues like unrecognized hard drives in Toshiba mobile hard disks. Choose from different capacities that meet the diverse storage needs of users.



Table of contents

table iconI. What is the reason why the Toshiba mobile hard disk cannot be recognized?
table iconII. How to solve the problem that Toshiba mobile hard disk cannot be recognized?
toshiba external hard drive not showing up

I. What is the reason why the Toshiba mobile hard disk cannot be recognized?

The problem that the mobile hard disk cannot be recognized is relatively common, and there is not only one reason for this problem. Next, I will list a variety of reasons that may cause the Toshiba mobile hard disk to be unrecognized, and you can perform a preliminary diagnosis and solution to the unrecognized problems. If the problem still exists, you can continue to view the more specific solution introduction in the second part of the article.
The reasons why Toshiba mobile hard disk may not be recognized are as follows:
● The file system of the mobile hard disk is damaged (for example, the file system is displayed as RAW in the disk management), so that the computer cannot normally access the files in the hard disk. please check:Repair RAW drive Methods.
● Missing necessary software/hardware updates, available in Device Managerupdate hard drive .
● Sudden power failure may damage the hard disk being read and written.
● The mobile hard disk has no drive letter, which can be found in disk managementadd drive letter .
● The USB port is damaged. It is recommended to replace the USB port or USB data cable and try again.
● Anti-virus software can be used for scanning and anti-virus for virus intrusion or malicious software attack.
● Problems with hard disk partitions, for example, partitions suddenly disappear and become unallocated space, so the hard disk partitions cannot be viewed in file resource management.
● If the device is not plugged and unplugged safely, the data in the hard disk will be damaged, and some connection problems may occur.
The above are some common reasons why the mobile hard disk cannot be recognized. You can make a preliminary diagnosis and perform simple repairs, such as re-plugging to see if the problem is resolved. When the hard disk cannot be recognized, it means that the files inside cannot be read normally. If the mobile hard disk can be displayed in the disk management, it is recommended that you use professional data recovery software to restore/extract the data before solving the mobile hard disk failure.

II. How to solve the problem that Toshiba mobile hard disk cannot be recognized?

1. Recover lost data with Renee Undeleter

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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How to use Renee Undeleter?
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 Toshiba mobile hard disk 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 Toshiba mobile hard disk 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. If you don’t select it, all partitions will be scanned. It will take 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 the path to store the file, and then click the (Restore) button to start executing the file recovery command, you only need to wait patiently. Notice : Do not save the recovered files on the original disk to avoid data overwriting, it is recommended to choose another disk to save these recovered files.
Partition recovery data recovery interface

2. Add a drive letter to the mobile hard disk in Disk Management

The specific operation steps are as follows:
Step 1: Run the computer, enter “computer management” in the search box in the lower left corner, and then click to enter the function interface.
Search computer management tools
Step 2: Next, click (Disk Management) on the left window, if you see that the disk has no drive letter (such as D: / E: / F:), please check whether it is a Toshiba mobile hard disk.
view hard drive
Step 3: After confirming the completion, right-click on the disk without a drive letter and select the (Change Drive Letter and Paths) option.
Change drive letter and path options
Step 4: Next click (Add) to add a drive letter to the Toshiba mobile hard disk.
add drive letter
Step 5: Next, check (Assign the following drive letter) and select a letter, then click (OK) to assign a drive letter to the Toshiba mobile hard disk, and you should be able to view the hard disk device in the file explorer .
Assign drive letter

3. Update the driver of the mobile hard disk in the device manager

The specific operation steps are as follows:
Step 1: Run the Windows computer, connect the mobile hard disk to the computer, and then press (Windows key + R) on the keyboard at the same time to open the running window. After entering the command (devmgmt.msc), click the (OK) button to enter the Device Manager.
Enter the device manager command
Step 2: Next, in the “Disk Drive”, right-click the target mobile hard disk, and select the (Update Driver) option.
Select the update drive option
Step 3: 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

4. Use the CMD command to repair the faulty device

The steps to repair a damaged mobile hard disk with the help of CMD are as follows:
Step 1: Connect the mobile hard disk to the computer, and make sure the device can be found in “Disk Management”.
Step 2: Search (cmd) directly in the search box in the lower left corner, and select (run as administrator) to open the command prompt tool.
run command prompt
Step 3: In the command prompt window that opens, enter the command ( chkdsk F: /f /r /x ) (F refers to the disk number of the hard disk; /f will attempt to repair all errors on the disk; /x refers to force unmounting of the drive before starting the scan; /r refers to scanning for and attempting to recover bad sectors), and press (Enter) to Fix bugs. After the repair of the mobile hard disk is completed, check whether the device works normally.
Enter the disk repair command