【Windows 7 Does Not Recognize External Disk】Causes and Solutions▷ 2022

When you want to save information on an external hard drive, you just have to connect it to a USB port from your computer windows 7. In this way you will have a large capacity of resources to save all data what you need

It may happen that your device does not automatically detect the external hard drive and this may be due to various causeswhich we will explain below.

If you want to know how to fix the errors that do not let you pc with windows 7 recognize the external storage drive, you will have to continue readingbecause we will explain the step by step for each situation.

Why doesn’t my computer recognize an external hard drive?

If your computer with Windows 7 does not recognize an external hard drive it is possible that the USB port to which you connected it does not work correctly or the storage unit does not have a format that your operating system supports.

But this is not all casesalso an external hard drive fails when the executing program that comes from the factory does not work well or because the drivers are not updated, among other things. So that you know all the problems and how you can fix those errorswe invite you to continue reading to find the answers you need.

Learn step-by-step how to fix errors that won’t let your Windows 7 computer recognize your external hard drive

We will show you below how you should solve the errors that do not allow your Windows 7 computer to recognize an external hard drive:

format disk

When you have the external hard drive with a RAW type format, you should follow this guide to format it:

• go to Start Menu and select the option Storage.
• then choose disk manager.
• Right click on it external disk.
• Select the option Format.

Check external drive software

If the problem is in the software that comes with the external drive, you will have to connect it to your computer and follow these steps:

• In the File Browser select the external hard drive and right click on it.
• then choose Device administrator.
• Click on disk drives.
• Notice if next to the name of the HDD exists a warning icon. If so, you know that the problem is in the program and you should reinstall or update driverswhich we will explain in the next paragraph.

update drivers

Go to start and look at the Storage option, then continue like this:

• Choose Device administrator.
• then select disk drives.
• find the external hard drive name and click on it.
• Beam right click and choose the option update driver.

Check port of entry

Many times the problem is not in the external disk but in the input port. For this reason it is convenient plug the thumb drive into another USB port, in case it works you will know that you should not put the external hard drive in that port. If the disk does not work, the problem is already with the unit, so you will have to review according to the points that we mentioned before.

Assign a letter and format to the external drive

If the disk is new, it is likely that it does not have a letter assigned to it, so you must add a name to the unit so that it can be recognized. To do this you will have to connect the external disk, go to the Windows File Explorer and right-click on the drive. Then choose the option disk managertap on Change drive letter and paths and select Add. Enter the letter you want to assign to it and then tap To accept.

In case you need to format the hard drive you will have to access the Disk Manager and follow these steps:

• Tap on the new drive and then choose To accept.
• Right click and then select the option new simple volume.
• Choose a letter that you do not have assigned to any internal drive on your computer.
• Choose the format NTFS.
• Enter the name of the unitif you want to modify the default one from the factory.
• Click on Following and check that you can use it correctly.

Unprotect write to disk

This is one of the most common failure errors that a external disk when it is not new, because in previous courses it was has blocked writing to the drive. To solve this problem you will have to go with administrator permissions to the application Runthen you will have to write regedit and click To accept.

This will take you to Windows Registry Editor. Find the folder HKEYLOCALMACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies and choose the file WriteProtect. Then select in the field value information the option save the changes and restart the computer.