Computer wont recognize external hard drive?

Question

i purchased a portable external hard drive today. when i first plugged it in it showed up in 'my computer'. i double clicked and it prompted an initialization but that never started after i double clicked. So i right clicked and went to explore and there was a setup so i went in there. I started setting up but then i exited. After that it made that noise when you remove hardware and disappeared from 'my computer'. So i unplugged it and plugged it back but now it doesnt show up in 'my computer'. i also tried to go into disk management but it doesnt show up there either. Im on vista and its a seagate hard drive. Can someone help me?

Additional Details

usb ports are all functional. have tried in other computers but its not working :/.

the portable hard drive also lights up..

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker

Make sure everything is plugged in all the way, something may have come loose.
Then check into this.
Start> Control Panel> System> Hardware> Device manager> Universal Serial Bus Controllers.
Click the + sign on the Universal Serial Bus c and a drop down list of all USBs will appear. Double click on them one at a time. Each one will have a properties screen that will display the General tab first. Under the general tab is a box named Device Status. Right under that it should say "This device is working properly". If any don't say that, they are not. That is how to tell if the USBs are functioning correctly.
If they are working properly, & all 3 plugs, 2 USB, & the 1 into the hard drive, are plugged in, then you shut down & restart your computer. Try reloading the hard drives drivers again, don't stop it half way this time. Let it finish. Then try to access it, if it did load. If not, then the hard drive may have given up the ghost..
If it's new, take it back for either a refund, or an exchange.
Seagate is a very reputable company, it's rare to hear of one failing. If you bought it online, contact the source you bought it from about the situation, they will certainly have some way to correct this.
I Hope you can get this one working, & I hope that I have been helpful, Good Luck!!! :-)

Asker's Rating:

Asker's Comment:

didnt work but it was the longest answer. lol

Answer 2

It's defected.

Answer 3

Try a different USB port. Try restarting.

Answer 4

if it has two usb ports both have to be in at the same time
other than that dont know why not showing, sry

Answer 5

try changing usb cables. otherwise, if you have the three head usb cable, one is for power, two is for data transfer. try plugging in different heads.

note: connection inside the hd might be loose

Source(s):

had this problem before

Answer 6

unplug it then restart.
then plug it in again and see if that'll work or not.

try all the USB ports you have on your machine.

if none of them works, it's possible that your external HDD is virus or something alike.

my external HDD came with a driver. so trying reinstalling your driver and restart, see if that will work or not.

if not, format your external HDD using another computer that can use it, then try again with your machine.

if all of those won't work, you might need to take a look at your hardwares to see if your USB ports and cables are okay or not.

good luck.

Answer 7

Although you did not give any information about your computer, however, I would suggest you check the existing USB port to ensure it is 2.0 compatible. While plugging it in, watch out for such error message as “You Are Connecting a 2.0 Device to a Non 2.0 port,” or something similar! Also, try connecting the hard drive via another USB port and then restart the machine afterward. If your computer is still unable to detect the hard drive, then it could be defective.