Portable External SS Drives Not Recognized

My Dell i3670 desktop computer running win10 UEFI suddenly stopped recognizing external USB hard drives, like a WD 2TB Elements Portable External HDD, USB 3.0 ….WDBUG6OO20BBK-WESN. USB flash drives work fine

Just before this problem occurred, my external drive started to have problems. A number of data files were copied successfully, but had issues when I attempted to create an image file. I made a quick format, then a normal format (which took a long time) but the drive stopped working. The LED on the USB drive blinked normally when first connected, but nothing else happened.

I have a number of these external USB drives, and tried others. None were recognized (not seen using File Explorer or 3^rd party file managers like Directory Opus) on this computer.

Hard Disk Sentinel sees nothing wrong with this or other USB external drives when using the i3670. I made a quick test, and the problem drive seems work on another computers

I assume the problem involves reinstalling drivers. If so, I’ll need details or a reference


Jim

Does the drive show up in disk management?
How to Post a Screenshot of Disk Management

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Sorry about the delay. I tried a home made approach, which did not work and was never sent. Disk 1 is the USB drive. If I disconnect the drive, disk 1 disappears, including the Disk 1 partition 1 entry in volume.

Really appreciate the references.

You just need to right click on the partition and give it a drive letter.

I connected an USB drive, added a drive letter, and it worked fine. I can disconnect and reconnect that drive, and it is seen each time it is connected. If I remove that and connect a different USB drive, the new drive is not recognized.

I tried two other USB drives that worked fine when used on another computer. They look the same in Computer Management as the drive I described earlier, basic, online, healthy with basic data partition, but with no drive letter. I could assign a drive letter, but with other computers they are recognized automatically, and I see them in File Explorer, ready to use.

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The only identification is Disk 1

open a command prompt with admin privileges (run as admin). Run:

Code:

diskpart
automount scrub
automount enable
exit
exit

You should have no USB storage devices connected when you run the commands. See if that fixes it.