[Hilary22cat]

I have an external hard drive which is showing as installed and working properly on my laptop, however when I try to use it to backup, it says that Windows cant find the device to back up to. Any suggestions? Have tried running troubleshooter with no success.

[LION8TIGER]

Is it showing in computer/my computer as a drive and if so can you drag and drop any files into it ? Does it show in device manager under disk drives ?

[Hilary22cat]

No to both - it is only showing in Control Panel, Devices and Printers. When I go into properties, it says its on and working but doesnt show in Device Manager under disc drives.

[mac2708]

Right click Computer>Disk Management
The drive should be shown but may not be assigned a drive letter. If that's the case right click on the (portable) drive shown then Change Drive Letter and Paths>Add and a letter will be assigned then Click OK and Windows will recognise it ready for use.

[monalisa62003]

Originally Posted by mac2708

Right click Computer>Disk Management
The drive should be shown but may not be assigned a drive letter. If that's the case right click on the (portable) drive shown then Change Drive Letter and Paths>Add and a letter will be assigned then Click OK and Windows will recognise it ready for use.

this is the same for me but how do you change the drive letter and paths?

[mac2708]

Originally Posted by monalisa62003

this is the same for me but how do you change the drive letter and paths?

As explained but see here
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/window...-windows-7.htm
or Vista
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/window...ettervista.htm

[monalisa62003]

Originally Posted by mac2708

As explained but see here
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/window...-windows-7.htm
or Vista
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/window...ettervista.htm

is computer management the same as right clicking on computer and clicking manage?

cos there is no option to

On the right-hand side of the screen, locate and right-click on the drive that you wish to change the drive letter of and choose Change Drive Letter and Paths....

[s2k]

From start menu, right click on computer, "manage"

Click on "disk management" from the left hand side underneath the storage option .

Find your disk in the window (you may need to scroll down)

Right click on it. If "choose drive letter and paths" is available, click on it.

If the above isn't available (greyed out) then try "new simple volume" instead.

[monalisa62003]

Originally Posted by s2k

Find your disk in the window (you may need to scroll down)

Right click on it. If "choose drive letter and paths" is available, click on it.

If the above isn't available (greyed out) then try "new simple volume" instead.

my external harddrive doesnt show. its telling me to format my F drive thats the external harddrive right?

[Hilary22cat]

No, neither does mine (so glad I'm not the only one). Only showing C and Recovery?

[monalisa62003]

Originally Posted by Hilary22cat

No, neither does mine (so glad I'm not the only one). Only showing C and Recovery?

my sisters fiance was messing around with it after my brother got it sorted he was trying to format it but it cut off and he didnt have time to fix it... now its showing an F drive with a little picture of an external harddrive and that i have to format it. now im pretty sure it'll be fine if i did but i need to be sure sure before i do anything

[monalisa62003]

it wont let me format

[Hilary22cat]

I switched everything off, disconnected the drive and then this morning when I reattached it, I had the dialogue box back. However, when I tried to run back up again, the drive disappeared and I was back to being told to check it was connected, even though the device is showing as working properly

[sealion]

Download a free programme called EASUS Partition Master.

This will show exactly what the problem is with your drive. It is a tried and proven product.