5 Ways to Fix Toshiba External Hard Drive Not Showing Up

The external hard drives produced by Toshiba are famous for their excellent quality. However, sometimes there are also some minor faults in their working process. Users sometimes have complaints like “my Toshiba external drive is not recognized” or “my Toshiba external hard drive does not show up on my PC.”

If you are experiencing the same issue, your search for a solution ends here. In this post, we will discuss the 5 most effective ways to fix Toshiba external hard drives not showing up.

Common Causes of Toshiba Hard Drive Not Working

Are you worried about your Toshiba hard drive not showing up? These are the possible causes:

Causes of Toshiba External Hard Drive Not Showing Up	Description	Solution
Connection and Power Issues	The misconnection of USB cables or USB adapters is a factor that can cause your hard drive to not work. Likewise, an inadequate power supply will also make the hard drive unable to work properly, which could lead to potential data loss or corruption.	Solution 1. Check the Connection and Power Management
Outdated or Corrupted Drives	If the hard drive contains outdated or corrupted data, there is a high chance that it won’t appear. Outdated or corrupted drivers may not support the latest features or security patches, resulting in compatibility issues	Solution 2. Update the Drive and Operating System Solution 3. Assign a New Drive Letter to Toshiba Drive
Compatibility Problems	When the hard drive is incompatible with your PC operating system, there will be a recognition problem. Your PC will be unable to access the files stored on the Toshiba hard drive	Solution 4. Initialize Toshiba External Hard Drive Solution 5. Format Toshiba External Hard Drive
Physical and Hardware Damage	Physical damage to the hard drive and other accessories, like USB cables or power adapters can disrupt the power supply or data transmission, thereby impacting the hard drive’s functionality	Consult a PC data recovery professional
Data Corruption and Loss	Corruption and loss of essential files or data on the hard drive can lead to inaccessible data, compromised files, and potential system instability. Data corruption can lead to permanent loss of valuable information	Learn how to recover data from a wiped hard drive

Five Ways to Fix Toshiba External Hard Drive Not Showing Up

Below are the various methods you can use to fix your Toshiba hard drive not working:

Solution 1. Check the Connection and Power Management

Your PC will fail to read the hard drive if it does not make proper contact with the connection point. Hence, check that the USB port on your PC and the USB connection of your Toshiba hard drive don’t have any residue or build-up of dust.

Besides that, you can also try connecting the hard drive to another PC to see if it shows up. Alternatively, the USB cable could be faulty, so try to connect the hard drive to your PC using another USB cable.

While external hard drives require a small amount of power, the USB port it’s connected to will also impact its functionality. Therefore, check your Toshiba hard drive specifications to know how much power it requires.

Solution 2. Update Drive and Operating System

Besides checking the connection and power supply, updating your computer operating system and external hard drive drivers is essential. The unavailability of recent updates can make your system drivers and operating system outdated, resulting in your Toshiba external drive being prone to issues that have been fixed in recent versions.

Simply follow these steps:

• Step 1. Go to Settings (Windows Key + I).
• Step 2. Select Update & Security.
• Step 3. Select Check for Updates.
• Step 4. Right-click Start and select Device Manager.
• Step 5. Click on Disk drives to expand it, then right-click your hard drive and select Update driver.
• Step 6. Select Search automatically for drivers. If you already downloaded the updated driver, select Browse My Computer for drivers.

Solution 3. Assign a New Drive Letter to Toshiba Drive

This solution is applied when your Toshiba external hard drive is appearing in Disk Management, but not available in File Explorer. Assigning a new drive letter allows Windows to read the hard drive if it was hindered by a system anomaly or file corruption.

Simply follow these steps:

• Step 1. Type Disk Management in the Windows search bar and open it.
• Step 2. Right-click to select the non-readable Toshiba hard drive, then click Change Drive Letter and Paths.
• Step 3. Select the existing drive letter, then click Change. In case there’s no existing drive letter, select Add.
• Step 4. Pick a new drive letter, then select OK.

Solution 4. Initialize Toshiba External Hard Drive

Toshiba external hard drives that are yet to be initialized won’t show in File Explorer, and this may be the reason why your Toshiba hard drive doesn’t work. In this situation, you need to follow the below steps to initialize your hard drive and make it workable on your PC.

After the initialization, format the drive and then you have sufficient space to store data. If the hard drive is new, you will have to initialize it for it to pair successfully with your PC.

Simply follow these steps to initialize your hard drive:

• Step 1. Type Disk Management in the Windows search bar and open it.
• Step 2. Right-click the inaccessible Toshiba hard drive and select Initialize Disk.
• Step 3. Pick a partition style and click OK.

Solution 5. Format Toshiba External Hard Drive

Formatting your hard drive can fix several issues that cause it not to show up. However, if the hard drive is removed before a format can be completed, it may cause it not to show up.

Simply follow these steps:

• Step 1. Type Disk Management in the Windows search bar and open it.
• Step 2. Check the Volume section for your external hard drive. Right-click it, then select Format.
• Step 3. Pick the Perform a quick format box, then select OK. Select OK again to confirm and complete the formatting procedure.

💡 Related Post: >> How to Fix External Hard Drive Not Showing Up on Windows?

Bonus Tip: How to Retrieve Lost Data after Formatting the Hard Drive

Are you concerned about how to retrieve your lost data after formatting your hard drive? Do not bother. With the use of professional recovery software like ONERECOVERY, you can recover deleted files from 2000+ storage devices like external hard drives, SDD, USB, SD cards, flash drives, PS4, PS5, XBOX, etc.

This software is trusted by many users across the world because of its high success rate up tp 95%, ease of use, compatibility with a wide range of external devices, and capability to fix Toshiba external drives not showing up.

To get started, download and install the software, then follow these steps:

Step 1. Launch the software and select the external hard drive as the location to start recovery. Then, initiate the scanning process.

Step 2. The software rapidly scans the hard drive for all data, including corrupted, deleted, and existing data. Double-click the file you wish to recover.

Step 3. Preview the data and click “Recover.”

Conclusion

Though Toshiba external hard drives are one of the best you can count on, they sometimes become inaccessible. However, with the 5 solutions explained above, the issue of Toshiba external hard drives not showing up can be easily fixed.

But if you want an advanced and super-quick solution, we recommend ONERECOVERY – the ultimate solution for data recovery from laptops as well as desktop PCs.

FAQs About Toshiba Hard Drive Not Working

If you are still troubled by the problem that the Toshiba hard drive cannot work normally, the FAQs below may be what you need.

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