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HGST external hard not recognized by Windows 7

Anonymous
2024-05-02T01:23:48+00:00

I have windows 7 professional on Dell 760 Optiplex. I have an HGST external hard drive plugged into USB 2.0 port. I can't get the machine to recognize the drive. The person I got the drive from says he wiped it clean before I bought it. Can anyone tell me how to get my pc to recognize this drive? Thank you in advance.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Devices and drivers

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  1. LemP 74,930 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2024-05-02T16:33:22+00:00

    First, try another USB port on your computer.

    It's not clear what you mean by "not recognized." If whatever utility was used to wipe the drive put it into a "raw" state, you'll have to format the drive and assign a drive letter before it will show up in Windows Explorer. You might also have to initialize the drive before formatting it.

    Click Start, type diskmgmt.msc in the Search box, right-click on the link and select "Run as administrator" then respond as needed to any UAC prompt.

    Go here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/storage/disk-management/initialize-new-disks

    Look at the lower pane of the Disk Management window. If you see "Not initialized" as shown in the figure at the above link, right-click at that spot and select "Initialize." If the drive is 2 TB or larger, you must select GPT as the partition style; if smaller, you can use either. Read more at the links in the article.

    If the drive is already initialized and online, right-click in the right section of the row representing the drive (the unallocated space) and select format.

    Follow the rest of the directions in the article.

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  1. Anonymous
    2024-05-02T10:00:32+00:00

    A couple of things, win 7 went out of support Jan 2020 and as of that date updates of any type from MS ceased.

    Have you run Dell update via their support site specific to your tag#?

    If you try the drive in another PC is it recognised then?

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  2. Anonymous
    2024-05-24T00:32:17+00:00

    Thanks for your input. I wasn't able to find an update on Dell either but I got an answer that helped me solve the problem. I know I should update to a supported OS but I like windows 7 and this is the first time I've had trouble. Thanks again

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