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Seagate USB External Drive Not Recognized By Windows 11

Anonymous
2025-01-16T20:11:58+00:00

I have looked all within the Control Panel for this external USB hard drive. It is not to be found. I have downloaded and attempted to use several commercial products whose intent is to identify and correct issues on this external drive. Those different software packages could not locate the hard drive.

When I plug the hard drive in to a USB port the 'active light' lights up as normal and I hear the typical Windows "beep" that it recognized something being attached to my computer but the external hard drive does not appear in the File Explorer or anywhere else.

How can I get Windows 11 to recognize and display this external hard drive so I can use it ?

Thanks for reading.

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Performance and system failures

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  1. Anonymous
    2025-06-16T20:39:35+00:00

    Your drive is NOT BROKEN! I've had the same problem with a 2TB Seagate external USB3 drive on my ASUS Zenbook running Windows 11. The drive works fine on my HP laptop running windows 10. But on the Zenbook, it temporarily recognizes the drive, gives it a drive letter in Explorer and, promptly disconnects. Repeatedly!

    It's almost like the anti-virus software in Windows 11 is disabling the USB driver after the drive is connected, because it falsely detects a virus. This is the case even after I format the drive on my HP laptop running Windows 10.

    Interestingly, I have USB external hard drives manufactured by Western Digital and by Hitachi which works just fine on that Zenbook running Windows 11. So, the problem is definitely between Seagate and Microsoft. They need to update the USB drivers for Windows 11 to fix this problem!

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  2. Igor Leyko 110.8K Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2025-03-15T23:44:13+00:00

    This may mean the drive is broken. Can you check it with another PC?

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  3. Anonymous
    2025-03-12T17:49:19+00:00

    Igor, I have the same problem but have no way to check the drive's health, since it is not recognized by my computer...

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  4. Anonymous
    2025-02-16T03:19:38+00:00

    Igor

    My apologies for not responding sooner. I was never advised of your response by the forum and just now recalled my posting.

    I've already disposed of the hard drive. However, I will keep the software you recommended in mind for future use.

    Thank you.

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  5. Igor Leyko 110.8K Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2025-01-16T22:12:57+00:00

    Hi,

    My name is Igor, it's a pleasure for me to help others and I'll try to help you.

    Please check drive's health with third-party CrystalDiskInfo tool and show its screenshot.

    Show a picture of Disk management and a list of hard drives in Device manager.

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