Hi Jennifer Green,
Welcome to Microsoft Q&A forum. I'm happy to help.
Please give me your modem router model. Some models only support SMB v1 and it should not be enabled unless necessary.
Thank you for your time.
how do you fix win 11 not finding usb hdd attached to modem router
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Jennifer Green
0
Reputation points
Have tried many suggested solutions but none work.
Very complicated solutions worked on another laptop which was upgraded from win 10 to win 11.
None work on my new laptop which came with win 11 pre installed.
Would really be nice if Microsoft provided an easy fix than having to do a masters degree in IT to understand a simple home network.
Windows for home | Windows 11 | Files, folders, and storage
5 answers
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Lucus-V 5,625 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator2026-02-19T21:35:53.4+00:00 -
Lucus-V 5,625 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
2026-02-20T17:51:39.27+00:00 Hi Jennifer Green,
I hope everything is going well on your end. Just wanted to check in and see how things are going for you lately, anything you'd like to share or discuss?
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John Jefferson Doyon 61,625 Reputation points Independent Advisor2026-02-16T00:44:04.7333333+00:00 Hi, I'm John! I will help you with this.
To help narrow down the issue:
- Is the USB HDD showing up at all in File Explorer under “This PC” or “Disk Management”?
- Are you trying to access it via network sharing (\modem-ip\folder) or as a media device?
- Can you check if Network Discovery and File and Printer Sharing are enabled in Windows 11?
Often with new laptops, Windows 11 blocks access to network shares by default. Once we know where it’s visible.
Click "Add comment" to let me know.
Regards,
John J.D.
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Jennifer Green 0 Reputation points
2026-02-16T00:08:01.4633333+00:00 Enabled media server on modem which shows on laptop.
But still can not access shared folders on modem to access files.
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Jennifer Green 0 Reputation points
2026-02-15T23:57:37.6833333+00:00 Tried solution provided by AI. Same as from Google which does not work.