Solved Laptop does not see USB3 external drive

cslogg

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have an Acer laptop with W8 pre-installed.
It has an USB3 socket.
When I plug an external drive into it the drive appears in the device manager but not in "my computer"
Any help would be great.

cslogg
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8
Which Acer laptop model?
Make/model of your USB3 drive?
Does your device manager say that the driver is "working"?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 7 / Win 8
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Lenovo T510 / HP ProBook 4540S
    CPU
    Intel i5-510m / Intel i3-3110m
    Memory
    4GB / 8GB
    Monitor(s) Displays
    15.6"
Laptop is Aspire V3 551
USB3 drive is Intenso 2.5" 500gb
Device Manager says it is working fine.
I have updated driver,uninstalled and reinstalled but still no luck.
I did have some advice from a friend who says the software is seeing the drive but the pc is not.
Then he mentioned something about changing the legacy in the bios but at that point I am afraid he lost me.

cslogg
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8
Is the drive pre-formatted with a file system?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 7 / Win 8
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Lenovo T510 / HP ProBook 4540S
    CPU
    Intel i5-510m / Intel i3-3110m
    Memory
    4GB / 8GB
    Monitor(s) Displays
    15.6"
I am not sure.
My laptop is the only
device I have with a Usb3 socket and as it cannot see the drive I do not know how to find out.
cslogg
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8
I am not sure.
My laptop is the only
device I have with a Usb3 socket and as it cannot see the drive I do not know how to find out.
cslogg
Ah OK. Did you try running the disk management tool? It should see it. Then you can partition/format it from there. If it's not formatted with a known file system, then it won't show up under My Computer because Windows won't be able to mount it.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 7 / Win 8
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Lenovo T510 / HP ProBook 4540S
    CPU
    Intel i5-510m / Intel i3-3110m
    Memory
    4GB / 8GB
    Monitor(s) Displays
    15.6"
I have opened up disk management but am none the wiser.
It shows disk 0,1, and cd rom
Cannot see any mention of the usb3 drive.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8
If you unplug USB3 drive, does it still show disk 1? Maybe post a screenshot of your disk management screen.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 7 / Win 8
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Lenovo T510 / HP ProBook 4540S
    CPU
    Intel i5-510m / Intel i3-3110m
    Memory
    4GB / 8GB
    Monitor(s) Displays
    15.6"
Thats done it.
Disk 1 was the one.
I have now managed to format it.
Thanks mbratch for all your help.

cslogg
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8
Yay! :)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 7 / Win 8
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Lenovo T510 / HP ProBook 4540S
    CPU
    Intel i5-510m / Intel i3-3110m
    Memory
    4GB / 8GB
    Monitor(s) Displays
    15.6"
Pc does not see Weston sxternal drive

Hi, I have similar problem with my PC except the device manager recognises the Western external drive but the disc management screen does not (see attached screen shots),therefore I can not get an option to format it, the device manager says it is working .Any suggestions please ?
 

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My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8 Pro
have an Acer laptop with W8 pre-installed.
It has an USB3 socket.
When I plug an external drive into it the drive appears in the device manager but not in "my computer"
Any help would be great.

cslogg

Hi there

1) from W8 desktop press Windows + X key
2) Choose Disk Management
3) You should now see the Disks -- You'll see your USB disk as say DISK 1 but without a Drive letter etc.
4) right mouse click on the Disk -- in the BOTTOM part of the disk management screen
5) Choose change letter of drive and pick one from the dropdown
6) wait a little while - depending on the size and amount of data on the disk Windows is building the index
7) You should now see the drive with a letter etc.

Windows 8 has all the necessary USB3 drivers --the fact that you can even SEE the drive in device manager shows its working.

This type of problem often happens with external drives that are moved between computers.

If this doesn't work check that the disk is not marked as OFFLINE. I've ringed where you should see online / offline.

If it is Post again and there's another solution available for that scenario.

Cheers
jimbo
 

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My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Linux Centos 7, W8.1, W7, W2K3 Server W10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Monitor(s) Displays
    1 X LG 40 inch TV
    Hard Drives
    SSD's * 3 (Samsung 840 series) 250 GB
    2 X 3 TB sata
    5 X 1 TB sata
    Internet Speed
    0.12 GB/s (120Mb/s)
Hi Jimbo,
Thanks for your interest.
The item without a drive number shows "on line" however I do not think this refers to the Western external drive because this item appears even when the Western drive is disconnected. When I click" properties" on the western drive in Device manager ,( volume information populate), I get a message that there is no volume information available. I am not very computer literate so this does not make sense to me,
Cheers,
Rob
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8 Pro
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