Windows 10: External Hard Drive not responding

My 2tb Toshiba external hard drive freezes up whatever application it interacts with. I’ve tried to format it, run chdsk, and use third party applications to fix it but whatever application I’m running immediately freezes. It does show up in file explorer but I can’t open it in disk management because it either freezes or doesn’t recognize it. Sometimes when it does respond in safe mode, it says that the drive is corrupted and unreadable. I’ve already tried using another computer and it’s unresponsive there too. Literally right clicking or opening the drive in file explorer freezes it. The onl

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External Hard Drive

Hi John,

We suggest that you try the troubleshooting steps below:

• Open your External Hard Drive file in File Explorer.
• Type the name of the file you want to search on the search box and click Enter.

The file will show up in Search Results and you will be able to move it to the correct folder.

Let us know if you need further help.

 

External hard drive not recognised

Thanks for this. I've done what you suggested and been through all the steps mentioned in the article. The hard drive works fine on a Mac computer, and I've managed to copy the information on it. It must be a Surface issue so I'll try to get a chat line tomorrow.

 

Computer freezes and Explorer doen't respond when I plug an external Hard drive

Hello jobkakule,

The issue is possibly caused by corrupted data or bad sectors on your external hard drive or could be a sign of a failing hard drive.

To better assist you with your concern, I'd like to know the following:

• Confirm which build is currently installed on your device. To check, follow the steps below:

1. Press Windows key + R, then type in winver.
2. Click OK.

• Have you tried plugging your external hard drive to a different USB port? Also, check if you can access the drive by plugging it to a different computer.
• What is the make and model of your computer?

Meanwhile, I'd suggest to repair the bad sectors on your external hard drive. Kindly refer to the steps below:

(Let's just assume that the drive letter for your external hard drive is E. If not, please do change it to the correct drive letter)

1. Plug in your external hard drive. Click on Start, search for
Command Prompt, right-click on it and select Run as administrator.

2. Type in the following command below and press Enter after each command:

Chkdsk /f E:

Chkdsk /r E:

3. Reboot your computer after the scan is completed.

Looking forward to your response.

Regards.