How to Fix External Hard Disk Problems?

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External hard drives are an excellent choice for storing and transferring data. However, like any other device, they can encounter issues that can put your data at risk. However, if you react fast you can fix the drive yourself. This article will explore a few common external hard drive problems and their solutions.

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External hard drive issues can have various causes. Some common ones include faulty cables and ports, file system corruption, bad sectors, viruses and malware, and physical damage.

Depending on the issues, you can experience various problems such as external hard drive corruption, hard drive detection issues, unusual noises, overheating, etc

As a basic check, verify the physical damage, faulty cables, or damaged port, and then proceed with the hard drive repair. Read the upcoming sections for detailed steps.

Common External Hard Drive Issues and Solutions

1: External Hard Drive Not Powering Up:

When your external hard drive won’t power up it can be a connection issue between the computer and the external hard drive, Here are a few solutions to fix it:

Try on any other device:
Connect the external hard drive to another device and check if the connection issue is specific to your device. If the external hard drive is detected on the other device. The issue be with your original device or its connection port.

Update the drivers: Update the outdated drivers on your device to establish a proper connection between the external hard drive and the computer.

  • Open Device Manager > Expand Disk drives > right-click on it and choose Update driver.

update disk drives

  • Select the Search automatically for drivers option

Wait till the update completes and restart the computer

2: Slow External Hard Drives

When you have a slow external hard drive or you are having difficulties accessing the files and folders, here are a few solutions that you can try:

Use Error Checking Tool:

  • Open File Manager > Right-click on External hard drive and choose Properties
  • Go to the Tools tab and choose Optimize

Disk Fragmentation:

  • Open Defragment, Optimize drives and select the external hard drive

optimize the drive

  • Click on Optimize to start the defragmentation process.

The process may take a while, depending on the size and condition of the drive, once defragmentation is complete, check if the drive’s performance improves

3: Corrupt External Hard Drives

Here are a few initial steps to repair corrupt external hard drives. You can either attempt to repair the drive if it is corrupt or recover data from it:

Run Chkdsk

  • Open Command prompt as Administrator
  • Type: chkdsk C: /f /r and hit Enter (Replace c with your drive letter)

type the chkdsk command

This will scan the drive for errors, and identify and recover data from bad sectors.

Change Drive Letter: When you cannot access the corrupted external hard drive, change the drive letter or assign it a new one using Disk Management:

  • Open Disk Management> Right-click on External hard drive and choose Change Drive Letter and Paths.

choose change drive letter option

  • Select the drive letter and click the Change button. If there is no drive letter, click on Add and click on OK

Full Format: When the above solutions don’t fix the corruption issues, perform a full format.

  • Open File Explorer, right-click on the external hard drive and choose Format
  • Select the File Format, uncheck the Quick Format, and click on Start

format the external drive

4: External Hard Drive Blinking but Not Detected

The “external hard drive blinking but not detected” issue could be due to malfunctioning hardware, corrupt file system, or other issue that is preventing the system from recognizing the drive correctly.

Enable Hidden Drives:

  • Open Device Manager > Choose View
  • Click on the view and select Show Hidden devices

choose show hidden devices

  • Reboot the PC

Now try again and check if the external hard drive detection issues is gone

Run Antivirus

In case your external hard drive is affected by the virus or malware, you will be facing detecting issues and cleaning up the virus on your drive and PC using an updated antivirus tool.

Recover Data From the Damaged/Corrupt Hard Drives

If you have a problematic hard drive containing important data, prefer recovering data from the external hard drive than fixing it as it can sometimes overwrite the data.

We suggest the SFWare Hard Drive Recovery tool to easily recover data from the drive without breaking any sweat. The tool is compatible with almost all file formats, and external hard drive brands like Samsung, WD, Seagate, etc.

Download Now and Try!

Follow the steps below to recover data external hard drives using SFWare Data Recovery-

1. Download, install, and open SFWare Data Recovery

Step 2:  Choose the External hard drive and clcik on Start Scan.

select the drive

4. After the scan, all the data recovered from the external hard drive will be listed for you.

locate-recovered-files

5. You can locate, select, and preview all the data that you wish to keep. Click on Save if you are satisfied with the results.

preview-recovered-files-before-saving

(NOTE: It is recommended to connect an external drive beforehand and save your recovered data onto the external drive directly.)

Best Practices to Avoid External Hard Drive Issues

Handle Drive Carefully: Use a padded case on the external hard drive and protect it from drops or impacts, which can damage internal components.

Safely Eject the Drive: Always use the “Eject” option before unplugging the drive to avoid data corruption.

Protect Against Power Surges: Protect your external drive from voltage spikes that can damage the external drive, Ensure the USB or power cable is securely connected to prevent sudden disconnections.

Antivirus Scan: Regularly scan the hard drive using a reliable antivirus program to prevent malware from infecting your external drive.

Backups: Use cloud storage to keep a backup of your important files or use backup utilities such as File History or Time Machine to automate the process.

Conclusion:

External hard drive issues are solvable if the damage is in its early stages. We advise you to monitor your hard drive’s performance and file accessibility and when you notice any problems troubleshoot the issues using built-in tools. In case of a severely damaged external hard drive, opt for a professional data recovery service to repair it.

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