Windows 7 does not recognise USB drive

[TimTDP]

I have an external USB hard drive.
When I connect it to a Windows 7 PC, I can see the device in Device Manager, but can't see it as a drive.
Do I have to do something in Windows 7 to access the files on the drive?

Windows 7 will recognise a memory stick and allow access to the files on it!

 

[labratza]

check what format it is make sure it is NTFS

 

[killadoob]

Control panel administrative / com management / disk management

Then enable it or change the driver letter.

 

[LazerFazer]

Right click computer, click "manage".
On the left pane, under storage, click "Disk Management".
Right click your drive partition and click "Change Drive Letter and Path".
If there isn't an entry on the "Change Drive Letter and Path" list, click on "Add", otherwise select the entry that's there and click on "Change".
Choose a drive letter and click OK on all open windows.

If it doesn't work, try a different drive letter until it does work.

 

[Dean]

No need for it to necessarily be NTFS as suggested above.

Try the other suggestion wrt Disk Management - that's usually the fix.

 

[SirFooK'nG]

yeah as the guys say in disk management you got to mark the disk as active.