Toshiba 3.0 USB External Hard Drive and Windows 10

Hi,

Thank you for posting your query in Microsoft Community.

I understand your inconvenience and we will surely help you to resolve the issue.

In order to understand the issue better, I suggest you to answer the below questions.

1. Have you allocated drive letter for the external drive?
2. Do you get any prompt when you connect the external drive to your PC?
3. Is the external device getting detected under Disk Management.?
4. Are the files detected on any other computer?

5. what is the make and model of PC?

Connect the same hard drive to other computer and check if it is getting detected.

I suggest you to change the Drive letter of the USB drive after the Device is getting detected in Device Management.

Right click on the drive>Click on Rename.

Unallocated drives are those whose drive letters are not allocated when initially partitioned. You will be able to view the drive on your PC if you have allocated a drive name for the partition created. The drive will not be visible on the PC if you do not allocate a drive letter or a drive name.

Allocate a drive letter to the HDD by following the steps below and check if the issue is resolved.

a. Connect the HDD to the PC.
b. Open Run command by pressing Windows Key + R keys on the keyboard, type diskmgmt.msc and press Enter.
c. Right click on the Unallocated disk drive and select New Simple Volume option. Follow the onscreen    instructions where in the process you will get to a window where you can allocate a drive name for the HDD.
d. After allocating a drive letter, right click on the drive and select Open. Check if you are able to open the drive in File Explorer.

Hope this information helps. Please let me know if you need further assistance. 

Thanks Suvarna G....I have done what you suggested and these are the answers to your questions.  I would appreciate any further suggestions or thoughts you might have.

Answers to your questions:

1. Have you allocated drive letter for the external drive?

The device is detected under device manager but has no drive letter assigned

2. Do you get any prompt when you connect the external drive to your PC?

I get no prompt when I connect the external drive to my PC

3. Is the external device getting detected under Disk Management.?

The external device is detected under Disk Management however it has no

assigned drive and it says no media.  When I attempt to initialize the disk with the "master reboot"  prompt, I get a check error...basically the file system on the disk cannot be initialized. 

I'm thinking something major has happened to this Toshiba External HD.  Any thoughts on how to retrieve my data?

4. Are the files detected on any other computer?

The device is detected on other computers but no drive letter is assigned on any of them so cannot access any files

5. what is the make and model of PC?

HP Pavilian P6000 series

Model # p6780t

Please add a drive letter...

Please use this useful video

USB External Drive not Accessible in Windows 10