External hard drives are portable for carrying out, expanding storage capacity, and transferring files. But they are also prone to various problems. Maybe one day when you connect an external hard drive to your computer, you will find the hard drive spinning but not detected by your computer.
This is not a rare problem. Many other people also suffer from this issue:
Hello, my hard drive doesn't work anymore, the first thing that happened was my "D" Hard drive disappeared when I tried to copy a file to it, then I made a disk check with CMD, and it back to work but very slow, and it can't copy large files to another hard disk. After more tries to fix it, it went undetected in BIOS, I tried the hard drive with a SATA/USB converter, and it makes a notification sound when I plug it in, but it doesn't show in Windows, in addition, the LED is on, but not blinking. (note: the hard drive is spinning, and before it became undetected by BIOS, the PCB was warm when I touched it), any help? the PCB is the prob? how can I fix it and recover my data? – Stitatntomshardware.com
Why Is a Hard Drive Spinning But Not Detected
The hard drive spins but not recognized problem can be triggered by several reasons. Here some possible causes are listed:
- Without a drive letter: When you connect a removable drive to your computer, the drive will be assigned a drive letter thus it can be recognized by your computer.
- File System Incompatible: In most cases, the computer can detect a hard drive with FAT16, FAT32, exFAT, NTFS, or ReFS. If the file system of your hard drive is another type, the computer might show it as RAW or fail to recognize it.
- Outdated driver: If the driver that the hard drive is used to access your computer is out of date, the connection might be failed.
- Unstable connection: The physical connection between the computer and the hard drive is not stable due to the cable, the port, or other reasons.
- Etc.
How to Recover Data from a Spinning But Not Detected Hard Drive
After knowing some specific reasons for the hard drive spinning but not detected problem, you can try to fix the issue. But you should know that any fixes are possible to cause secondary damage to your data. Therefore, retrieving data from the malfunctioning hard drive should be the primary thing.
About MiniTool Power Data Recovery
You can attempt professional data recovery software that you can get twice the results with half the effort. Among numerous file recovery software, MiniTool Power Data Recovery is highly recommended, which is used by millions of people around the world and enjoys a high reputation.
This free file recovery software can retrieve files under various situations, including virus attack, OS crash, mistaken deletion, accidental formatting, and other cases. Besides, types of files are supported by this software. You can restore photos, videos, audio, documents, and archives. For more practical features, you can attempt them when using it.
Step-by-Step Guide to Recover Files
Step 1: Download and install MiniTool Power Data Recovery on your computer.
MiniTool Power Data Recovery FreeClick to Download100%Clean & Safe
Step 2: Connect your problematic hard drive to your computer and launch the software.
Step 3: This is an optional step. You can go to the Scan Settings interface, select the required file types, and click on the OK button to save your choice.
Step 4: Return to the This PC page.
- Under the Logical Drives section, all partitions will be listed here; thus, you can choose one partition on your external hard drive to scan.
- Under the Devices tab, which will display all the connected drives, you can select the external hard drive and scan the entire drive directly. Obviously, this choice will take a longer time to scan.
Step 5: You can browse the found file list during scanning. The scan process might take a few minutes. Please wait patiently and do not interrupt it manually for the best data recovery result.
You can expand the different folders listed on the left sidebar to find your wanted files. To increase the efficiency of finding files, you can utilize these three practical features:
- Filter: to filter out the unnecessary files by setting file size, file category, file size, and modified date.
- Type: to sort files according to their types, like photos, videos, audio, archives, documents, etc.
- Search: to locate a specific file using its partial or full name.
Besides, to ensure data recovery accuracy, you can use the Preview function to check whether to chosen file is what you want.
Step 6: Add check marks in front of the desired files, then click on the Save button to choose a proper path for saving files.
When all these steps are finished, you can check your files in the chosen location. Now, move on to the next part to start fixing your hard drive.
How to Fix a Spinning Hard Drive That Is Not Detected
Six methods can be used to mend the problematic hard drive. You can follow the instructions to find out a work one.
Fix 1: Check and Change an Adapter/a USB Port
When you find your hard drive spinning but not detected, you should check the hard drive adapter first. Besides, changing another USB port might be helpful to resolve this problem as well. You can also try to connect this hard drive to another computer. If the problem is solved by changing a new adapter/USB port, your hard drive works well and you should replace a new adapter.
Fix 2: Perform a Virus Scan
Viruses or malware might infect the computer’s performance and prevent your hard drive from being detected. You can perform a virus scan on your computer to check the problem.
Step 1: Press Win + I to open Windows Settings.
Step 2: Navigate to Update & Security > Windows Security, then click Virus & threats protection on the right pane.
Step 3: Click on Scan options under the Current threats section.
Step 4: Choose Full scan and click on Scan now.
Fix 3: Update the Driver
If your hard drive spins but not recognized by the computer, you can check the corresponding driver in Device Manager. An outdated driver can be another cause of this problem. You can update the driver to try to deal with the problem.
Step 1: Press Win + X and select Device Manager from the WinX menu.
Step 2: You can expand the option that contains the name of your hard drive. For example, the external hard drive can be found in Disk Drives and Other devices.
Step 3: Right-click on the drive that needs to be updated and choose Update Driver from the context menu.
Step 4: Select the Seach automatically for drivers option.
Step 5: Windows will look for the latest version of the driver that suits your computer and install it automatically.
After this, you can restart your computer and see whether your hard drive is detected by the computer now.
Fix 4: Run the Hardware and Device Troubleshooter
When your hardware or devices have problems, Windows has a built-in tool to assist you in finding and repairing these problems. You can work with the following steps.
Step 1: Press Win + R to open the Run window.
Step 2: Type cmd into the text box and press Shift + Ctrl + Enter to run Command Prompt as administrator.
Step 3: Type msdt.exe -id DeviceDiagnostic and hit Enter to open the Hardware and Devices troubleshooter window.
Step 4: Click on the Next button to detect problems and follow the on-screen instructions to fix the problem.
Fix 5: Repair Bad Sectors
Bad sectors on your hard drive may cause data loss and even lead the hard drive to stop working. Bad sectors can be divided into two types: physical damage and logical damage. The former situation can’t be repaired and is unusable, while the logically bad sector can be fixed by formatting.
Now, you can check and mark the bad sectors on the hard drive by performing the CHKDSK command, then repair bad sectors if any are detected.
Part 1: Check Bad Sectors
Step 1: Press Win + R to open the Run window.
Step 2: Type cmd into the box and press Shift + Ctrl + Enter simultaneously to run Command Prompt as administrator.
Step 3: Type CHKDSK x: /f /r and hit Enter. You should replace x with the drive letter of the disk you want to check.
Step 4: If the disk you want to scan is in use, you will be asked to check the disk the next time the system restarts. You should type Y and hit Enter.
Your computer will check the disk during the boot process. After this, you can format the disk to fix the bad sectors. For the data security, I highly suggest you restore data from this hard drive with MiniTool Power Data Recovery before formatting.
Part 2: Repair Bad Sectors
Step 1: Download and install MiniTool Partition Wizard on your computer.
MiniTool Partition Wizard FreeClick to Download100%Clean & Safe
Step 2: Launch the software.
Step 3: Locate the partition you need to format, click on it, and choose Format Partition on the left pane.
Step 4: Set Partition Label, File System, and Cluster Size according to your needs. After this, click on the OK button to save the changes.
Step 5: When returning to the main interface, you can choose Undo to revoke the change if any settings are incorrect. After you confirm all the information, you should click on the Apply choice to fully apply the change.
If you want to know more specific information about how to repair bad sectors, you can read this post: Can We Remove Bad Sector from Hard Disk Permanently?
Fix 6: Format the Hard Drive
When you experience logical problems with an external hard drive, you can fix them by using some command lines, like the Diskpart command. Actually, most problems will be addressed by formatting the device to start fresh.
But formatting will erase all your data on this hard drive. You should recover data from a spinning but not detected hard drive first with MiniTool Power Data Recovery. You can read this post to learn how to make a hard drive recovery.
MiniTool Power Data Recovery FreeClick to Download100%Clean & Safe
Afterward, you can run commands in accordance with the next steps.
Step 1: Press Win + S and type Command Prompt into the search box.
Step 2: Choose Run as administrator from the right pane.
Step 3: Type the following command to clean the hard drive and format it. You should press Enter after each command line to execute it.
- diskpart
- list disk
- select disk * (You should replace * with the disk number of the target disk)
- clean
- create partition primary
- format fs=* (You should change * to the file system that is compatible with the computer)
After the formatting process ends, you can exit Command Prompt and go to Disk Management to assign a drive letter to the external hard drive. If the formatting process is stuck at 0 percent, you can read this post to find solutions.
Bottom Line
Hard drive spinning but not detected is a common problem when you use it. This post provides you with many methods to fix the problem. Hope one of them can help you resolve the problem. You are welcome to tell us your problem about using MiniTool software via [email protected].
About The Author
Position: Columnist
Andrea graduated in English and has a keen interest in the IT industry and questions that arise when computers are used. She is passionate about new things and challenging things and has a wide range of interests like playing guitar, gaming, and crafting.
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