Hard Drive detected but not shown on Windows Explorer
By: Revengsky Joseph D. Reyes (a.k.a rjdreyes)

I experience lately, when I inserted my Portable Hard Drive, the Hard Drive itself is being detected on USB Mass Storage Device, and also in Hardware Device. When I opened My Computer, the Windows Explorer didn’t shown the Portable Hard Drive. I try Ubuntu Linux, and the Portable Hard Drive detected and shown on the desktop.

In some cases like this, the Hard Drives sometimes needed to be assigned to a drive letter. Reasons can be vary, when you format your Hard Drive, and you disable one of your Hard Drives, later on, the Hard Drive assign the drive letter to the new formatted Hard Drive. When you try to enable the disable Hard Drive, this could confusion the Disk Management itself.

To enable and to show the Hard Drive, I’ll give you steps or instructions on how to set or assign the drive letter on Disk Management:

(On Computer Management, Using Disk Management on Windows)

1. On Windows click Start, go to Settings, click Control Panel.

2. On Control Panel, double-click Administrative Tools.

3. On Administrative Tools, double-click Computer Management.

4. On Computer Management, expand Storage, click on Disk Management.

5. Click on the Hard Drive you wish to assign or to add a drive letter, then at the chosen Hard Drive, right-click and then click to Change Drive Letter and Paths…


6. On Change Drive Letter and Paths, click Add.

7. Add Drive Letter and Paths, click on Assign the following drive letter, then choose a drive letter in a drop-down options and then click OK.

8. The Hard Drive is already set to a new drive letter, and ready to used.

I hope, im able to help and clear the confusion. 🙂

Related References / Entries :
Portable Hard Drive cannot transfer larger than 4 GB by Jcyberinux
How to Format a Hard Drive to NTFS on Windows by Jcyberinux