How to Format External Hard Drive that Is Not Visible?

Main Ideas:

• Hard disk or connection problems may cause the external hard drive not showing up in Windows 11/10, so you won't be able to format it using Windows built-in tools.
• To successfully format the external hard disk you need to fix the hard disk error and make it visible. You can troubleshoot this by checking the connection, updating the drivers, etc.
• To solve the problem more efficiently, you can use AOMEI Partition Assistant - the one-stop tool that can fix the errors and successfully format an invisible hard disk.

How to Format External Hard Drive That Is Not Visible

Many users have discussed in the forums that external drives are not visible or detectable in the PC. Here is a typical case:

How can format a 500 GB External Hard drive that is not visible at my computer. The disk simply shows at the taskbar, it cannot be read, the green light also shows on the disk. I need to format the drive....... How to format the invisible external hard drive?” - Question from Tom’s HARDWARE

Don't worry! This guide will provide comprehensive solutions and list two stages to format external hard drive that is not visible. If you have already solved the problem, you can directly download Formatting Tool - AOMEI Partition Assistant and easily format the external hard disk to NTFS, FAT32, exFAT and other formats. The tool is suitable for all users, even if you are not familiar with computer operations.

Stage 1. Make the external hard drive visible

When external hard drive not showing up in Disk Management or external hard drive not showing up in File Explorer, you can try these three methods to make it visible.

Way 1: Change a USB port

If you believe that your USB port is dead or dying, please take the following:

Plug the hard drive into a different USB port.

If your hard drive shows up on another port, it’s most likely that the initial USB port is dying or won’t accept the drive for whatever reason. Sometimes this can be caused by non-matching USB versions (for example, using a USB 2.0 port).

Way 2: Make Sure Your Drive Powers On

Nearly every flash drive and many external hard drives don't require a separate power source---they receive power over USB. However, some desktop external drives do have dedicated power cables, or at least a physical power switch.

If this is the case for you and your external hard drive is not showing up, you could have an issue with the power cable. Try plugging it into another power outlet, or swap the cable if possible. Check for flashing lights on the unit that indicate activity before moving on.

Way 3: Check Windows drive via Device Manager

When Windows Disk Management doesn’t list the external drive, you can check whether there is a drive problem on Windows via Device Manager.

Step 1. Press “Windows”+ “R”, enter “devmgmt.msc” and hit “Enter”.

Step 2. Click “Disk Drives”; if the external hard drive is with a yellow exclamation mark, it is problematic.

Step 3. Right-click the problematic drive, select “Properties”, and read the message carefully.

Step 4. To fix such an error, under the Driver table, click on “Update driver” to install updated drivers. Or you can click on “Uninstall” to uninstall the driver and restart your computer; after rebooting, the driver will be automatically reinstalled and reconfigured.

Also, you can run Windows Troubleshooting to see the problem. But troubleshooting doesn't provide a detailed solution, you can also use a third-party tool to check the health of your hard disk and repair bad sectors.

Stage 2. Format an undetected external hard drive

After making the external hard drive visible, you can start formatting it.

I suggest you to use AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard, when external hard drive is not working, This is a good choice. It is a professional disk partition management software that can format external hard disks as FAT32, exFAT, etc. Break through the limitations of Disk management. In addition, it also supports resizing partitions and merging partitions. Can fully meet your needs for managing disks.

Below, I will teach you how to format invisible external hard drive with AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard step by step.

Step 1. Free download AOMEI Partition Assistant. Install and run it on Windows PC.

Step 2. Locate the hard drive partition that needs formatting, right-click it and choose “Format”. 

Step 3. Set the file system of the partition and you can add Partition Label if you want.

Step 4. Confirm the operation and click “Apply” to perform it.

In addition, Windows has its built-in utility "Disk Management" that can be used to format hard drives. You need to open Disk Management, click on the drive you want to format, and select "Format". However, please note that external hard drives over 32G can't be formatted to FAT32. 

Why is external hard drive not Visible?

External hard drives (also known as portable hard drives) have a large capacity and are easy to operate. It is widely used to store or back up data. But in some cases, when you connect the external hard drive to a Windows PC or other device with a USB port, you may find that the external hard drive is not visible on the computer.

You may be wondering why this happens. The invisible external hard drive may be caused by the following reasons:

• There is a partition problem on the external hard drive
• the system drive has a problem
• an invalid USB port
• or the PC is not powered on
• In the worst case, the external hard drive itself may be damaged.  

Conclusion

If you read this article carefully, I believe you already know how to format external hard drive that is not visible. If you want to recover lost files on an external hard drive, please upgrade to AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional.

FAQs About How to Format External Hard Drive that Is Not Visible

What to Do When Your External Hard Drive Won't Show Up？

There are numerous potential causes for an external hard drive not being detected, including file system errors, USB port failure, drive issues, or connection problems. To resolve this, we recommend the following steps:

• Ensure the drive is connected and powered on.
• Reboot the computer.
• Try another cable, port, or PC.
• Format the drive.
• Update the drivers.
• Clean up the disk.

How to format an unrecognized drive?

If the external hard drive is not recognized, it is likely due to a connection issue. To resolve this, you can make the external hard drive visible by replacing the USB port or cable. Then, use Windows' built-in tools, specifically Disk Management, to right-click on the target disk and select Format.

Step 1. To open the Run window, click Windows + R.

Step 2. In the Run window, type "diskmgmt.msc" or right-click the Windows icon to open Disk Management.

Step 3: Right-click on the unrecognized USB drive and select "Format."