External hard drive not recognized by windows 8.1 (works in windows 7 and ubuntu12.04)

07
2014-07
  • WishingStar

    So as is stated in my title, I have an external hard drive (2.5 inch internal laptop drive attached to a USB bridge). It worked perfectly on my windows 7 x64 machine. Then I did a clean install of windows 8.1 and suddenly the drive isn't working, I get a "local disk" entry in "This PC" but the loading green line at the top of explorer keeps moving slowly and never recognizes the drive.

    Just to check it wasn't the drive, I created an Ubuntu 12.04 USB stick and booted from it and plugged in the drive, it works and I was able to access all my files. Any ideas on how I can make this drive accessible in windows 8.1?

    Thank you, WishingStar

    • Answers
  • SMCBigBaller

    Make sure your USB Drivers are all up to date VIA your computers manufacturer. If not I'd still unistall and reinstall it.


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    How can I get Windows 7 to recognize an external USB hard drive formatted by Vista?
  • Edward Tanguay

    I have a 500 GB external USB hard drive (Maxtor) attached to my Vista desk machine which I use for backups.

    I plugged it into my Windows 7 laptop and it said it wasn't readable and asked me if I wanted to format it.

    I plugged it back into my Vista desk machine and it shows all the files fine.

    What could be causing this and how can I get Windows 7 to recognize the data on the drive?


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  • Chris Pietschmann

    I had this same problem between a Laptop with Windows 7 RC and Desktop with Windows 7 RTM. It ended up being that the external drive was underpowered by the USB port on the Desktop. The solution was to use a USB Power Booster cable. The booster cable allows the USB device to draw power from 2 USB ports at the same time.

    The reason some USB ports are underpowered for a lot of external usb hard drives is the fact that most of the drives use more power than the USB Specification states the USB port should support. The reason they work on some computers (I think most newer computers) is because the manufacturers go above and beyond the USB Spec for power output.