I plugged in my external hard drive but it does not show up in File Explorer. The light on the drive turns on so it has power.
A drive with power but not showing in File Explorer usually means Windows sees the hardware but has not assigned it a drive letter. Open Disk Management: right-click the Start button and select Disk Management. Look for your external drive in the list — it may show as Unallocated, RAW, or without a drive letter. If it shows up without a letter, right-click the partition, select Change Drive Letter and Paths, click Add, assign a letter, and click OK. It should now appear in File Explorer. If it shows as RAW, the file system is corrupted. Do NOT format it if you need the data — use a recovery tool like TestDisk or Recuva first. If the drive does not appear in Disk Management at all, try a different USB port, preferably a USB port directly on the computer rather than through a hub. Also try a different USB cable. Open Device Manager and check under Disk Drives and Universal Serial Bus Controllers for any devices with yellow warning triangles. Right-click and Update Driver or Uninstall and then unplug and replug the drive. For drives that previously worked on a Mac, Windows cannot read Mac-formatted drives natively — you need third-party software like Paragon HFS+ for Windows.
