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25 March 2024  John Weaver  Senior Program Developer
 

Summary
Learn why Windows 10 can't find your hard disk and how to solve the issue. Discover data recovery methods to retrieve lost files.



Table of contents

table iconI. Windows 10 cannot find the hard disk/the reason why the hard disk disappears
table iconII. How to restore important data in the hard disk?
table iconIII. Windows 10 cannot find the hard disk/disappeared solution
hard drive disappeared windows 10

I. Windows 10 cannot find the hard disk/the reason why the hard disk disappears

After connecting the external hard disk to the computer or installing a new local hard disk, the hard disk cannot be found in the file explorer. The reasons for the disappearance of the hard disk may be as follows:
● The hard disk is brand new, and it may need to be initialized when it is connected to the computer for the first time before it can be displayed and used normally. After opening Disk Management, you may find that its status is displayed as “unallocated”, “unknown, not initialized”, etc.
● After the installation or update of Windows 10, the computer’s hard disk driver is often too outdated to properly recognize the hard disk.
● The default drive letter or hidden attributes are not present on the external hard disk, causing the Windows 10 system to not automatically assign a drive letter. As a result, the hard disk will not appear in the file explorer without a drive letter.
● The system cannot recognize the hard disk due to a hard disk failure or bad sectors. (See solutions to bad sectors)
● The link between the computer and the hard drive may be weak, the USB port could be defective, or the data cable may be faulty.
unallocated disk
Upon comprehending the causes behind Windows 10′s inability to locate or the sudden disappearance of a hard disk, the following will present various methods for repair. To safeguard against the loss of crucial data stored on the hard disk, the initial step would be to utilize specialized data recovery software to scan and retrieve files. If the hard disk does not contain any vital data, it can be checked directly for the solution to the disappearance of the hard disk in the third part.

II. How to restore important data in the hard disk?

1. What is Renee Undeleter?

Renee Undeleter is a software specially used to restore system data files. When you accidentally delete important files, empty the recycle bin, or format the disk/storage, you can use this tool to retrieve the lost data. The software covers four functional modules, including file recovery, format recovery, partition recovery and image creation, which can help you solve all data loss problems in an all-round way.
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Supported devices SD card, SDHC, SDXC, USB flash drive, hard disk and computer.

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2. How to use Renee Undeleter to recover hard disk data?

Step 1: Download, install, and run Renee Undeleter on the computer. Select the (Whole Disk Scan) option on the main interface.
Note: Do not install on the disk that needs to restore data, so as not to cause data overwriting.
select whole disk scan to scan disk in renee undeleter
Data recovery function introduction:
Fast Partition Scan – Quickly retrieve files lost due to accidental deletion or emptying the recycle bin.
Whole Partition Scan – Quickly recover files lost due to inaccessible or formatted partitions.
Whole Disk Scan – Analyze and get partition information and perform a full scan of the entire partition.
Image Creation – You can create a mirror image for a partition to back up the current partition state.
Step 2: Next, select the hard disk and click (Next).
select a disk to recover in renee undeleter
Step 3: Please wait patiently for the scan. This process will find out all the partitions in the hard disk. Then the “Select the partition you need to scan” window will pop up, and you can select a specific partition to scan. If not selected, all partitions will be scanned automatically, more files can be found, but it will take longer.
Step 4: You can preview the files during the scanning process. If all the required files have been found, you can check the files to be restored, and then click the (Recover) button.
select taget files to recover with renee undeleter

III. Windows 10 cannot find the hard disk/disappeared solution

1. Replace the USB port or data cable

When there is a problem with the connection between the hard disk and the computer, it may cause the problem that Windows 10 cannot find the hard disk, that is, the hard disk cannot be found in the file explorer and disk management. It is recommended that you eject the hard disk safely and then connect it to another USB port for checking. If the hard disk still cannot be found normally, try to replace the hard disk data cable.

2. Initialize the disk and create a new simple volume

When the hard disk is connected to the computer and cannot be displayed in the file explorer, you can check whether its status is “not initialized” or “unallocated” in the disk management. If it shows “not initialized” or “unallocated”, you can Initialize disk and create a new simple volume. Specific steps are as follows:
Press the Windows icon + X key at the same time, and select (Disk Management) in the menu. Next, if the hard disk is displayed as “not initialized”, right-click on the hard disk, and select the (Initialize Disk) option.
how to initialize disk on windows
If the hard disk partition is displayed as “Unallocated”, right-click the unallocated partition, and select (New Simple Volume).
Please check: Features and differences of FAT32, exFAT and NTFS file systems.
create new volume
After that, you can open the file explorer to check whether the hard disk is displayed normally. If you still cannot find the hard disk, please continue to try the following methods.

3. Update the hard disk driver

Step 1: Connect the hard disk to the computer, right-click the (Start) menu, and select (Device Manager).
Step 2: Find the hard disk device in Device Manager (you can try to find it in “Disk drives”). Right-click on the drive and select the (Update driver) option.
update driver-disk
Step 3: Select (Search automatically for updated driver software). Then follow the prompts to complete the operation. After that, check again whether the hard disk can be displayed normally.
update Driver Confirm

4. Change the hard drive letter

Sometimes Windows 10 cannot find the hard disk, there may be a problem with the drive letter (for example, there is no drive letter or the drive letter is the same as other local disks).
Step 1: Press the Windows icon + X key at the same time, select (Disk Management) in the menu, right-click the target hard disk, and select (Change Drive Letter and Paths).
change drive letter in disk management
Step 2: Click (Add), assign a drive letter to the hard disk, and then click (OK).
add a drive letter
Step 3: Open the file explorer, select (this computer), and you will see the hard disk there.

5. Clear the hidden or no default drive letter attribute

If you’re having trouble locating your hard drive every time you connect it to your computer, it could be due to the drive having a hidden or no default drive letter attribute. This means that the system won’t automatically assign a drive letter to the hard drive, making it difficult to find in Windows 10. To solve this issue, you can either manually change the drive letter using method 4 (which needs to be done every time you connect the drive), or you can follow these steps to clear the no default drive letter/hidden attribute (which only needs to be done once). This will allow the system to automatically assign a drive letter to the hard drive.

Method 1: Clear hidden attributes

Step 1: Search (cmd) directly in the search box in the lower left corner, and select (run as administrator) to open the command prompt.
run as administrator
Step 2: Enter ( dispart ) command and press the (Enter) key. You need to press the (Enter) key every time you enter a command.
Then enter (list disk) to list all disks in the computer.
Type (select disk 1) (1 is the disk number) to select the target disk.
Please input (list volume) command to retrieve a list of all existing disk partitions. You will notice that volume 2 is currently in a “hidden” state.
To select the hidden disk partition, enter (choose volume 2) (where 2 indicates the disk partition number).
Type (attribute volume clear hidden) to clear the volume’s hidden attribute.
attribute volume clear hidden

Method 2: Clear the no default drive letter attribute

Step 1: Type “diskpart” in the taskbar search box, right-click on the search result and select (Run as administrator).
diskpart run as administrator
Step 2: Then enter the following commands, and you need to press the (Enter) key every time you enter a command.
Type (list disk) to list disks.
Enter (select disk 2) (2 indicates the disk number) to select the disk.
Type (list part) to list the partitions.
Enter (select partition 4) (4 indicates the partition number) to select the partition.
Please enter (select partition 4) to choose the desired partition. To check the attributes of the disk partition, type (attributes volume). You will find that the properties of (Hidden) and (No Default Drive Letter) indicate (No) and (Yes) respectively.
Enter (attribute volume clear NoDefaultDriveLetter) to clear the attribute for (no default drive letter). If the (hidden) attribute is (Yes), you can also use the (attribute volume clear hidden) command.

After that, safely eject the hard disk, reconnect it to the computer, and open the file explorer to find the target hard disk.

attribute volume clear NoDefaultDriveLetter
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