How to fix an external hard drive that’s not showing up

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Wondering how to fix an external hard drive that’s not showing up? This is a frustrating scenario that many of us find ourselves in. Whether you’ve just unwrapped one of the best external hard drives or have dusted down an old steed filled with a treasured catalogue of photos, there’s nothing more annoying than plugging in your drive only to be met with silence — or worse still, the dreaded “error” sound.

Thankfully, there are several ways to fix an external hard drive not showing up, from tweaking your settings to performing some physical triage. One thing to bear in mind, however, is that hard drives aren’t meant to last forever. So, there may be a chance that your files are gone for good — unless you’ve backed up elsewhere, or on a cloud storage service. But before you consign your device to hard drive heaven, it’s definitely worth checking out these steps first.