External hard drives

Speed up slow drives, see hidden folders and take back control of your files.<br /> Windows can’t see your external hard drive<br /> <img alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjomECiqncmaQEy9GO5sU8Bf_X86hhp8zJ0tJqX9brAYl9LWGuFN7L9djDfPM4mxK7ju-TLPQcA3KHAKTtISZOCkm0CwhF8Hp0yiS18k6Sc6Z_aXfMDZvGZGzVwQst-lYQwQkjMOVf0XoXI//" /><br /> Click Partition Recovery Wizard to recover lost data on your hard drive.<br /> If you’ve plugged in your external hard drive but it fails to show up in Windows Explorer, check that the drive’s activity indicator light is on at the front. If it’s off, the hard drive may not be working and you may need to replace it. Check the manufacturer’s website for guidance. There’s also a useful discussion about recovering files from malfunctioning drives on Piriform’s online forum (www. snipca.com/12806). Piriform are the software developers who make CCleaner, Recuva and Defraggler.<br /> If the drive’s light is on but you still can’t see it in Windows Explorer, it may be because there’s no letter assigned to it. Click Start, type disk management and press Enter to see a list of all the drives that Windows can detect. Find a hard drive with an empty Volume column -this will be your undetected hard drive. Right-click it, click ‘Change Drive letter and Paths’, click Add, select ‘Assign the following drive letter’, choose a letter from the dropdown and click OK.<br /> Files and folders on my external drive are hidden<br /> If you can’t see certain files that are on your hard drive, they may be hidden. To view hidden files, open Windows Explorer and click Organize, ‘Folder and Search options’, View, ‘Show hidden files, folders, and drives’, then click OK.<br /> If this fails to make your files appear, try using the Command Prompt to remove attributes that might be hiding files on your external hard drive, such as ‘readonly’, ‘hidden’ and ‘system file’. Type cmd in the Start menu, right-click ‘cmd’ in the results and click ‘Run as administrator’. Type attrib h r -s Is /d g:\V, replacing ‘g’ with the letter of the hard drive you want to access. You can check its letter in Disk Management (see previous tip). After you’ve typed the command, press Enter.<br /> <img alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCTJsGud_Xkj7n1wYTaU3ByQjd_xd_yVj2KbQYWYToX3Dqa-uVCQjg86QRjHAScLidugDcW2CUGwIqQHAV5tqD8dr81MMs1iazNVsB3Hj_9GOxoUawAHTflHFnnBaShmkmjDiwF9cC93cF//" /><br /> Use Windows’ ‘Better performance’ tool to speed up your external hard drive<br /> Windows tells you to format your drive<br /> If your external hard drive stops working<br /> and Windows tells you to ‘format the disk’, don’t do it. This will delete all your data. Instead, download and install the free program Partition Wizard (www. snipca.com/12795). Open the program and click MiniTool Partition Wizard. If your external hard drive is marked as Unallocated in the program’s File System column, Windows won’t be able to access its data. Click Partition Recovery Wizard in the left hand pane, then keep clicking Next until you reach the Choose Searched Partitions option. Vour missing partition should appear here in the Status column (marked Lost/Deleted). Double-click it and you’ll see all your lost files. Click Close, then Finish. You now need to assign a letter to your external hard drive so that Windows can find it. Right click it, click ‘Change letter’, give it a letter and click Apply.<br /> External drive is too slow<br /> Your external hard drive will slow down over time. To speed it up, first optimise it using Windows’ then tools. In Windows Explorer, right-click the drive, click Properties, Hardware, select your external drive in the list, then click Properties again. In the new window, click ‘Change settings’, Policies, select ‘Better performance’ and click OK. You can also use the free program Clary Utilities (www.glarysoft.com) to defragment your drive and check it for errors. In Glary Utilities, click Advanced Tools, choose an option under ‘Hard disks’ and select your drive from the list.<br /> <img alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBU-HyekQvN9D_4SsZSpHxzQlmL0_f1bZ1SDYYWPxq5kHWMOykV770lLXIsjQOZkxS34EhBIwIAHZA8DEUMBPzed5DsF0YCyMExXChT9cFimH3kJfusksJkMHka5CAbj6R5px6HVZLnlsg//" /><br /> Enable ‘Full control’ via Properties to regain editing rights over your own files<br /> External hard drive won’t let you edit files<br /> If you’ve connected your external hard drive to a new PC and try to make changes to the files on the drive, you may see the message ‘\bu’ll need to provide administrator permission to (delete this folder/copy to this folder/delete this file)’. Tliis means your PC has strict default permissions. To change the permissions and get control over your files, right click the external hard drive in Windows Explorer and click Properties, Security; Edit. Click your Windows username under ‘Group or user names’, tick Allow next to ‘Full control’, then click OK.

External hard drives

Speed up slow drives, see hidden folders and take back control of your files. Windows can’t see your external hard drive Click Partition ...

Read more »