External drives not being recognized

A friend asked me to take a look at her setup because her external hard drive and her phone aren't playing nice with her computer. My first thought? It’s probably just a Windows glitch.

I tried plugging the drive into every single USB port available. The LED lights up and you can hear the thing spinning, but it’s a ghost—it won't show up in the drive list, so there's no way to get to any files. The weird part is that it actually shows up in Device Manager! I tried updating the driver (no luck, it claims it's already current) and I messed around with the Quick removal / Better performance settings, but nothing moves the needle. Windows keeps insisting the device is working properly.

Then I tested it on my machine, and I got the exact same result. So, I told her, "Look, it's definitely the hardware."

But then things got weirder. I plugged in her phone, and her computer won't even acknowledge it exists anymore. On my computer, the phone shows up in the device list, but when I try to open it, I just get an empty window. Even if I click "import files/pictures," it tells me there's nothing there to grab.

Now I'm totally lost. Is it both devices acting up, or are both computers the problem? Help!

Her PC - Dell Inspiron, Windows 8.1
My PC - Dell Inspiron, Windows 7
drive: Dell (maybe 40 GB?)
phone: iPhone 6

If I’m totally stuck on how to tackle both of these issues at once, does anyone have any advice on what to do with the drive? Is there some kind of software out there I could download that might actually be able to reach the disk—you know, the one that shows up fine in Device Manager but just won't show up anywhere else?

Alexander James15 said:If I’m totally stuck on how to tackle both of these issues at once, does anyone have any advice on what to do with the drive? Is there some kind of software out there I could download that might actually be able to reach the disk—you know, the one that shows up fine in Device Manager but just won't show up anywhere else?

Can you get into the data through Disk Management? If you can, just back everything up somewhere else and then go ahead and format the HDD.

What exactly do you mean when you say "disk management"?

Alexander James15 said:What exactly do you mean when you say "disk management"?

It’s the same deal as accessing Device Manager; just look further down the list for Disk Management. If the drive shows up there, try right-clicking it and selecting "Explore." If you can get into the files that way, just copy them over to another drive first, then go ahead and format the HDD.

I'm not entirely sure if this option even exists on Windows 8, but I’m sitting here at my desk working on my Windows 7 machine and I can't find that menu anywhere. I tried digging through the Control Panel, but it was a dead end. It just says "No items match your search."

Alexander James15 said:I'm not entirely sure if this option even exists on Windows 8, but I’m sitting here at my desk working on my Windows 7 machine and I can't find that menu anywhere. I tried digging through the Control Panel, but it was a dead end. It just says "No items match your search."

Just right-click on "This PC," select "Manage," and you'll land right in Computer Management. Both Device Manager and Disk Management are located right there.
On Windows 8, I'm pretty sure you just need to hit the Windows key and X at the same time, then grab Disk Management from the menu that pops up.

Alright, I found it. It’s pretty weird that there isn't a way to get to that setting through the Control Panel.

Anyway, the system picks up the drive immediately and says it's healthy, but it won't let me actually touch any of my files. Every single option is grayed out except for Delete and Help.😢

Alexander James15 said:Alright, I found it. It’s pretty weird that there isn't a way to get to that setting through the Control Panel.

Anyway, the system picks up the drive immediately and says it's healthy, but it won't let me actually touch any of my files. Every single option is grayed out except for Delete and Help.😢

In my opinion, you're going to have to run some data recovery software; there are plenty of options available online. Once you've grabbed what you need, you'll likely need to format the drive because it's probably corrupted.