After a system refresh of Windows 10 all external disk storage drives, Micro SD and USB are listed twice in file explorer. This is a common problem, reported many times in forums and community support web sites. Could a solution be to reload file explorer. Is this possible and where would I find the download?
File explorer is struggling with my 2 external WD My Book 3TB HDD
Problems: 1 of the drives will keep running randomly all night (and gets real hot) after PC shut down. When trying to write a batch to one of the drives explorer keeps trying to access the drive, cannot open it and becomes unresponsive (task bar icons disappear).
My new windows 10 only sees my PC - when searching for my files in Explorer, it cannot 'see' my two external drives when I plug them in. I've looked in Device Manager and they are not showing in there either. How can I tell Win 10 to access my external drives?
I thought Win 10 would automatically spot my external drivers the moment I plugged them in? Then it would go search for and install the appropriate drivers - but it isn't doing that..
I just upgraded from Windows 7 PRO to Windows 10. I notice that my external USB 3.0 drives can't be found. Before the upgrade it was ok. The only external device that does show is a Sandisk FIT USB 2.0 stick.
In recent weeks, it has become impossible for me to safely remove my external drives. (Mostly, I use Western Digital Passports, Passport Ultras, etc).
I am using Windows 10.
I close all of my programs and folders. I get the "busy" message and to try again later. I run Unlocker on the drives, and Unlocker shows no activity or actions that I can take. I bring up my task manager and nothing is running. I try to safely eject from the WD utility and it doesn't work. I try to eject by going to my computer, right clicking on the drive, and ejecting from there. Sometimes I simply wait for half an hour, read some articles, try again. I get the same "busy" or can't shut down message.
I read online that I could try to Device Manager, click on the drive, and under policies select "Optimize for Performance." However, the computer must restart for changes to take place, and when i've tried, I get stuck on an infinite "Restarting" screen.
I read somewhere that I can try to empty a hidden recycle bin on my external, but I can't seem to reveal it?
My HP Pavilion all-in-one computer does not recognize my Seagate external hard drive after I installed Windows 10. Everything worked well with the Windows 8 but neither system will recognize the other once I upgraded to Windows 10.
My external drive(Samsung) connected via usb3 has started showing twice in file explorer. Opening either shows exactly the same files inside. Screen shot below, I've never tried this so I hope I've done it OK...
When I insert any removable drive (USB, SD cards, etc) the device shows up twice in Explorer. Once under "This PC" tree and the other as a device. See attached pic (USB Drive H):
I remember hearing about this being the way it's designed to work, but frankly it's a bit silly - I only need to see a single entry for the drive/device...
Is there any way to get rid of one of these entries without stuffing up some other Explorer feature?
My Maxtor external hard drive is not showing under This PC, but is under Device Manager. Updating the driver comes back as driver is up to date. Changing Bios setting between UEFI and Legacy do not make a difference. Using a different USB port does not make a difference.
I can get full access to the drive if I boot up LinuxMint from a USB stick.
Microsoft says this is a manufacturers driver problem. Acer says this is Windows problem.
I recently upgraded my PC to windows 10 and every since have been unable to access any USB external drive. The laptop picks up the drives and acknowledges that they are there and working but they do not appear in file explorer. I have looked in disk management and the drives are there and healthy. The USB ports work 100% as i have plugged in keyboards etc to test and all the drives i've tried work with other computers. I've reinstalled windows twice. Ran various disk cleanup utilities, checked for hidden drives etc.I need to upload video files to my laptop to edit for work.
This morning I tried to login to my windows machine, windows 10 pro, intel i5 3.30ghz, 12gb RAM, 2TB HD. and kept telling me password was incorrect. I then removed windows password thru other admin user, and now all external hd's except for c: drive all lecked by bitlocker. Never installed or activated it.
I have 2 internal sata drives and 2 usb drives locked. I have gone to control panel, bitlocker, and tried to unlock drives, tried to do a search for key id on pc and nothing is found. My raw files are in the backup drives.
With Win7 I used to open one external drive, then through My computer locate the other drive. I would have each drive on its own window. I could then select relevant files on one drive copy and paste into the other drive. With Win10 if I click on File explorer I can open one external drive, where can I locate the other drive to put in a separate window. If I click on the other drive, it just opens it in the same window. Win7 and previous versions used to be so simple.
Since upgrading to W10, My puter will no longer load when I have my external hard-drive attached. When I switch on my puter, I get a black screen with the message 'Non-System disk or disk error, Replace and strike any key when ready'.
When I reboot with the ext HD disconnected the reboot is fine and W10 loads no problem. If I reconnect the Ext HD while the puter is up and running, no problem, and both the computer and now attached external hard drive function perfectly.
I have tried reformatting the external hard drive but I still have the same start-up problem when the ext HD is attached on start-up.
I just put the 1511 upgrade on (for the third time, but that's another story). I've noticed that when I open File Explorer I have a WHOLE BUNCH of USB ports that have nothing plugged into them... What the upgrade did, but these weren't visible previously. How do I turn them off?
And yes, I've gone into the File explorer options in the control panel and UNCHECKED "Hide empty drives". Didn't appear to make any difference...
The volume (V:) is formatted as Fat32. Maximum Fat32 volume size is 2 TB. To regain all of the volume space, format as NTFS, or split into 2TB and 1TB Fat32 volumes.
Windows Search returning no results on one of my external harddrives. I have already:
Tried indexing the HDD and rebuilding.Non-indexing and rebuilding.Indexing only specific folders on the HDD and rebuilding.Specifically disabling indexing for this drive in the drive's properties.Checked that I have the appropriate permissions on the drive (they are identical to my other HDDs).
Crude example of my problem:
I am looking for the following file, A:Example est.txt.I am inside the A:Example folder.I search for "test", "*" or "txt".It says there are no results.
And it says "no results" instantly - it doesn't appear to even try.
I do not have a second drive with sufficient space to move the contents to do a format - so I'm looking for non-destructive solutions.
There is an icon in my tray to "Safely remove hardware and eject media". It is always there (even when no USB devices are plugged in) because Windows thinks my second internal SSD is removable.Is there a config setting or a registry edit to fix that?
Have eventually got 10 on my Toshiba Satellite R830. The problem I have is my Webcam does not work. Thought it was a driver problem but one was installed checked with Toshiba support site but no drivers for 10 showing only the one on my laptop. Spoke to Toshiba who tell me that this is all down to microsoft as they understand as microsoft were doing all of this automatically they had undertake to update all the drivers in the new installation???
Trying to contact microsoft seems to be impossible as they want an activation code but when I said I do not have one for Win 10. Was then told they would transfer me tech support and the inevitable disconnection occured. This after some 20 minutes waiting on the phone.
My PC performance with Windows 10 is very good except when it isn't
One of the things that is perplexing me is that my external hard drives seem to be impacting my startup performance. Following start up Task Manager performance tab shows one of my external drives (G) working at nearly 100% and the noisy disk drive suggests that it is working hard. The disk transfer rate also indicates movement between the PC and the drive. This is despite Drive G being used only as a storage/backup device with no automated actions configured. Yesterday Drive G became very hot as a result.
If I disconnect Drive G, my second external hard drive Drive F takes its place and task manager shows the same activity as previously shown on G. If both drives are connected F shows no activity.