It happens that a Toshiba external hard drive is not working in Windows, be it not showing up, not recognized, or not showing files. Given the varying situation, we will show you how to fix 'Toshiba external hard drive not working' according to your exact scenario and present you the Toshiba hard drive recovery tool to rescue your data on the storage medium.

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External hard drive not showing up or detected is just one of the many situations that indicate your Toshiba hard drive is not working. To help you fix your problematic device quickly, you should specify your situation according to the steps below before applying the fixes for 'Toshiba external hard drive not working'.

Step 1. Connect your Toshiba hard disk to your computer using the Toshiba cable.

Step 2. Go to 'This PC' > 'Manage' > 'Disk Management'.

Then you will see yourself in one of the following cases:

The Toshiba external hard drive is not showing in Disk Management or in This PC
The Toshiba hard drive is showing up in Disk Management but not in This PC
The Toshiba disk is showing up in both Disk Management and This PC but is inaccessible
The hard drive is detected but not showing any files
The Toshiba external hard drive light blinking but not working

Fixes for Toshiba External Hard Drive Not Working

When your Toshiba hard drive is not working, you may find yourself in one of the situations listed above. Identify your situation and follow to see the possible causes and the solutions to fix your Toshiba hard drive.

Workable Solutions	Step-by-step Troubleshooting
Fix 1. Toshiba Not Showing Up	Check the hard drive connection > update Toshiba driver > send for manual repair..Full steps
Fix 2. Toshiba Not in This PC	Update Toshiba driver > change driver letter..Full steps
Fix 3. Detectable But Inaccessible	If you find your Toshiba disk isn't showing any files, you can..Full steps
Fix 4. Detected But Not Showing Files	Try every USB port available; Determine you're using USB 2.0 or 3.0..Full steps
Fix 5. Light Blinking But Not Working	This is a common issue that happens to external hard drives from all the brands..Full steps

Situation 1. Toshiba External Hard Drive Is Not Showing Up in This PC and Disk Management

Possible causes: Connection issues, outdated Toshiba external hard drive driver, physical damage on the disk

Based on the possible reasons why your Toshiba external hard drive is not working, you have three methods to try:

Method 1. Check the Hard Drive Connection

There are many tips you can try to check the connection between your Toshiba external hard drive and your computer.

Connect your Toshiba external hard drive to another USB port, including the rear ones, on your computer
Use the original cable to connect your hard drive
Use another cable to connect your Toshiba hard disk
Connect your Toshiba hard drive to another computer

Method 2. Update the Toshiba External Hard Drive Driver

If the Toshiba hard drive is still not working, try to update the device driver. An outdated or corrupted hard drive driver will cause some problems while using the device. Since your hard drive is not detected by the PC, you cannot update the driver via Device Manager. Go to the official site of Toshiba, then download and install the latest driver by entering your model or the serial number of your disk.

Method 3. Send for Manual Repair

If you are sure there is physical corruption on your Toshiba external hard drive or the disk is still not working after trying the methods above, you are recommended to send the Toshiba hard drive for manual repair.

Situation 2. Toshiba External Hard Drive Is Showing Up in Disk Management But Not in This PC

Possible Causes: Toshiba external hard drive driver issues, drive letter conflicts

A Toshiba external hard drive that is not working in such a case may be caused by a problematic device driver or a drive letter conflict between your Toshiba external disk and the partition on your computer. The solutions are easy:

Method 1. Update Toshiba External Hard Drive Driver

Since your device is detectable, you can update the driver via the Device Manager.

Step 1. Connect the Toshiba external hard drive to PC, right-click on 'This PC' (in Windows 10) and choose 'Properties'.

Step 2. Click 'Device Manager' then expand “Disk drives”. Find and right-click the problematic USB drive and select 'Update driver'

Step 3. Click 'automatically search for driver software online'.

Step 4. Wait for the driver to be updated, then reboot your computer. Afterward, you can try to reconnect your USB drive to PC and check whether the USB drive shows up or not.

Method 2. Change Driver Letter

Step 1. Go to 'This PC', right-click it and choose 'Manage' > 'Disk Management'.

Step 2. Right-click the volume on your USB flash drive/external hard drive and select 'Change Drive Letter and Paths'.

Step 3. In the new window, click 'Change'.

Step 4. Assign a new drive letter to your USB and click 'OK'.

Situation 3. Toshiba External Hard Drive Is Detectable But Inaccessible

Possible causes: MBR corruption, I/O device error, file system errors..

You may see your Toshiba external hard drive state is 'Not Initialized' or 'No Media' in Disk Managemen, your disk shows RAW file system or the partition on it is lost (showing as unallocated space). All make your device inaccessible. To fix 'Toshiba external hard drive not working' in the last two situations, you can:

Method 1. Recover Data from the Toshiba External Hard Drive and Format It

If the partition on your Toshiba disk is RAW, don't worry. You can use the hard drive recovery software - EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard to recover data from the inaccessible disk and then format the device to assign a new file system to it, which will make it usable again.

To recover data from your RAW drive:

Step 1. Choose the external hard drive

Since you're going to recover data from the external hard drive, run EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard and under the External Devices tab, choose the exact drive where you lost data. Click Scan.

Step 2. Scan for lost data

The software will start immediately to scan all over the selected drive for all lost data. During the scan, you could see more and more data showing up in the results.

Step 3. Preview and recover data

After the scan is over, check the scan results for the desired data. You can preview the file by double-clicking on it. Click Recover and choose another location to save the recovered data.

To format your Toshiba disk:

Step 1. Open 'This PC', right-click your RAW drive or RAW disk and choose 'Formatted'.

Step 2. Set a file system (NTFS, FAT32, or exFAT) according to your needs and click 'Start'.

Step 3. In the Warning window, click 'OK' to start formatting your storage medium.

Method 2. Recover Data from the Toshiba Disk and Create Partition

Toshiba Stor E Slim 1tb For Mac Hard Drive

You may see your Toshiba hard drive shows up as unallocated space because the partition is lost. In such a case, you can also use the EaseUS data recovery software to recover data from your Toshiba external hard drive and then create new partitions on it to make it usable. Since the way to perform data recovery has been detailed already, here we w