Step 3: Check and Repair Hard Disk Partitions
The third step you can take is to check and repair the partitions of your Seagate external drive. A partition is a part of a hard disk that is separated to store data and the operating system. If your Seagate external drive partition is damaged, lost or unreadable, Windows will not be able to access the data on it.
To check and repair your Seagate external drive partitions, you can use Disk Management, a built-in Windows tool that lets you manage the drive partitions connected to your computer. Here are the steps you can follow:
- Press the Windows + X key on your keyboard and select Disk Management from the menu that appears.
- Find your Seagate external drive below the list of available disks. If you see it, pay attention to the status of the partition. If the partition doesn’t have a drive letter, right-click on it and select Change Drive Letter and Paths. Click Add and select the drive letter you want, then click OK. If the partition has a status of RAW, Unallocated, or Not Initialized, then the partition is damaged or lost and needs to be repaired or recreated.
- To repair damaged partitions, you can use the built-in Windows tool called chkdsk, which is a tool that can scan and repair errors on the hard disk. To use this tool, you need to go to Command Prompt, which is a built-in Windows tool that allows you to run text commands. Here are the steps you can follow:
- Press the Windows + R key on your keyboard to open the Run dialog box.
- Type cmd and press Ctrl + Shift + Enter to open Command Prompt as administrator.
- Type the following command and press Enter:
chkdsk X: /f /r
where X is the drive letter of your Seagate external hard drive partition. This command will scan and fix errors on that partition. This process can take a while, depending on the size and condition of your partition. Do not cancel this process or shut down your computer during the process.
- Once the process is complete, try connecting your Seagate external drive again and see if it has been detected by Windows.
- To recreate a lost partition, you need to delete the existing partition and create a new partition. However, keep in mind that this process will erase all existing data on your Seagate external drive, so make sure you have a backup of your data before doing so. Here are the steps you can follow:
- Open Disk Management as step 1 above.
- Right-click on the partition of your Seagate external drive and select Delete Volume. Click Yes to confirm partition deletion.
- Once the partition is deleted, you will see free space marked Unallocated. Right-click on the space and select New Simple Volume. Follow the instructions that appear to create a new partition with the size, drive letter, and file system you want. The recommended file system is NTFS, as it is compatible with Windows.
- Once the new partition is created, try connecting your Seagate external drive again and see if it has been detected by Windows.