My computer can not detect my external hard drive

Hey! just visit this link this had helped me also and if still you face any problem tell me.

http://www.techspot.com/community/topics/what-to-do-if-your-external-hard-drive-does-not-show-in-my-computer.59682/

External hard drives not only provide additional storage space on a computer system but also allow data to be conveniently transported from one computer to another.

These drives typically plug right in to a port on the computer and function without any additional setup; however, if you are running into trouble where your external hard drive is not being detected, you must troubleshoot the situation to determine why the drive appears to be missing.

Check the USB connection running from the hard drive to your computer.

If the USB cable is not seated securely in the port, the computer will not detect the external drive.

Disconnect the USB cable from the computer and plug it into a different USB port. Occasionally, a USB port will fail to function with some hardware and changing the USB connection may correct this issue.

Switch from a USB to a Firewire cable connection, if possible.

The USB port on the hard drive may have died; if so, changing to a Firewire connection will resolve this issue.

Install the driver for the external device from the installation disc provided with the product. Older computer systems may require you to manually install this driver.

After inserting the installation CD, follow the prompts from the installation wizard to install the driver on your computer.

Restart the computer.

If you connected the external drive while the computer is powered down, it may not recognize the device when you turn on the computer.

After restarting the computer, connect the external drive to the system.

The drive should now be detected by your operating system.

Connect the external hard drive to a power source and then plug it into your PC computer using a USB or Firewire cable.

Log on to your PC computer using an account with administrative privileges.

Open the Start menu and click on the "Control Panel" icon.

Open the "Administrative Tools" folder and then double-click on the "Computer Management" icon.

Select "Disk Management" from the list of options on left side of the window.

Right-click on the drive you want your computer to recognize and select "Change Drive Letter and Paths."

Select a drive letter for the external hard drive to be recognized as and click "OK."

The drive will now appear in My Computer.

Hope this helps.

when your external drive is not being detected or does not appear in "my computer" in windows vista or windows 7. Try doing this option: just right click on my computer, click on manage, then go to disk management. Find your external drive there and right click on it, then select assign new drive letter. Select a letter from the midlle of the alphabet like m, then enter. The icon of your external drive should appear inside my computer. Or you can restart your computer and check if it is detected.

Try to use direct connection to your computer. Using IDE cable.
If your comp can detect, means your external casing problem.
If not detect, your hard disk problem

If the MAC formats the external hard drive then the desktop cannot see any files on the hard disk even though it detects the external hard drive.
If you format the external hard drive using the Desktop computer and format it in FAT32 then the MAC can read and write to this hard drive and the desktop PC can also read and write to the external hard drive.
MAC computers can read and write on PC formatted disks but not the other way around.

Check Following Instructions:
1. Check your USB cable properly connected to the computer.
2. Go to My computer - right click on property - Hardware - Devices Manager - in below - USB Mass storage device - right click on this - and Uninstall - then again right click - click on Scan - it should be reload your USB drivers
your External Hard Drive will be detected

am not so sure if this is a similar issue with iomega external drive in which the drive wont show up on My Computer but when the external drive was plugged into an ubuntu machine the drive was being detected and working just fine.

Please try to do the same. plug your external drive to an ubuntu machine and lets see if it can be detected. If it is then the hard disk has a similar issue with iomega drives. check this link.

First, try connecting the external drive to another computer. If the second computer fails to detect it, chances are that the housing or, the drive inside have failed. Determining this requires a basic knowledge of external drives. If however the drive is rckognized the the second computer, turn off the first computer and strt it up again (not restart). Then plug your external drive to a usb port directly (not to a hub) and, it should be detected.

Does the drive have a socket for external power?  or do you have a USB cable with 2 usb and 1 mini usb?
Sounds like it needs external power.

I cannot get my computer to detect my external hard drive. It worked fine before? Now i get this clicking sound.Please help.