This may or may not help, but it worked for me! After about 4 hours of trying everything (Device Manager/Uninstall, Disk Management, etc..) nothing at all would work. The USB external hard drive would power up but when you plug it in, the New Found
Hardware will pop up and search unsuccessfully for drivers for a PLUG AND PLAY external drive!?!?!
In any event, I simply plugged another USB drive into my
laptop (and
desktop) and viola! The new hard drive was recognized and installed immediately as 'plug and play' should do. I then unplugged the new drive and tried plugging in the one that was recognized and all of the sudden....IT WORKS AGAIN!!!!
This fix might not help anyone who doesn't have a second USB external drive, but you could try plugging another USB device in and get it to load and then unplug it and try your drive. It worked for me on my laptop and then I did the same thing to my desktop (which also wouldn't recognize it) and it worked on the desktop too! Problem solved for me, thank GOD!
Hopefully, this bypass can save you a few hours of google time and unwanted anguish. Like I said, you may not have another USB drive but try plugging in any other USB device until it loads and then unplug it and then plug in your USB drive that wasn't working. It worked perfectly for me.
Hope it helps!!!!
-BIRDMAN - BIRD ^v^
I've similar issue -- red light is on but not recognized by any computers. Please help.
×