WD Elements External Hard Drive

[RatRich]

My external hard drive is not recognized by my HP Pavillion 595-p0084 desktop. The HD does show up on two other computers I own... a Mac from 2013 and a brand new Lenovo A100. I have tried every USB port and tried fixes on Windows Device Manager to no avail. Any ideas?

[Kuroi_Kenshi · Accepted solution]

Hi @RatRich,

Welcome to the HP Support Community!

Thanks for reaching out!

We're thrilled to have the opportunity to assist you and provide a solution.

I understand your WD Elements external hard drive is not recognized on your HP Pavilion 595-p0084 desktop, even though it works on other computers. Let’s go through a few steps to check what could be causing this.

Power reset the desktop and hard drive
Shut down the HP desktop and unplug the power cable from the back.
Disconnect the external hard drive, wait 60 seconds, then reconnect and power everything back on.

Try a different USB cable and direct connection
Use a different USB cable if available and connect the drive directly to the desktop.
Avoid USB hubs or front-panel ports during testing.

Check Disk Management
Press Windows + X and open Disk Management.
Look for the external drive listed without a drive letter or marked as unallocated.

Assign or change the drive letter
If the drive appears in Disk Management without a letter, right-click it and assign one.
This allows Windows to recognize and access the drive properly.

Check the file system compatibility
Drives used on macOS may be formatted as APFS or HFS+, which Windows cannot read.
If the drive shows as healthy but inaccessible, this usually indicates a format mismatch.

Update USB and chipset drivers
Open Device Manager and expand Universal Serial Bus controllers.
Uninstall USB Root Hub entries, then restart the computer to reload drivers automatically.

Disable USB power management
In Device Manager, open each USB Root Hub and go to Power Management.
Uncheck “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power.”

Test with a different user profile or clean startup
Log in with another Windows user account if available.
This helps rule out software or profile-level conflicts.

I hope this helps.

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Best regards,