USB ports on HP Spectre do not recognize external hard drive

[dunnwithit]

Trying to plug in an external hard drive to back up my data  and also copy data but the device isn't recognized at all. I tried all 3 ports (with a usb to usb  C adapter). Ive also tried different usb devices and nothing is recognized. I also updated every driver and troubleshooted with the HP virtual assistant with no results. My warranty expired not even a month ago and I had no idea til today. I purchased this laptop because I figured it'd be a good longterm investment and I wouldn't have these kinds of issues. I have been using a wireless mouse up until today. I unplugged the mouse bit to plug in the external drive to the usb 3.0 port and nothing. Tried to reconnect the mouse and nothing. I've tried every combination of adapter and port and nothing. 

My father past recently and he left me a hard drive with 20 years of his writing and photos on it.  I'm trying to copy 3 TB of data from one drive to another so my family can have a copy. I don't have another pc to make sure the drive still works so I'm worried I won't be able to make a copy of the data. It seems this problem is a known issue but I seem to have tried everything the forums offered as solutions with no progress. 

[banhien]

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@dunnwithit wrote:

... My father past recently and he left me a hard drive with 20 years of his writing and photos on it.  I'm trying to copy 3 TB of data from one drive to another so my family can have a copy. ...

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@dunnwithit 

Please bring it to another computer (from friend, relative) to make sure your HDD is still accessible first. Please do NOT try to fix your computer, fix the drive first.

Regards.