Many Windows 10 users have reported experiencing this problem. Whenever they connect an external hard drive to a USB 3.0 port, the computer fails to read it.  Nothing happens and no new drive is displayed in the File Explorer window.

Below is the solution for external hard drive not recognized by Windows 10.

Steps to uninstall and reconnect external hard drive

1. Click the Start button on the desktop
2. Type device manager in the search box
3. Click on Device Manager that appears in the list of results
4. In the Device Manager window, click on Disk Drives
5. Click on “>” to expand the hardware list
6. Right-click the external hard drive with the issue and click Uninstall
7. After uninstalling, unplug the external hard drive from your computer
8. Wait for a minute and plug the external hard drive again into one of the USB ports
9. Windows will load new device drivers for the external hard drive
10. You should see the external hard drive in Windows Explorer

If the above step do not solve the problem, you need to reinstall USB controllers. This solution works especially when the loaded USB driver has become unstable or corrupted. Follow the steps given below to reinstall USB controllers.

Steps to Reinstall USB controllers

1. Open the Device Manager
2. Go to Universal Serial Bus Controllers in the list
3. Click on “>” to expand the list
4. Right click on a device, select Uninstall. Repeat the procedure for all devices in the list
5. Once done, restart the computer
6. Windows 10 will automatically install USB Controllers upon restart

If you are still experiencing the external hard drive issue, you need to disable USB selective setting in your computer.

Steps to disable USB selective setting

1. Click the battery icon in the task-bar of your computer
2. Beside your currently selected Power plan, look for the ‘Change Plan Settings’ link and click it
3. Select the “Change advanced power settings” option
4. Click the “+” beside USB Settings to expand options
5. Click on “+” to expand USB selective suspend settings
6. Click the link adjacent to Plugged in option
7. From the drop-down menu select disabled option
8. If you are using a laptop, click on Battery option
9. Click the drop down menu and select Disabled
10. Click Apply
11. Click OK

To be on safe side, always make a point of creating a restore point, so that you can revert to your original settings if any of the above solutions do not work for you.

If none of the solutions work and you need to download Driver Updates, you can use a reliable driver update tool.