External hard drive does not boot: why and what to do

Try to restart

One of the most common reasons why the external hard drive does not boot is simply because the operating system has not been able to read it. When it comes to these cases, the problem does not lie in the hard disk, but in the reading of the device. To fix it, you just have to restart your computer. The most common is that, by doing so, you can already boot the external hard drive.

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Check the connections

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If you still can't get your hard drive to boot, the next step in the chain of possible reasons why it's not working is to check your connections. There are different ways to connect an external hard drive and depending on what type it is, you should check accordingly.

If it is a USB-connected external hard drive, you might want to check if the cable connecting it is fully operational. One way to check this is to try using other USB devices on the same input jack, and if these work, try connecting the hard drive with a different USB cable.

External hard drive won't boot: why and what to do - Check the connections

Find out if you have the optimal drivers

If you've already tried a restart and checked that the cable and connections are OK but it still won't boot and you also see that the LED is on, the problem may be with your drivers. It is common that, if you have just formatted your computer, your system drivers have been uninstalled. Luckily, there are many options on the Internet for you to download a specific driver for your computer and install it on your system. Once you have it on your computer, you will need to access and update the drivers so that it can read and enable the external hard drive to boot.

Make sure there isn't a problem with the splitters

If after all this the hard drive still won't boot, the next logical step is to think that there is a problem with the starters. In this case there can be two scenarios:

• If the hard drive is new: it may be that the computer does not recognize it. To do this, you have to activate it and assign it a brand-new format through the "Disk Manager" section. Where "unassigned" appears, you must make sure to enter "New simple volume" so that, in this way, your system assigns to that new device some starters that manage to boot it correctly.
• 
  If the hard drive is an old one: There may have been some problem with those working splitters. In this a case you will want to start a system check by entering "Command Prompt" or CMD and enter the code "chkdsk [drive letter:] /R"

Use data recovery software

The possible solutions to be able to boot the external hard drive are over and, at this point, one of the solutions that you can have when it comes to being able to solve the situation is to use software that allows you to recover the data that you have on the disk. In this case, you will recover all the information that has been trapped or damaged on that disk through third parties.

Send it to technical support

If you have followed all these steps and still have not been able to start your external hard drive, it is most likely that it is not a specific and external problem, but that the disk is damaged either by some environmental, technical factor or a blow. In this case, the only possible solution is to take it to the technical service, where the professional computer specialists will take care of opening it and thoroughly reviewing it, trying to recover the entire content and fixing any physical or internal problem that had been preventing the reading and booting of the hard drive. external with computer or other devices.

Now that you know the possible reasons why the external hard drive does not boot and what to do in each situation, we recommend you read this other post on How to format an external hard drive.

The external hard drive does not boot: why and what to do - Send it to technical support