Aggravated.. External HDD not detected.

[Legna]

Hello. So, I have this 2 TB HDD and up until about a week ago Windows 10 stopped detecting it. I connected it to my laptop also running Windows 10 and reformatted it to FAT32. Was that the ring thing to do or should I have formatted it to NTSF? Windows 10 (this computer) still can't detect the HDD. So, here are my questions:

1) For a 2 TB HDD, should I format it with FAT32, NTSF, or exFAT?

2) I went online and installed the USB drivers for my Seagate 2 TB HDD but Windows 10 still won't detect it. What could be the cause?

3) Is there software that can detect and format undetectable external HDDs?

 

[Legna]

Figured it out. All this time, all I had to do was format the HDD in Disk Management. Wow... Now I feel like an idiot.

 

[ussnorway]

I feel like an idiot

been there, done that... know how you feel

 

[trstick1]

NTFS format is best for external hard drives. FAT32 can't handle partitions larger than 32GB.

Sent from my GT-P5210 using Tapatalk

 

[BIGBEARJEDI]

@trstick1: Correct!! Also, might mention that for W10, for HDDs larger than 2GB, GPT format is recommended in order to use the entire drive as one logical partition. For HDDs 2GB and smaller, MBR format and NTFS combo works best for W10 machines.

<<<BIGBEARJEDI>>>

 

[Legna]

Ok. Got it. Thanks people.

 

[northangrywolf]

I also suggest NTSF. Format FAT32 is no more than 32GB. Not an advertisement. EaseUS Partition Master may help you. and there is a Free version in the official website. It supports 8TB free partition and of course the external HDDs. You can try it. Just google EaseUS, you can find the web.
Good luck.