PC Won't Recognise External Drives

[dani72]

I received my new PC yesterday and all is working fine except for one thing.

I have two external hard drives:

Netac ZSLIM 250GB USB 3.2 Gen 2 External Solid State Drive
Samsung T7 Touch 2TB Portable SSD Hard Drive

When I plug either of them into any of the USB ports (front & back) they are not recognised by Windows and I can't access them. The Samsung drive lights up at first and then goes dark.

Does anyone have any idea why this would be happening? Also how do I know which ports on the front are USB 3.2 Gen 2 and which ones are Gen 1?

My original spec is:

Case
CORSAIR OBSIDIAN SERIES™ 500D SE CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12 Core CPU (3.7GHz-4.8GHz/70MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® CROSSHAIR VIII HERO WIFI (DDR4, PCIe 4.0, CrossFireX/SLI) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
64GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (4 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
12GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060 - HDMI, DP
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
1st Storage Drive
250GB Samsung 870 EVO 2.5" SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (up to 560MB/sR | 530MB/sW)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 7000MB/R, 5000MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H115i ELITE CAPELLIX RGB Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
2 - 3 DAY DELIVERY TO REPUBLIC OF IRELAND
Build Time
Standard Build - Subject to stock availability on pre-order products
Welcome Book
PCSpecialist Welcome Book - United Kingdom & Republic of Ireland
Logo Branding
PCSpecialist Logo

 

[dani72]

I have an older WD Elements hard drive that I used for backups which was recognised by Windows so I don't know if it's to do with the fact that they are SSD's.

 

[ubuysa]

Are these USB powered drives or mains powered drives (I guess the former since they're SSDs)?
Do you hear the Windows 'device connected' sound?
How are the SSDs formatted (NTFS or exFAT)?

 

[dani72]

Are these USB powered drives or mains powered drives (I guess the former since they're SSDs)?
Do you hear the Windows 'device connected' sound?
How are the SSDs formatted (NTFS or exFAT)?

Both drives are USB powered and formatted as exFAT. They both connect perfectly fine to my Dell laptop but for some reason are not recognised by my new PC. Other USB devices such as a Logitech wireless adapter and WD Elements drive are recognised.

 

[ubuysa]

Both drives are USB powered and formatted as exFAT. They both connect perfectly fine to my Dell laptop but for some reason are not recognised by my new PC. Other USB devices such as a Logitech wireless adapter and WD Elements drive are recognised.

Do you hear the 'device connected' sound when you plug them in?

 

[dani72]

Do you hear the 'device connected' sound when you plug them in?

For the Netac drive I did initially but when I unplugged it and plugged it back in there was no sound. The Samsung drive never made any sound.

 

[Martinr36]

can you post a picture of device manager, specifically the USB controller section

 

[dani72]

can you post a picture of device manager, specifically the USB controller section

I'm not at the PC now but when I'm on it tomorrow I'll do that.

 

[dani72]

When I turned on my PC this morning it suddenly started recognising the external drives I mentioned.

My other question still remains. How do I know what speed a USB port is? I read somewhere that the blue ports are USB 3.0 and the red ones are USB 3.2 but the three front ports have no colour. I am backing up many GB of files and I want to use the fastest port since both drives above support USB 3.2 Gen 2.