Solutions for external hard drive not showing up in Windows 10/11 Then, you won’t be able to open it to use the files stored on it. However, it is possible that the external hard drive not showing up in Windows 10/11 File Explorer or “This PC”. In most cases, external hard drive or the second hard drive will present automatically after connected to your computer. With large capacity, external hard drive, also called portable hard drive, is always used to store or back up data. External hard drive not showing up in Windows 10/11