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Question

Problems with external SSD and laptop

Aug 27, 2016 10:18AM PDT

So I've done just about everything to try to solve this, so here I am. I recently got an external SSD for my laptop, plugged it in and installed some programs on it. Okay, so everything worked fine. One day I put my laptop into sleep mode and turned it back on and for some reason it wouldn't detect the SSD, and the program icons were blank. Unplugged it and plugged it back in, didn't work, the light for the SSD was on though.
I also went to disk management and it wasn't there either. It wasn't the cable because I tried a different one, and that wasn't it. The SSD worked fine on another computer. I have another external HDD which also didn't work on my laptop. However, when I restart it, the SSD seems to work fine. But the icons are still blank, unless I uninstall something on there and reinstall it. I have no idea what's causing this, and could really use some help. It's getting annoying to have to deal with this, especially since I'm using it for college

Discussion is locked

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Clarification Request
Externals corrupt far more often than internals.
Aug 27, 2016 10:28AM PDT

The restart is a clue there is some issue with your laptop. It could be bios, drivers or some app.

Thinking it over, since restart works, I'm going with the external is fine. You have to ask your laptop maker to check up on BIOS and drivers.

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External seems fine
Aug 27, 2016 11:11AM PDT

Yeah, I'm sure the external is fine, since it works on other computers. The other HDD doesn't work on here either at times, so it has something weird to do with externals.

How would I even go about doing that? I got it off newegg quite a bit ago now. It's an HP Elitebook though, if that helps

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Sorry but
Aug 27, 2016 11:32AM PDT

You know the exact make and model, you can check the BIOS version and then hit the HP web page on your model.

-> There is something worth noting. Laptops often drop externals when on battery power so don't do that.

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I'll see what happens
Aug 27, 2016 11:38AM PDT

Yeah, it's plugged in when that's happening, so I'm not sure. i'll try that though and see if there's still problems

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Went to website
Aug 27, 2016 11:47AM PDT

Went to hp website and put in elitebook 8460p but it didn't have windows 10 for the os to download drivers so I'm kind of stuck now

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2 things.
Aug 27, 2016 12:31PM PDT

1. I had to boot back to an older windows to do the bios update last week. Pretty annoying but I used a clean install without entering the license key to give me 28 days to use it just for the bios update.

2. Then I was able to plug in the W10 HDD and had to try the W8 drivers on their laptop. That worked so I was done.

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Drivers
Aug 27, 2016 12:43PM PDT
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USB Driver
Aug 27, 2016 1:03PM PDT

It looks like there needs to be a USB 3.0 driver installed. Could that be what's causing the problem?

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Maybe
Aug 27, 2016 1:52PM PDT

I see the site has a scanner tool to tell you what drivers are needed.
Give it a shot and see what it has to say.

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I did but
Aug 27, 2016 7:23PM PDT

I tried to download the driver it said but it wanted to charge me, and unfortunately the HP site doesn't offer anything for my laptop for windows 10, not sure why

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Two things.
Aug 27, 2016 9:19PM PDT

1. I always try the drivers at the maker's web page.
2. If it's worth a few bucks, why not? A new laptop is so much more.

I have been testing SlimDrivers but you have to be oh so careful to not install anything besides that.