it was working fine before i shut down my laptop to go out.

now though it doesn’t recognize that i even have it connected ❓

haven’t done anything different,so why is this happening,and how can i fix it?

when i unplug and plug it back into usb 3.0 port,the hdd does start (blue light flashes e.t.c) and the laptop detects a usb device,but then nothing (no sign of it at all on this pc page win 8.1.

thanks 🙂

Have you tried switching it off and back on again?

yes,i have restarted it twice now,but no banana 🙁

Not sure how it works on a PC, but one of the first things I was told to check on Macs is in Preferences, where one that controls connection between devices has got corrupted, and needs to be repaired.
There may be something similar causing this, possibly?

try a different port? im sure there is a better fix than that but my laptop will now only recognise my external hdd on one of the three usb ports

Try it on a different PC if you can. Different USB port can sometimes work too.

Does it appear in device manager? How about in Computer Management?

May I let out a whistful sigh of “MS Windows….”?

Please.

Sorry, can’t be of any further help, although this happened to me once and I ended up taking the external HD to someone who could transfer the data to a memory stick for me. It was about £40 including a lots Gb stick.

Windows causes hardware to fail. Trufax.