Thank you Pib. I am running the system scan right now.... very slow.

I will post update when it is finished.

If it's the first time you run sfc /scannow, and depending on the speed of your computer it could take some time to run it.   After the first time it goes faster on subsequent runs.   On my i7 and i5 CPU-based laptops it took about 30 minutes to run the first time if I remember right...follow-on runs were much faster.

 

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/929833/use-the-system-file-checker-tool-to-repair-missing-or-corrupted-system-files

Another thing that would help is if you could clear the Windows System Log, Plug the device in, wait a minute or so, then look in the log again to see what errors it may have generated.

 

Then post each Error description/Event ID/Source here.

 

 

The system scan message:

"Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them."

 

I will clear the log and run scan again when i get home this afternoon.... and update results here. Thanks all for your interest...

 

 

Since you can't get Disk Management to run (just gives you a blank screen), having the external disk problem, and now the SFC scan found some corrupt files, you have a bigger Windows .iissue   

 

However, but, sometime SFC will report the message above when everything is working fine because some programs you have installed have just replaced certain key operating files with a version that specific to that software and Windows still likes just fine, except the SFC command will flag the different files as corrupt files.

 

Two times with Windows 10 I have got the message you got when running SFC.   First time was when initially upgrading to Win 10 and when using Outlook ongoing mail stopped leaving my outbox.  Write an email, hit send, and it can't get out of the outbox.   After a day or so of researching this problem without finding a fix, I started a chat session with MS support...told them my problem.  The took control of my computer and the first thing they did was run SFC.  It found some corrupt files, was able to fix them, and Outlook started working 100%....emails would now leave the outbox.

 

After that I started doing SFC on my computers about once a month.  Later on one computer started getting the SFC message you got, but was still working fine the best I could figure....or I just hadn't experienced the specific problem the corrupt files would cause.  However, I used the DISM process which replaces corrupt files....this fixed my problem that time...been fine since.   I used DISM Option 1 as shown at below website.

 

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/7808-dism-repair-windows-10-image.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For all suggestions and replies so far in this topic .... thank you.

 

Here is how it stands at the moment.... I have put the problem in the hands of a good computer repair shop techie who found that the external drive has intermittent problems... sometime good and sometimes off... plus the laptop has some minor corrupt issue in the windows 10 system...

 

This guy is processing the corrupt external drive with his own software, to see if any files can be saved. This will take a few days.... and I am hopeful to see positive results.

 

And the corrupt files in Windows 10 system? He said this is a conflict with some older software programs since I upgraded from 8.1 to Windows 10.  Which we can deal with later.

 

Lets see... we can only hope for the best. I will update this topic in a few days,,, if any TV members are still interested... and again thank you to all who have posted their great ideas and suggestions....

Just to add i have the same problem. I have a 2TB WD external hard drive which works fine on my laptop with Windows 7. I bought a new laptop with Windows 10 and it doesn't recognize the external drive plugged into a USB. I can still use my old laptop but it's a nuisance if W10 can not access external hard drives.

1 hour ago, Henryford said:

Just to add i have the same problem. I have a 2TB WD external hard drive which works fine on my laptop with Windows 7. I bought a new laptop with Windows 10 and it doesn't recognize the external drive plugged into a USB. I can still use my old laptop but it's a nuisance if W10 can not access external hard drives.

For reference I've never had any problem access external drives in Win 10 and I'm using the Insider Preview.