My portable hard drive, which works on my desktop computer, does not work on my Windows 11 laptop. There is an exclamation mark in the driver section of the device manager, and I cannot fix the problem, even though the driver is up to date.
That suggests some problem with the disk in Windows 11, try windows update
You may need a new basic USB enclosure
It happens when the laptop is not giving the drive enough stable power or the USB controller is acting finicky. Try plugging the drive into a different USB port on your laptop preferably a USB A 3.0 port on the opposite side. If you are using a USB hub remove it. Also go into Device Manager expand Universal Serial Bus controllers and uninstall the USB Mass Storage Device entry that shows the warning. Restart the laptop and let Windows reinstall it.
My laptops from my 8th gen onward all have lots of power on the USB ports for 2.5” hard disks. I have many USB-C enclosures and using a USB-C to USB-A cable works fine too. USB 3.0 and above increased the power to handle USB attached hard disks.
Enclosures have been flakey which is why I get new ones all the time.
