February preview update broke external hdd

Hey there SpauldingX!

Sorry to hear about the issue. Since you are participating in the Preview Program, you will need to make a post in the Preview Forums. This way the proper folks can address the
issue. Thanks in advance!

What are you using the external HDD for (Games & Apps or External Captures)? Are you in the Dashboard Preview program?

If External Captures and yes to Dashboard Preview then please use the report feature of the Xbox Insider app to let them know about your issue. My console is in Preview Alpha and I noticed that the last update seems to have affected how it sees my External
Capture HDD.

If your console isn't in Dashboard Preview then try connecting your HDD to a computer to see if it's recognized there. It may be a coincidence however unfortunately HDD'S do die eventually.

Just had this problem with my new Seagate Expansion drive, problem turned out to be the USB 3.0 cable included with the drive, it was not connecting at USB 3.0 speeds, triggering the error message you are seeing. Purchase a high quality USB 3.0 A to micro-b
cable online or from a computer store, may not solve the issue for everyone but it's not a very expensive step to try if no other suggestion is working.

Nevermind. I just kept repeating everyting (rebooting, unplugging, replugging, rebooting) until it finally worked. As long as it continues to work, I don't care what the problem was.

IF you had a similar problem to the one I just posted. I changed the USB 3.0 cable with another one. It works better not perfect but I can at lest move data around.