I really screwed up this time. Trying to restore a backup image, I managed to erase everything on my external HD. Windows 10 shows the external HD in disk MANAGEMENT but apparently it is hidden. I was able to assign a new DRIVE letter but I am asked to enter a drive path and I do not have a clue how to do this. If I try to open the external HD I GET a MESSAGE saying the drive is not ready.

Will someone please help me? I am in way over my head. Thanks.Why do you say it's hidden??

Assuming there is nothing on the drive (or nothing you are trying to recover), in Disk Management right-click on the drive and format it. I'm guessing that will solve the problem. Make sure you select the correct drive to format.I can not open the hard drive. I get a message saying location is not available, device is not ready.

When I go into diskpart, Disk 1 shows online but volume 3 (active volume on disk 1) shows OFFLINE and would not let me put it on line. I can not format it because it is offline.

This external drive used to be the internal drive on my old PC. It has an active partition which is what I have been using and a small recovery partition which can not be formatted.