2024-04-25

hard drive not recognized

New Secondary SATA Hard Drive not Recognised

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM011 mins

I have installed a second HDD in Win7 – a WD caviar green. I couldn’t see it at all but have sorted it via diskmgmt.msc and can see it there. When I go into ‘Computer’ it’s not there. I can list the directory using command prompt and can even see it if I go into start:search and usr its drive letter (R. I can even open a word document and save it as Rnnnn and then open it again from Rnnnn. How can I get the drive letter to appear when I go into ‘Computer’? I note that in diskmgmt it is shown as ‘New Volume(R’ and I think that as it’s been intialised, formatted, etc.. it should not be classed as ‘New Volume’.

Go to diskmanagement, and report back the info you see there. In the bottom graphic section, you should have 2 HDD listed, one is Disk 0 which should be your system drive. In the Disk box to the left of the Volume strip, it should say Disk 0, System, Active, Boot, Page file, Primary Partition.

Below that should be your WD Green drive. I’m assuming it has been formatted with NTFS. In the Disk box, it should be Disk 1, Basic, Online.

In the volume section to the right, it should say “New Volume” because you haven’t given it a “Friendly Name” yet, and probably does not have a drive letter assigned to it. Right click in this area, and give it a name, like “BackUp” and then assign it a drive letter, like “K”, one that is not assigned to another drive. If it hasn’t be formatted, you can do it there from the context menu. Formatting places the NTFS file system on the drive, and will wipe out any data you have on the drive. When all done, it should read xx GB, NTFS, Healthy (Pimary Partition).
With the “Friendly Name” and drive letter assignment, it should show up in the Windows Explorer just like you system drive.

All the above has been done -the volume is ‘New Volume (R, Layout simple, Type Basic, File System NTFS, Status Healthy (Primary Active Partition)… capacity 100% free.

Not sure if that solved the problem or not. Is there anything on this new WD Green drive?

The information you list here makes me think this disk was installed as a Dynamic drive. The Layout Simple is a Dynamic Disk Configuration, and this drive should Not be an Active Partition.

Consider disconnecting this new WD HDD, and make sure your Windows 7 works properly without it. With your computer off, just unplug the power plug from the back of the drive temporarily and boot up.

If all OK, consider starting over with it. In DiskMgmt, make sure you selected the secondary drive, then delete the volume, and reformat it with NTFS. It should be a Basic Disk.

When finished give it a friendly name and a drive letter. Don’t mark it as Dynamic or Active.

Then it will show up as a NamedDrive with a DriveLetter in Windows Explorer

I have done as you suggested and started over again – with the same outcome. The Disk Management screen gives me the following :

Drive Layout Type FileSys Status
Disk 0 C : Simple Basic NTFS Healthy, Boot, Page file, Crash dump, Primary Partition
(online)

Disk 1 R : Simple Basic NTFS Healthy, Primary Partition
(online)

I can’t see any reference to ‘Dynamic’ or ‘Active’.

The R: disk is usable but just does not show up in Windows Explorer when I click onto Start : Computer.
Just to prove the point that it is installed, I did the following :

I used DOS command prompt and entered R:\>dir which returns ‘Volume in drive R is New Volume : Volume serial number is 040f- A62B : File not found. So the drive is there and recognisable.

If I click on start/computer I have the title ‘Hard Drives 1’ with just my C drive displayed (no sign of the R: drive), and this is the problem.

While still in Start/Computer, if I click on the top command line (where it says ‘computer’) and enter R: I get the contents of the new volume displayed – ‘$RECYCLE BIN’ and ‘System Volume Information’.

If I create a Word document I can save it to the R: disk (by entering ‘save as: R:nnn) and can retrieve and delete it.

It doesn’t make sense to me.

The new HDD disk status looks good and it does have an NTFS file system. It just does not have the assigned drive letter visible and no friendly name.

When you check in DiskMgmt, in the lower graphic section, does your system drive C: have just one large partition, or when you installed Win-7 did it place the 100MB (system reserved) partition first that says “system, active, primary partition”? There has to be an active partition, where the BIOS looks first for the OS.

Also, do you have a DVD or CD attached to this computer, that shows up in “Computer”, or in DiskMgmt?

In regard to the new green drive, check on two things. In the Disk status area, where it says Disk 1, right click and see if there is a choice of “change to dynamic disk, or change to basic disk” there. That should tell you if it was set up as a basic (static) disk, or a dynamic disk.

Also I wonder if it could have been set up as a mounted drive, pointing to an empty folder on the C: drive. So in DiskMgmt, click on the volume area of this drive, to the right of Disk 1, and right click for the context menu. Choose change Drive letter or path, and choose a different drive letter for it, like S. Then click on properties, and on the General Tab, give it a “friendly name” like BackUp Disk, or whatever.

See if that will cause proper identification of the drive.

I followed your suggestions. I’ve tabulated the actions, below:

1. In diskmngt the lower graphic section has –

Disk 0, C: and the drive has –
System reserved 100mb NTFS (healthy, active, Primary Partition) and
934.41gb NTFS, Healthy (boot, Page file, crash dump, Primary partition)

Disk 1, R: and the drive has –
4563.63gb NTFS, Healthy (Primary partition)

2. The DVD attached to this computer shows up in “Computer” as – C: DVD r/w drive
and in DiskMgmt as CD-ROM 0 DVD (D: ) No Media

3. In the Disk status area, where it says Disk 1 it says “convert to dynamic disk”

4. As suggested I have successfully changed the drive letter to ‘S’ and the name to ‘General Storage’

……………..AND BINGO !!!!!! I can now see the S Drive!

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Hard Drive Not Recognized

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM01 mins

I’m converting an old PC(old Gateway about 10 or 11 years old) to a network storage device. It has an IDE motherboard and will not recognize the new SATA hard drive I’m trying to install using a converter. What changes need to be made in the BIOS?

A ten to eleven year old computer will almost certainly have a limit of less than 137GIG in the BIOS and if you are unlucky it may be only 32Gig. Rather than buying a converter that may be problematic get a PCI to SATA card which costs about the same and are very cheap.

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New Hard Drive not detected by System

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM011 mins

Question: If you installed a new disk but the system can’t see it.

Ten steps to solive Hard drive not detected or recognized by system.

Step One
The easiest thing to check: did you attach a data cable to an appropriate port on the motherboard and a power cable to the power supply? The power cable is sometimes forgotten.

Step Two
Just where exactly is the system not seeing it? In the OS, in the BIOS, or “What is BIOS?”

  • If “What is BIOS,” go to step three
  • If “It’s not seen in the BIOS,” go to step four
  • If “It’s seen in BIOS but not in the OS”, go to step five

Step Three
You asked, “What is BIOS?” When you first apply power to the system, or boot, it starts running a tiny little program called BIOS (it’s an acronym, do you really care what for?) that resides on the motherboard. You will start seeing text messages, and one of the earliest will say “Press <someKey> for Setup.” <someKey> may be Esc, Del, F10, or something else; don’t ask me why it wasn’t standardized.

Anyway, press that key. The startup will continue for a while, and then it will send you to a really primitive-looking setup screen that depends on what your motherboard is, so I can’t give you an exact example here. Look in your Motherboard manual. Somewhere in it, you will find a list of hard drives. On my Asus P5P55D Delux, it looks like this:

New Hard Drive not detected by System

If you don’t know which of them is which of your drives, just count them. Are there enough to account for the new drive (if you had one before, do you see two now)?

If “It’s seen in the BIOS,” go to step five. Else, go to step four.

Step Four
“I don’t see it in the BIOS.” Well, that’s nasty. Some, very few, BIOSes require that the drive controller be enabled, or even the particular port be enabled. Look through your BIOS or your manual to see if this is the case. Dell systems are particularly obnoxious this way.

If you can’t get the BIOS to recognize it, exit this checklist and post a question, giving such information as your therboard make and model, disk make and model, and the fact that it is not detected in BIOS. Sorry.

If you do get the BIOS to recognize it, go to step five.

Step Five
“It’s seen in the BIOS.” But your OS does not see it. You do have an already running OS, don’t you? If not, well, I haven’t written that part yet.

Brand-new drives need to be partitioned and the partitions formatted. If you know how to do this, skip to step six. Otherwise, read on.

Log in to your Windows OS (yes, I’m only covering Windows) with an account with Administrator privileges and open the Control Panel. Select Administrative Tools, and from there select Computer Management. In the new window that opens up, navigate down the tree on the left to Disk Management. It should look something like this:

New Hard Drive not detected by System

See how on the bottom panel on the right there is one “stripe” for each of the hard (or solid-state) drives? Well, let’s look for your new one there. If you can’t figure out which is the new one, shut down the machine, take out the new drive, start up the machine, and open Disk Management again. Print out a copy of it. Then put the new drive back in (please, shut down first!) and re-open Disk Management. It’s the stripe that wasn’t there before.

If the new drive is not seen at all, you have a different problem. Please skip to step ten.
What you will probably see is your new drive represented as a single block of unallocated space. If not, it’s time once again to leave me and ask for more specific help. If that is what you see, because it is a brand-new disk it has to be partitioned and formatted, as I mentioned above. Here’s how you create one big partition so that all of the space on the drive shows up in one new drive letter in Windows Explorer.

** If you do these operations on the wrong disk you can erase all of the data on it. Be sure that you either have backups or have the identified the right disk. Or both. **

Right-click anywhere in the big block or Unallocated Space that represents your drive. Choose the action New Partition (or New Simple Volume in Windows 7). You want to create a Primary partition (or Simple Volume) that takes up the full amount of available space. If you are going through the Partition Wizard, at this point you will also choose to format the partition as NTFS, with the Default “Allocation Unit Size” and a Label like “New Big Disk.” Choose Quick Format if that choice is offered.

When it is through working (2 minutes to 2 hours), if you look in Windows Explorer you will now have a nice new drive letter with all of your new space. Enjoy! You are done. Leave this checklist.

Step Six
OK, you could skip all the detailed instructions on partitioning and formatting. One of two things happened. If you succeeded, you are done with this checklist. If, on the other hand, the Disk Manager did not show the new, unpartitioned drive, you have to go to the dreaded Step Ten.

Step Seven
There is no step seven. Or eight or nine, for that matter. I just used ten earlier to make sure that I had enough room.

Step Ten
On some motherboards, there is more than one controller. Some SATA ports are controlled by the Southbridge, and disks attached to them should always show up in Disk Management. There may be more that are controlled by an additional controller chip on the motherboard. As of January of 2011, that includes any SATA 3 ports.

Before the OS can see a drive attached to these ports, you have to load the driver for the controller chip. It was on the CD that came with the motherboard, or you can read your motherboard manual to find out what the controller chip is and download the most current version for whatever OS version you are using. Install that driver and reboot, and the drive will magically appear in the Disk Management pane (once you re-open that pane). You can go back to step five.

Note: This quick guide applies to internal hard drives added to an already bootable system only.

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WD External Drive Is No Longer Recognized In Windows Or Mac?

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM08 mins

How can I tell if my WD external drive is still functional even though it is not recognized in Windows or Mac?

Please note: This answer is highly recommended prior to returning the drive for a replacement.

Some of the simple troubleshooting techniques used below can be applied to external hard drives on a Mac as well as a PC.

Problem:
I was using my external hard drive for some time and now a drive letter (icon) does not appear in My Computer (Mac Desktop) and I cannot access the data on that drive.

Cause:
there could be a few reasons why the drive is not showing up in My Computer (Mac Desktop). The drive itself could have failed, the partition on the drive may be damaged, the data cable may no longer be good, or the drive may no longer be getting enough power to fully spin up.

Solution:
It’s always best to start with the most simple possible causes when troubleshooting. Follow the steps below in order to eliminate the common simple issues:

  1. If the drive is not being recognized, disconnect the power adapter from the surge protector/UPS and plug directly into the wall. Sometimes, surge protectors diminish the power being supplied as more devices are added to them.Note: If after doing this the drive does not spin up at all (you can tell by feeling for vibration on the drive), then either the drive or the power adapter has failed. You will need to replace the power adapter to proceed with the troubleshooting. If after replacing the power adapter, the drive still doesn’t spin up, then you will need to replace the drive. You will find links for data recovery and warranty replacement down below.
  2. If the drive is spinning but not recognized in My Computer (Mac Desktop), then change out the data cable with one that you know is good. Cables get old and the wires inside can break, or pull loose from the connectors.
  3. If that doesn’t work, connect the external drive to another USB port. The USB port could be malfunctioning.
  4. If your drive still isn’t being recognized, turn your PC (Mac) off, disconnect the data cable, restart the computer, and once the operating system is fully up and running, reconnect the data cable. Give it a minute or two to recognize then you will want to access Disk Management (Disk Utility) to see if the drive shows up in there. If it does show up in Disk Management (Disk Utility), then you have a corrupted or damaged partition and will need to re-partition and reformat the drive for it to be recognized on your PC (Mac). See Links and note below.

    Important: If you have data on the drive that you need, do not reformat the drive. You will need to perform data recovery on the drive, before you can proceed with reformatting the drive. With a damaged partition, there is data recovery software that may restore the data. You can research the various kinds on the internet.

  5. If the drive doesn’t show up in Disk Management (Disk Utility), then the last option you have is to connect the drive to another PC. If it works, then there’s an issue with either the hardware or drivers on the primary PC. You will then have to troubleshoot that computer and operating system. For help with the operating system, you will need to contact either Microsoft Support, or if you have a Mac then Apple. For help with the computer hardware, you will need to contact the computer manufacturer.
  6. If the external drive does not show up on another PC, then the drive has failed. You will need to go to data recovery if you need the data on the drive. If the drive is under warranty, you can then replace it with them.

Final Note: (For Windows) If the computer does detect the drive, you can test the drive to make sure that there won’t be any ongoing issues by using Windows Data Lifeguard Diagnostics. (For Mac’s): You can test the drive by running First Aid.

If the software reports any errors for the drive, please see Data Lifeguard Tools 11 Error Codes for a list of error codes and what they mean.

IMPORTANT: To avoid corrupting or losing the data on your external hard drive you should always shut down the drive correctly before you disconnect the data cable from the drive or computer, or the power connection from the drive or the wall outlet.

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