The drive is not showing up on my computer. Windows does not see the second hard drive. Drive not showing up in Windows

If after reinstalling windows 7 or 8.1, and after upgrading to Windows 10, your computer does not see second hard disk or the second logical partition on the disk (disk D, conditionally), in this manual you will find two simple solutions problem, as well as a video guide on how to fix it. Also, the described methods should help if you installed a second hard drive or SSD, it is visible in BIOS (UEFI), but not visible in Windows Explorer.

In the event that the second hard drive is not shown in the BIOS, but this happened after any actions inside the computer or simply after installing the second hard drive, then I recommend first of all to check if everything is connected correctly:.

Below is a small video guide, where all the steps to add a second disk to the system (turn it on in Explorer), described above, are shown clearly and with some additional explanations.

Make the second disk visible using the command line

Attention: the following way to fix the situation with the missing second disk is using command line is given for informational purposes only. If the above methods did not help you, and at the same time you do not understand the essence of the commands below, it is better not to use them.

I also note that these actions without changes are applicable for basic (not dynamic or RAID drives) without extended sections.

Run the command prompt as an administrator, then enter the following commands in order:

  1. diskpart
  2. list disk

Remember the number of the disk that is not visible, or the number of that disk (hereinafter referred to as N), the partition on which is not displayed in Explorer. Enter command select disk N and press Enter.

In the first case, when the second is not visible physical disk, use the following commands (attention: the data will be deleted. If the disk is no longer displayed, but there was data on it, do not do the described, it may be enough just to assign a drive letter or use programs to recover lost partitions):

  1. clean(Erases the disk. Data will be lost.)
  2. create partition primary(here you can also set the size=S parameter, specifying the size of the partition in megabytes, if you want to make several partitions).
  3. format fs=ntfs quick
  4. assign letter=D(we assign the letter D).
  5. exit

In the second case (there is an unallocated area on one hard disk that is not visible in Explorer), we use all the same commands, with the exception of clean (disk cleanup), as a result, the partition creation operation will be performed exactly on the unallocated location of the selected physical disk.

Note: in the methods using the command line, I described only two basic, most likely options, but others are possible, so do the described only if you understand and are confident in your actions, and also take care of data safety. You can read more about working with partitions using Diskpart at official page Microsoft

Do not throw out the HDD ahead of time. This problem can occur for various reasons. For example, due to outdated driver or wrong setting volumes. Such errors are easy to fix.

If you are sure that the drive is working properly and it is not a hardware failure, try the following:

  • Connect the hard drive to another USB port.
  • Sometimes the conductor "does not see" HDD due to malware. Check if the media contains viruses. But how to do it, because the device is not displayed? Connect it to another computer (for example, at a friend's or at work).
  • Format your hard drive. If it contains important data, first copy it to another location.

Driver

If it didn’t work, and the explorer still “does not see” the hard drive, it may be a driver problem. See if a new device is detected when connected. The system must install the appropriate software for it. You can also do it manually.


Did not help? Try to find the program yourself.

Driver Search


You can use utilities to auto-search for drivers. For example, "Driver Booster" or " Driver Updater". They determine the type of equipment, look for software for it, download and install it. And there is no risk that the wrong or faulty program will be installed.

Disk Management

All the drivers are in place and the devices are connected correctly, but the external hard drive is "not visible" in the explorer? It may not have been assigned a volume label. Or it coincides with the existing one. This is the Latin "letter", which is needed for identification in the file system. The hard drive must have a name. For example, there is " local disk C", system reserved. Directories in it have their addresses (C:\Any_folder).

To label a drive:


Other utilities

  1. Download the "Automatically Diagnose USB Problems" utility from support.microsoft.com. To do this, enter its name in the search bar.
  2. Run this program.
  3. In the window that opens, click "Next".
  4. The service will offer to remove the device being checked. Check it and click on "Next" again.
  5. The utility will display a list of errors related to USB devices. She will correct some of them. If you see what the problem is, it is easier to solve it.

USBOblivion

After windows updates there may be entries in the registry that refer to previous drive connections. Because of this "extra" data, the system cannot receive up-to-date information about Winchester. This is where the USBOblivion program comes in handy. It's free.

  1. Find it online, download and run.
  2. Check the "Perform cleanup" and "Save undo file" options.
  3. Pull out all USB devices.
  4. In the utility, click on the "Clean" button.
  5. Restart your PC.
  6. Connect all gadgets.

If the hard drive does not appear in Explorer, it does not mean that it is broken. Update the drivers and assign a volume label to the hard drive. Or download the USB Troubleshooter.

The situation when hard drive not showing up in windows occurs quite frequently. The fact is that sooner or later a computer device needs to be replaced with components, and the hard drive is the most popular “contender” for replacement. It may happen that after replacing the hard drive, the computer will not display it. In order for the system to recognize the disk, you should use one of the following methods.

The computer does not see the hard drive: disk check

If computer does not see hard drive, first try to solve this issue with standard Windows tools. Do the following:

1) Right-click on the "Computer" icon (or on the same name in the "Start" menu).

2) In the window that appears, select the "Management" section, then - "Disk Management".

3) Wait a few seconds for the information to load, then right-click on the drive that is not displayed in the system and select "Change drive letter ...".

4) Click on "Change", set the HDD letter and save the changes by clicking on "OK".

If you do not like the selected letter, you can repeat the above manipulations and change the letter to the original one. Very often, such a procedure is enough for the operating system to recognize the hard drive.

Checking the system unit

If the PC still does not see the drive, check if all the wires to this drive are connected. To do this, turn off the computer, remove the cover of the system unit and carefully examine the wires connected to the hard drive one by one. To be sure, try unplugging them and plugging them back in. Now turn on your computer.

Driver problems

It is possible that the problem is with the drivers. To troubleshoot, go to your motherboard manufacturer's website and download the most appropriate motherboard for your motherboard model. latest versions drivers. In the appropriate section of the site, select the board model, after which the system will select the optimal driver for it.

if you have installation disk with the appropriate drivers from your computer (it comes with your PC), then you don't need to download anything: just insert the disc into the drive and install the drivers.

"Operating System not found" message

There is also a strange situation where the computer does not see, where the operating system itself is recorded. If this happens, the computer will not boot, but an error message will appear on a black screen: "Operating System not found" (i.e. " Operating system not found").

To solve this problem, first check if there are any media in the drive, USB ports, floppy. If they are not there, make sure that the hard drive is connected correctly and that Windows is written on it. Next, do this:

1) Enter the BIOS by pressing the "DEL" key when turning on the computer and loading the operating system (for different models of laptops and computers, there are hot combinations that can be found on the Internet or in the instructions for the computer).

2) Find the menu that has the word "Boot" in its name.

3) Go to this item and in the line "1st boot device» select the hard drive if the CD drive is marked there.

You can also press F12 when booting the PC and select either CD ROM or DVD ROM from the menu that appears. Then the BIOS does not need to be changed.

BIOS settings

If still Windows does not show hard drive, try another way - reset BIOS settings to the default state. To do this, go to the BIOS and select LOAD SETUP DEFAULTS or LOAD FAIL-SAFE DEFAULTS. Then press F10 to save the setting and confirm saving by selecting YES and pressing ENTER. If the settings cannot be restored, use the battery on the motherboard for this purpose: turn off the computer, remove the cover of the system unit, remove the battery and put it back in about five minutes. Turn on your computer. By the way, check at the same time if the battery is dead.

If after that the problem is not solved, look in the BIOS for a parameter called Marvell IDE Controller. You will find it in the section whose name contains the words "SATA", "IDE", "Device Type". Set to Enabled if otherwise set.

Disk formatting

If nevertheless Windows does not see the hard drive, format it. However, there is one peculiarity: you need to format it not from the operating system (it does not see the disk, after all), but through special programs downloaded from under BIOS.

The most popular such program is Acronis Disk Director. To boot from the BIOS, download the product marked BOOT. Then burn the image to a CD (DVD), go into the program and find an unrecognized disk. If the hard drive is identified, format it, after rewriting the data on the disk to another medium.

By the way, this program can save you not only in a situation where the system does not display the hard drive, but also when a virus enters the system and prevents it from entering. If the OS is infected, go to it through the Acronis utility, download the necessary data and install a new OS.

Service center

If all of the above did not help you, then you have only one solution left - take the disk to service center. But before that, it is advisable to make sure that it works. To do this, remove the disk and try to run it on any other computer. Then you will be able to navigate: buy another drive or pay for the repair of an existing one. Good luck with iron!

From time to time, a computer or laptop needs replacement of components and probably the most common component is a hard drive. Today our conversation will be about why the computer does not see the hard drive. A fairly common problem, but there is a solution, and besides, there is more than one.

As usual, I will tell you about several ways to make the system recognize the disk, you choose the one that, in your opinion, is the most convenient and fastest.

By the way, if your computer does not see external hard disk, then this article is also relevant for you.

Check disk

First, let's look at solving the problem with standard Windows 7 tools. Click right click mouse on the "Computer" icon, or on the inscription of the same name in the "Start" menu, if there is no icon on the desktop. In the pop-up menu, we are interested in the item "Management", then "Disk Management".

Here we wait a couple of seconds while the information is loaded. We right-click on the drive that is not displayed in the system and select "Change drive letter or drive path ...".

To change the letter, click the Change button. Give this hard drive a drive letter and click OK.

Then, if you don't like the new letter, you can follow the same procedure by changing the letter back. Often just these manipulations are not enough for Windows to see the hard drive.

Above in the images I showed how to do this in Windows 7, if you have a different system, then read more in: "".

If this hard drive had a file Linux system, then in Disk Management you will see that the file system is neither NTFS nor FAT32. Then you can safely understand that the problem is not with hard drive, but Windows simply does not see this file system. To change this situation, you need the hard drive to be in NTFS.

Check in the system unit

If the computer does not see the hard drive so far, then before continuing, let's see if all the cables are connected to this hard drive. Do not skip this point, of course it is easier to sit on a chair and press the keys, but sometimes a little physical intervention in the system unit is required.

By skipping this recommendation and continuing to read the article further, you may not achieve what you need. To do this, you need to turn off the computer and then remove the cover system block. Next, check the wires that are connected to the hard drive. For greater certainty, disconnect the wires from it and connect it again. Now you can turn on the computer.

It should also be noted that the solution to this problem may be to replace the cable or power supply that is connected to the hard drive. If there is no cable in the stash through which data is transmitted, then you can disconnect it for the duration of the check, for example, from the drive.

Problem with drivers

It is possible that you have some kind of driver problem. To fix them, you need to go to the manufacturer's website, and we are specifically interested in the manufacturer of the motherboard. Download the most fresh versions drivers for your board model (I will not dwell on this in detail, any such site has a section in which the model of the board of interest is selected and the most suitable driver is selected).

If you bought a computer in an assembly, then a computer model must be written on the computer, then go to the office. site, indicate what computer and system you have. After that, a list of drivers will appear, where you find correct driver. Now, after installing the drivers, reboot.

By the way, if you still have the installation disk with the drivers from the computer that came with the purchase, great! We insert it into the drive and install them.

Operating System not found error and BIOS setup

There is also a stupid situation when the computer does not see the hard drive on which, in fact, the system is recorded. In this case, the computer will not boot, but the following message will appear on a black background: “Operating System not found” (translated as “The operating system was not found”).

First, check the presence of media in the drive, USB ports, as well as floppy. If they are not there, you should be 100% sure that the disk is connected correctly and, of course, Windows is written on it (well, at least some). We go into the BIOS in the above way, but this time we are looking for a menu in the name of which there is the word Boot (believe me, whichever BIOS version was not, it is definitely there or may be called a little differently). We go there and in the line "1st Boot Device" we install the hard drive, and not the CD drive, which can be selected there.

You can also try pressing the F12 button during boot, a menu may appear where you select CD ROM or DVD ROM. Thus, you do not need to make any changes to the BIOS.

You can also try resetting the BIOS settings to default. You also use the BIOS for this. If you cannot reset the settings, then use the battery for this motherboard. To do this, turn off the computer, open the system unit cover and remove the battery for 5 minutes. Then replace the battery and turn on the computer. Also, do not forget that the cause of this problem may be a dead battery, and if so, then you need to replace it.

If nothing has changed, again in the BIOS we are looking for the Marvell IDE Controller parameter. It can be located in a section whose name contains the words IDE, SATA, Device Type. We set the Enabled value, in the case when there is something else.

Formatting

If Windows does not see the hard drive, then formatting is the way out of this situation. But there is one caveat, it is necessary to format not from the system itself (since it does not see it), but through special programs, which are loaded from under the BIOS-a.

One of the most popular programs, which I often use to work with hard drives, is software Acronis Disk Manager. To boot from Bios, you must download the program marked BOOT. Next, burn the image to CD or DVD disc, go into the program and look for a disk that is not detected. If the disk is defined, then try to format it. If you need the data that is recorded on it, then try copying it to another medium.

Sometimes, this program saves me not only in this situation, but also in others, for example, if the system is infected and there is no way to enter it. To solve this problem, I go through this program and download the necessary data. Then I install a new system.

Have you started reading this paragraph? I sincerely sympathize with you, because apparently nothing helped you. So we take the hard drive out of the computer and try to run it on another computer, if this is not possible, we take it to the service center so that it can be checked for performance there. In any of these options, you will understand whether you buy a new one or pay for repairs. But whatever happens there, I sincerely wish you good luck with your hardware.

Hello, dear site visitors!

It so happened that I needed to format it. Just this hard drive from a laptop and when I gave the laptop to warranty repair, then instead of the SSD drive, I installed the HDD back. Yesterday I took a laptop from repair and installed the hard drive back in my pocket.

I connected it to the computer on which the information was stored in order to upload it to an external HDD, but it is not detected. Rather, it is determined, Windows signals that the device is connected, an icon appears on the notification panel that is connected USB device And even there is an opportunity to extract it.

In the device manager, the external HDD is also displayed and works properly. But the whole problem is that the drive is not displayed in Windows Explorer. You go to my computer, but it's not there.

I connected this external hard drive to the laptop, everything is the same. It is defined, but it is not visible in the explorer. Yep, it's the disk itself.

I thought a little, then googled and realized that the disk is simply not distributed and it is necessary to create a partition on it. We will create a standard Windows tool for working with hard drives, which I wrote about.

This could have ended the article, but I took a few screenshots, so I'll show and tell everything on real example and how you like ˜– with pictures :).

We need to open the disk management tool. To do this, open Start and right click on A computer. Select Control.

Select an item on the left Disk Management. And this is the picture I saw (screenshot below). Disk 0- This is my SSD drive, there are sections created. BUT Disc 1, this is already my external hard drive, which was not displayed in the explorer. On it is written not allocated. Let's share it now :)

Right click on it and select Create a simple volume...

We need to specify a size for the partition we are creating. If you want to create one section, then you can not change anything, just click Further. The Simple Volume Size field already contains the maximum size for the partition we are creating.

In the next window, you need to assign a drive letter. I advise you to just click next and do not change anything.

Volume formatting. I advise you to leave everything as it is. You can change the volume label (this is its name). Click Further.

After that, everything worked for me. Perhaps you have noticed (in the screenshot above), there already appeared a folder of the explorer on the tasks sang. This offer is open contents of the hard disk in explorer.

And here is the HDD itself in My computer.

That's all. All the best!