The hard drive does not appear in Windows, Disk Management, or the BIOS. A hard disk may be unable to be removed in Windows or recognized by BIOS. You might run into such an issue. To resolve the problem, look at the solutions in this tutorial.
What Is the Cause Of The “Hard Drive Not Showing Up In Disk Management” Windows 10?
There are several reasons why Windows or BIOS are unable to identify your hard disk.
- The Capacity Of The Hard Drive Is Unallocated
It will not show in Explorer if a hard disk has no partitions and all disk space is unallocated.
- A Drive Letter Is Not Assigned To A Hard disk
In File Explorer, a partition without a drive letter is not shown. If this is the case, assigning a drive letter will solve the disk not appearing problem.
- There Is A Problem With The Connection
The storage device is not connected correctly to the computer and is not recognized. Something could be wrong with the power supply, cable, or USB port, for example.
- In The Bios And Device Manager, The disk Is Disabled
The failure of a new hard drive detected by the system BIOS could be due to the disk not being activated.
- The Hard Disk Has Not Been Properly Initialized
If a disk is listed as “Unknown, Not Initialized” in Disk Management, it will not appear in the system.
- Sectors With A Bad Reputation
A faulty sector on a hard drive will not respond to read or write requests. The system will not identify a disk with too many damaged sectors.
- The Disk Driver Is No Longer Supported
Your computer is unable to recognize the attached hard drive. There’s a chance the disk’s driver is out of date or incompatible with your operating system.
- Damage To The Body
Hard drives involve moving actual moving components. They are more sensitive to damage than SSDs. If one of its heads is damaged, it can no longer be accessed.
How Do I Make Windows 10 To Recognize My Hard Drive?
When you right-click “This PC,” you can see that the Windows 10 hard disk isn’t visible. Choosing “Manage.” Find the hard disk missing or showing up as not initialized and unallocated space in “Disk Management.” If you don’t see your hard disk listed below, it’s not showing up in File Explorer.
The disk space is unallocated, or the device state is unknown or not initialized. To initialize the disk, follow these steps:
- To access the Run box, press the Windows logo key and R on the keyboard. Then, in the Run box, type “diskmgmt.msc” and press the OK button.
- Two hints will help you find the hard drive in question. On the left, the disk is labeled “Unknown” and “Not initialized.” It means that the disk has not been formatted or a volume has not been created. Check to see if the disk size matches the capacity of the attached drive.
- Right-click the disk name and choose “Initialize Disk” from the menu.
- Click the OK button after selecting the partition style for the disk you want to initialize.
- Right-click the disk once more and choose “New Simple Volume.” To generate a new partition and format the disk, follow the onscreen instructions.
Attempt To Build Partitions:
- Choose “Manage” then “Disk Management” from the menu when you right-click “This PC.”
- Choose “New Simple Volume” from the context menu when you right-click the unallocated space.
- To proceed, click “Next” in the New Simple Volume Wizard.
- To set the volume size, assign a drive letter to the volume, format the partition, use the wizard.
How To Fix “Wd External,” “Secondary Hard Drive,” And “New External Hard Drive” Not Showing Up In Disk Management?
- Change The Assigned Letter
- Format The Drive
- Data Recovery From The Unallocated Space
- Update HDD Drive Drivers
- Check HDD Is Showing Up Inside Your BIOS
- Delete All ATA Channel Drivers
- Use AOMEI
- Delete The Storage Space Using The HDD
- Importing The Foreign Disk From Disk Management
- Run Windows Hardware And Devices Troubleshooter
1. Change The Assigned Letter
The partition will not be visible in Windows without a drive letter. The hard drive that does not appear in Windows yet is attached to your machine correctly.
If you can still view the Hard Drive in File Explorer, check if it has a drive letter.
- Launch Disk Management (Right-click on start and select disk management). Right-click the partition that doesn’t have a drive letter.
- From the given menu, choose “Change Drive Letter and Paths.”
- On the “Change Drive Letter and Paths” dialogue box, click the “Add” button.
- Choose a letter from the list and click “Assign the following drive letter.” The drive letter (alphabet) will be assigned to the partition once you click OK.
2. Format The Drive
Even if the drive appears to be partitioned, you are unable to access it. It’s likely using a different file system.
- Disk Management is a program that lets you manage your hard drive.
- Select the drive, then right-click and choose “Format” from the menu.
- Choose FAT32 as your formatting option.
- You can choose your drive label, and you can uncheck the “Perform a fast format” option if you like.
- All data on your hard drive will be erased if you reformat it.
3. Data Recovery From The Unallocated Space
In Disk Management, right-click on your C: drive and select Extend Volume. You should be able to move through the panels by just clicking Next. Because it is your system OS partition, Disk Management will not allow you to do so. You can solve this by downloading and installing one of the many applications available.
- You’ll need to build a new partition after you’ve recovered your files.
- Right-click the unallocated space in “Disk Management.” Now, Choose “New Simple Volume.”
- To complete the process, simply follow the wizard’s instructions. If this doesn’t work, make sure your drivers are up to date.
- If you don’t keep your drivers up to date, they might cause severe problems with your computer.
4. Update HDD Drive Drivers
- Select Device Manager from the context menu when you right-click Start.
- Expand categories in Device Manager to discover the HDD that isn’t showing up in BIOS.
- Choose Update Driver when you right-click on the HDD.
- You can uninstall the HDD by right-clicking on it. The computer will reinstall the most recent drivers for your hard drive on its own.
- Windows is unable to locate a new driver for your hard disk. You can look for one on the website of the device’s maker.
- To keep all of your modifications, restart your computer.
5. Check HDD Is Showing Up Inside Your BIOS
A large number of users have been able to resolve the problem. The majority of them are dealing with a hardware problem. The SATA cable joining your new HDD to your motherboard may be somewhat damaged. It might not meet your operating system’s requirements. The Disk Management Utility in Windows will not display it.
A partially broken SATA port is the same. Check your BIOS settings to see if the new HDD is visible there.
- You can access your BIOS settings by continuously hitting the Setup key at the start of the Startup procedure.
- During the initial boot, most motherboards will display the Setup key.
- Press one of the F keys (F2, F8, F10, F12) or the Del key to see if it helps (for Dell computers).
- Go to the Boot tab once you’ve gotten into the BIOS settings. Check to see if your new HDD is listed.
- The new HDD appears here, but it is not visible in Disk Management.
- Replace the SATA cable connecting your HDD to the motherboard after turning down your computer. Consider connecting the other SATA cable to a separate SATA port as well.
- Restart your computer after changing the SATA cable and port. Check to see if the HDD is now visible in Disk Management.
6. Delete All ATA Channel Drivers
Delete all ATA channels from IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers using Device Manager. It compels Windows to re-search for all attached ATA devices. At the next system start, it reconfigures them from the ground up.
- To launch the Run dialogue box, press Windows key + R. Then, to open Device Manager, type “devmgmt.msc” and press Enter.
- Expand the IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers option in Device Manager.
- Uninstall the device by right-clicking on the first ATA Channel.
- Follow the steps above for each ATA Channel you have under IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers.
- Under IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers, uninstall each ATA Channel you hold.
- Restart your computer to allow Windows to discover all ATA devices and reinstall the drivers at the next boot.
- When your computer restarts, check to see if the HDD is now visible in Device Management.
7. Use AOMEI
You can get AOMEI here and install it on your computer by running the downloaded executable file. After you’ve installed it, try running it and see if the Disk is listed. You can format it and make a partition out of it. It should appear in the disk management interface and function usually.
8. Delete The Storage Space Using The HDD
Storage Spaces are virtual drives. It appears as conventional local disks in File Explorer. This feature was added with Windows 7 and works with ATA, SATA, SAS, and USB devices.
You may have already established storage space. It includes the HDD but isn’t visible in Disk Management. You’ll probably be able to fix the problem by removing the HDD from the storage pool.
- Launch the Run dialogue box. Press Windows key + R. Then, to launch Control Panel, type ” control ” and click Enter.
- Select System and Security from the Control Panel, then Storage Spaces.
- Expand your Storage options and click the Delete next to the storage area where your HDD is located.
- When the verification prompt appears, select Yes, and then restart your computer.
- Open Disk Management again at the next startup to see if the HDD is now visible.
9. Importing The Foreign Disk From Disk Management
The disk won’t show up as a viewable partition in My Computer or Disk Management. The system recognizes it as a foreign disk. By importing the foreign disk, users were able to fix the problem simply.
- To launch the Run dialogue box, press the Windows key + R key. Then, to open Disk Management, type “diskmgmt.msc” and press Enter.
- Check to check if you have another disk under your OS disk in the Disk Management software.
- If you have one, right-click on it and select Import Foreign Disks from the drop-down menu.
- Your new HDD drive should appear as a volume in both Disk Management and File Explorer after a short time.
10. Run Windows Hardware And Devices Troubleshooter
Windows 10 comes with a built-in troubleshooter. Your installed hard drive or other hardware isn’t performing as it should. You can utilize this tool to detect if your device has any issues.
- To launch the Settings window, right-click on the Start menu and select Settings. Then choose Update & Security from the drop-down menu.
- On the left pane, select Troubleshoot, and on the right, select “Hardware and Devices.” To run the troubleshooter, click the “Run the troubleshooter” button.
- A window appears to investigate the hardware problem. The wizard will direct you by the rest of the process.
Conclusion
The issue of a hard disk not showing up is discussed in this article. These solutions can also resolve issues such as a USB device or an external hard drive not showing up.