How to find a connected hard drive in a pc. Why does the computer not see the new hard drive. The computer does not see the hard drive: disk check

External hard drives have become a common feature of today's PC users. Possessing quite impressive volumes, they are used to work with large amounts of data, while being quite convenient to store and carry. But there are also situations in which an external hard drive is no longer displayed among the drives connected to the computer. In this article I will tell you what to do if the external hard drive does not appear on my computer, what causes the indicated dysfunction, and how to fix it.

Symptoms and causes of the problem with the external drive

In many cases, the connected external drive simply does not appear among the available drives in My Computer. This often happens in situations where this disk has been connected to a computer before and has worked hitherto without any problems.

If you also have problems in order to - then follow the link and read the instructions on how to solve it.

The reasons why the external hard drive is not visible on my computer may be the following:

Incorrect assignment of the letter of this drive (for example, it coincides with the drive already on the PC);
The new drive being connected has not yet been formatted;
Malignant activity of viral programs;
The operating system, for some reason, does not have drivers that support the operation of this disk;
The specific USB port through which this disk is connected to the computer does not work;
The operating system registry is corrupted;
The cable is damaged, due to which the external hard drive is connected to the PC.

After we have figured out the reasons why the computer does not see the external hard drive, let's move on to the detailed instructions for solving this problem.

Turn on the display of the external hard drive on the PC

What to do in a situation when Windows does not see the external hard drive. I recommend following the procedure below:

Try to simply restart your computer, sometimes it can be effective;
You need to use another YUSB connector to connect your device (perhaps the previous one is simply damaged and does not work correctly);
It is necessary to use a different cord, possibly the previously used one is damaged;
Make sure your external drive is turned on (if there is an autonomous power supply);
Assign the correct drive letter to the external drive;
Click on the "Start" button, type diskmgmt.msc in the search bar and press enter.

This will open the Disk Management window, which should also display your disk. Hover over it, right-click, select "Change drive letter ...", and assign your drive a letter that is not used on your system. This must be done to display an external hard drive in My Computer;

If your disk is not visible in the disk management menu, then it is either physically unusable, or there are no drivers for it in the Windows OS. Go to Device Manager (click on "Start", type devmgmt.msc in the search bar and press enter), and check if there are any unidentified devices with a yellow exclamation mark in the list. If there are any, you need to install drivers for it.

To do this, do the following:

A) Click on the "Action" option at the top and select "Update hardware configuration" there;

B) Use special programs for automatic installation of drivers (DriverPack Solution level), which will automatically select the right driver for your device and install it on your PC;

C) Use the unique identifier of the device to search for drivers for it on the network. Go to Device Manager, right-click on the unidentified device and select "Properties". In the properties menu, go to the "Details" tab, select the "Hardware ID" property, copy the longest lower value and try to search for the driver by it by entering this value into the search engine;

D) Run Command Prompt as administrator, and there enter:

set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices = 1

Then go to Device Manager, click on "View" and select the "Show hidden devices" option. If your device appears among such devices, try right-clicking on it and selecting "Delete". Then turn off your computer, unplug the devices, turn on the PC again, let the system boot, and then try to reconnect your device;

E) If you are having problems connecting USB, then go to Device Manager, delete all devices under the "USB Controllers" parameter, and then reboot the system. These controllers will be reinstalled, and it is quite possible that the OS will see your external drive.

Conclusion

If the external hard drive does not appear on my computer, then it is worth following the whole complex of tips I listed above. Please note that if the disk is just purchased, you need to format it and assign it the correct letter, in the case of a previously used disk, it is worth checking the physical performance, starting from the USB socket and the cord, and ending with the device itself. In some cases, the latter may need a thorough repair at the nearest service center.

Updated: 2018-10-05 / Victor Trunov

The problem of the hard drive not showing up on the computer is extremely common. This can happen with both the built-in and the hard drive.

But before you try to fix the situation and solve this problem, you need to find its cause. Even an inexperienced user can find and fix the existing difficulties, precisely following our instructions and acting as carefully as possible.

Possible reasons

There are a number of reasons why the hard drive might not be visible on my computer. This problem often occurs with new devices only connected to a PC. These reasons are often:

To avoid complications, let's take a closer look at each problem when the hard drive does not open, its cause and effective solution.

Letter not specified

The first time a new HDD is connected, be it external or internal, it may not be recognized by the system. It will not show up like the rest of the local drives, but it will be fully functional and healthy.

The fix is quite simple:

After the system boots, it will begin to detect a new hard drive in the "My Computer" folder, and you will be able to work with it.

Wrong format

However, what to do if there is no "Change drive letter" item when calling the menu. This is usually caused by a file system mismatch. It must be in NTFS format to work properly in Windows operating system. That is, in order to start the hard drive, it must be reformatted.

For this:

After the system boots up, the drive will be displayed and available for full operation.

Initialization

As we said above, new HDDs sometimes do not work the first time they are connected. However, there is nothing to worry about, since if the drive does not initialize on its own, then this process must be carried out manually.

We do the following:

Repeat steps 1 and 2 from the first instruction again.
Find the required hard drive, click on it and select "Initialize Disk".
In the window that opens, mark the disk that is no longer displayed, and select MBR and click "OK".
Right-click again, only on the initialized hard drive, click "Create a simple volume".
The volume creation wizard will start, click "Next".
Next, you need to specify the size of the volume. By default, the maximum size is set, it is not recommended to change the figure set by the system. Click "Next".
Select a letter and click "Next".
We find the item "Format this volume ..", and set NTFS in the "File system" field. Leave the rest of the fields as they are and click "Next".
The last window will open in front of you, in which all the specified parameters will be displayed. If you agree with them, click "Finish".

After that, the disk that was installed earlier will be initialized, and you will only have to restart your computer and start full-fledged work.

Unallocated area

It so happens that due to periodic failures in Windows or system errors, part of the HDD disappears and becomes inaccessible. That is why the explorer simply does not see the hard drive.

The fix is easy enough:

After restarting your computer, Explorer will begin to see it.

However, if this section contains the data you need, you can do it without any loss.

Contacts and loop

When connecting a drive, you need to be as careful as possible. Your computer may not be able to see your new hard drive due to a faulty or damaged wire. If there is no apparent reason why it does not work, then you need to take a similar wire with identical connectors and use it to connect the hard drive to the PC.

This problem, when cables fail and they need to be replaced for normal operation, can affect both external and internal storage. Also, do not exclude the possibility that due to inexperience or carelessness, you simply incorrectly connected the HDD to the computer, and therefore it does not find it. Be sure to check the connection and make sure that the contacts do not come loose.

BIOS settings

If you connected a hard drive, but the computer does not see it, then the problem may be related to the settings. However, there are several probable causes of problems. Let's take a closer look at each of them and find an effective solution.

Boot Priority

If you connected a hard drive, and a computer connected it, then it is possible that the priority of device loading is incorrectly set in the BIOS settings. That is, we need to put the new hard drive in the first place so that when the computer starts up, it boots first of all from it.

Let's take a closer look at how to do this:

Thus, after the system boots, the drive will be available for normal operation, and the problem when a new hard drive is connected, but the computer does not see it, will be solved.

In different versions of BIOS, the menu items may differ. Therefore, in the absence of these parameters, you should look for the most suitable by name.

SATA operating mode

It is possible that my computer does not see the HDD due to the fact that the operating mode compatible with IDE is not specified in the BIOS. To fix this you need to:

After that, the system will boot in the usual mode and will be able to recognize and open the hard drive.

Reset BIOS settings

If you installed a hard drive, but even the BIOS does not see the connected hard drive, then most likely the reason for this is a settings failure. This reason can arise as a result of incorrect user actions, and due to viruses in the system and power outages. The system date indicates a problem of this type - if it is not accurate, then this is a failure. To fix the situation, you will have to perform a reset and return to the factory settings.

There are two ways to do this. Let's start with the first one:

Thus, the BIOS settings will be reset and the system will be able to detect the hard drive and start working with it.

The second option takes a little longer:

After that, the problem where the explorer does not see the hard drive should be resolved. I would also like to add that both options may require changing the boot priority, as described in the instructions above.

Lack of power or cooling

If the hard drive is connected and working, but is not visible in Windows, then you should listen to the sounds being emitted. For example, a buzzing sound indicates a change in cycles, and most likely the problem is a lack of power from the power supply.

You need to act according to the circumstances:

Purchase a more powerful power supply.
Disable unused device.

Faulty motherboard

If the hard drive is detected by the system, but does not open, perhaps the reason lies in a malfunction of the motherboard, namely in the "south bridge". It is he who is responsible for the correct operation of IDE / SATA devices.

To check this, connect the hard drive to a laptop or any other device, if it starts working, then we have found the "culprit."

Unfortunately, you won't be able to fix the breakdown on your own. You need to replace the motherboard or take it in for repair.

Damaged sectors

Inaccessible sectors (or so-called "BAD" blocks) are a common reason why a connected hard drive is not visible to a computer.

Before you start checking and, you should know that bads are divided into 2 types:

Logical - system errors. Most often they occur due to incomplete read / write to the sector. They can be corrected programmatically.
Physical - appear when the magnetic layer is aging, overheating or physical damage to the magnetic plate. This screw should only be replaced.

If the above methods did not bring any result, then the only correct solution would be to take the HDD to a service center until it finally fails.

Detailed video tutorial

youtu.be/17K1fH_G8ug

Professional help

If it was not possible to fix the problems that have arisen on your own,
then most likely the problem lies at a more technical level.
This may be: breakdown of the motherboard, power supply,
hard disk, video card, RAM, etc.

It is important to diagnose and fix the breakdown in time,
to prevent damage to other components.

Our specialist will help you with this.

Leave a request and get
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Hello, dear site visitors!

It so happened that I needed to format it. It's just that this hard drive is from a laptop, and when I gave the laptop for warranty repair, instead of an SSD drive, I installed the HDD back. Yesterday I took the laptop from the repair and put the railway 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 detected, Windows signals that a device is connected, an icon appears on the notification bar that a USB device is connected, and it is even possible to remove it.

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

I connected this external hard disk drive to a laptop, everything is the same. Detected, but not visible in the explorer. Yeah, so it's the disk itself.

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

At this point, it was already possible to finish the article, but I made some screenshots, so I will show and tell everything with a 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 Computer... Please select Control.

On the left, select Disk management... And this is what I saw (screenshot below). Disc 0- this is my SSD drive, there are partitions created there. A Disc 1, this is already my external hard drive, which was not displayed in the explorer. It says Not allocated... Now let's distribute :).

Right click on it and select Create Simple Volume ...

We need to specify a size for the section we are creating. If you want to create one section, then you can not change anything, but 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 on and not change anything.

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

After that, everything worked for me. You may have noticed (in the screenshot above), there has already appeared a folder of the conductor on the song of tasks. This is a suggestion to open the contents of the hard drive in explorer.

And here is the HDD itself in My Computer.

That's all. All good!

Each person should first of all understand what such a computer part as a hard drive is. People often call it a hard drive, but the main definition of this part is a device capable of storing data accumulated by a person. In fact, it is on the hard drive that all the information that is available on the computer is stored. A Winchester can contain an operating system, software and many system files necessary for work.

For this reason, when the device cannot find the driver it needs, an informational error message pops up, and the person immediately tries to figure out what needs to be installed in order to fix the impending problem.

Carrying out diagnostic measures.

It turned out that if the hard drive was not detected by the system, then there is no need to immediately get upset and give up, it is enough to study what the problem is. This may be a system error or a general malfunction of the device itself. To quickly complete a test, you need to remove the hard drive and connect it to another computer. If it is in good working order, then the system will quickly recognize it, and there will be no need to give it to the workshop, provided that the hard drive is not detected on another computer, you need to understand that you will most likely have to contact the repair workshop.

Some people on their own try to fix the problem of a malfunctioning hard drive, and they only make it worse, because experienced specialists who know a lot about this business are sitting in the workshops.

Useful Tips
- To get into the BIOS settings, just click on the Delete button, or F2.
- You should pay attention to which outputs you pull out the SATA cable.
- When you pulled your hard drive out of the system unit, it is better to properly wrap it in Antistatic.
- The part of the device located at the bottom is also placed on the "Antistatic".

Ways to fix basic problems.

There are a number of problems that you can fix yourself without resorting to the help of professional workers.

The first problem lies in outgoing contacts.

This is the most common problem, because it happens that power is not supplied to the hard drive. It is easy to fix the problem, you need to remove the cover of the system unit, and reconnect all cables to the hard drive.

The second problem lies in the wrong BIOS settings.

If you have an incorrect system date set in the settings, this may indicate a problem. And it turned out that these settings can be easily reset. It turned out that this simple manipulation can be performed by removing the BIOS battery, after it has been removed, you need to wait thirty minutes, and then perform the opposite action - reinstall it in its original place. After these steps, your hard drive will have to be defined as a device.

The third problem is not enough power for the device.

If you begin to notice an interesting picture that your device is both connecting and disconnecting again, then you need to think about the fact that it does not have enough power. You will need to disassemble the system unit, and then disconnect some device that is less important than the hard drive.

The fourth problem concerns conflicts among connected devices.

If you have two hard drives installed on your computer, and each of them is of the same brand, then there is probably a conflict of devices, and you will need to abandon one of them.

The fifth problem is the version of the installed bus.

In this case, it will be enough for you to change the operating system, because it is no longer suitable for your needs, except for reinstallation, you must not forget about the integration of drivers for all SATA interfaces.

The sixth and final problem is Windows malfunctioning.

Noticing that the hard disk is displayed correctly in the BIOS settings, but the system does not see it, you need to resort to performing simple actions.
- We open on the computer a menu such as "Control Panel".
- Click twice on the "Administration" item.

When the desired window has opened, you must select the "Computer Management" item.

On the left is an item with an interesting name "Disk Management".

It is in the central part of this window that all connected disks to the computer will be located. If you right-click on any of them, you can call the automatic configuration of the disk, and create in it the data that will later be needed. It turned out that it was necessary to change the name of the hard disk, then reboot our device.
If you have carried out all the actions, and realized that none of them helps to resuscitate the patient, then you should understand that the help of computer specialists is simply necessary for you.

A hard disk drive (HDD) is the storage device or primary storage device in most PCs. A large number of people are faced with the fact that the computer (laptop) does not see the hard drive. What to do in this case?
In computer slang, it is called a hard drive, and it can be external or internal. The device, which works on the principle of magnetic recording, stores not only user information, but also the operating system, which operates with service data.
How can you solve the problem of hard disk "invisibility"? Let's take a look at what a hard disk is and how to make it so that the PC detects it.

If there is a problem with the hard disk, the computer does not display all the recorded information. The PC may not see the hard drive for many reasons. We will try to describe all the causes of malfunctions and the available methods for eliminating them.

All these reasons apply to both internal and external hard drives, and the "treatment" in both cases will be the same.

Diagnostic measures

If such a problem occurs, a diagnosis should be carried out initially. Its purpose is to identify the source of the malfunction. After all, the problem may not be in the hard drive, but in the operating system. To find out, the hard drive is connected to another PC.

If the computer boots, then it is not the hard drive that is "sick", but the operating system itself. And if not, the problem, accordingly, lies in the malfunction of the hard drive. In this case, it is most advisable to take the device to a workshop for repair or replace it with a new one, if the warranty is valid.

In the first case, when the problem lies in the operating system, you can fix it yourself. There are several methods on how to do it yourself, without spending money.

1. While the operating system is loading, click Del / F2 several times. If everything is successful, you will see the BIOS settings.
2. If you have disconnected the internal hard drive from the computer, wrap it in an antistatic wrap to prevent damage from electrostatic discharge.
3. Before all manipulations with the hard drive, study well how to connect it.
4. An antistatic agent is also useful for the bottom of the hard drive (where the boards are).

Major problems and solutions

There are some problems with hard drives that you can fix yourself. For example, if the contacts have moved away, it is not necessary to contact the repair shop.

Outgoing contacts

If the contact has moved away, the computer will not see the hard drive. To fix the problem, reconnect all cables in the system unit. Check carefully all connections, and then, perhaps, the problem will be solved.

Incorrect BIOS settings

Even if the BIOS (basic input-output system) does not see the hard drive, the problem may lie in the system date. If the operating system crashed, the date may have changed and your computer has moved back in time. Reset the system date settings by removing the battery on the motherboard for 20-35 minutes, and then reinstalling it.

If the problem lies precisely in the wrong date settings, the computer will detect the hard drive as a physical storage medium.

There is another problem, which lies in the fact that the devices are not loaded in the correct order. Find "Boot" in BIOS and make the HDD the priority device that boots up first.

Insufficient nutrition

If the hard drive makes suspicious sounds and from time to time it disappears, then it is "read" again, the problem is hidden in the lack of power, so the PC does not periodically see the hard disk drive (HDD). There are two ways to fix the problem: the first is to buy a good power supply, the second is to remove some device from the download.

Device conflict

If two hard drives of the same model are installed on your computer at once, they may conflict with each other. In this case, the following will help you:

1. Run diagnostics on both devices for troubleshooting.
2. Connect both hard drives to the operating system separately.

Bus version

Older versions of Windows OS may not support SATA.

The wisest thing is to upgrade to a newer OS version. If for some reason you cannot do this, you need to reinstall the operating system and integrate the drivers that are supported by SATA.

The problem is in the settings of the operating system

If everything is fine in the BIOS, and the operating system does not recognize the device, it must be configured manually using the capabilities of the OS. Do the following:

Step One Enter the "Control Panel" from the "Start" menu and click on the "Administrative Tools" section.

Step two Click on "Computer Management".

Step Three Click on "Disk Management". Here you will see all the disks that are connected to the computer. One of the devices will not have a letter. Right click on the unnamed device and open "Change Drive Letter" and assign your volume letter label.

After that, you need to reboot the system.

If all these methods did not help and the computer (laptop) still does not see the hard disk drive (HDD), then most likely you need to bring it in for repair. You are unlikely to be able to detect a malfunction on your own, but a computer technician can do it quickly. And there are cases when only professional help is recommended.