What to do if the computer does not see the external hard drive? The hard drive does not appear in my computer, solution to the problem.

First you need to define a hard drive. A hard drive or “hard drive”, also known as HDD, is used to save data. All computer files are located here (there are only minor exceptions). It contains Windows 10, as well as all the information. Thus, if the hard drive is not displayed, information from it will also be unavailable.

HDD diagnostics

If the system does not detect the hard drive, then you need to determine the reason.

Find out: the problem is in the hard drive itself or in the operating system.

You need to connect the hard drive to the system unit. If the device is successfully detected, there may be a problem in the software, otherwise the hard drive is defective.

Working with the software

If, after updating Windows 7/8.1 to Windows 10, the operating system no longer sees the second hard drive, then below are the best steps to fix the problem. This instruction will also help if the user has installed an HDD or SSD in the system unit, but only the BIOS sees it and does not display the operating system explorer. And if the BIOS does not show it, then you need to analyze the correctness of the equipment connection.

“Turn on” the second hard drive correctly

You need to press the + R keys to bring up the “Run” menu and type diskmgmt.msc. Next press Enter. The Windows 10 Disk Management utility will launch. At the bottom of the window there will be an area where the drives are listed; examine the following information about them:

  1. “There is no data. Not initialized” - this will be written if the physical hard drive or SSD is not displayed;
  2. Are there parts of the disk where it says “Not distributed”? This is when there is no partition on the virtually partitioned space;
  3. In the absence of the above, the RAW partition and NTFS or FAT32 partitions are displayed; they are not visible in Windows and the volume letter is not assigned. You need to right-click on it and click “Format” (if RAW) or “Assign letter”.
  4. Right-click on the name of the area and click “Initialize”.

In the menu that appears, determine the partition structure - MBR (in Windows 7) or GPT (GUID). For Windows 10, GPT is better.

Next, you need to right-click on the unallocated part and select “Create a simple volume”.

Follow the step-by-step instructions for creating a volume: select a letter, determine the file system (preferably NTFS) and the number of gigabytes of space. If you do not specify how many gigabytes there will be, then it will take up all the unallocated space.

Once you complete these steps, the second drive will appear in Windows 10, ready for use.

Using the command line to make the second disk visible

This option is provided for information only and is not recommended. If you do not have a positive result after completing the steps above and if you do not know the essence of the steps below, then it is strongly recommended not to use them.

You need to display a command line with administrator rights, then enter the following commands in sequence:

  1. diskpart
  2. list disk

Write down on a piece of paper or remember the number of the disc that is not displayed (hereinafter referred to as X). Execute the command select disk X by pressing the Enter key.

If the second hard drive is not visible, then use the following commands. Carefully! The files will be erased! If you need to save files on a partition that is not displayed, you cannot perform the above steps. So, we sequentially enter the commands in the console.

There are times when when I connect a new HDD or split the old one into several parts, the drive does not appear in my computer and cannot be used. If you connect a new hard drive, you first need to make sure that the computer displays it in the BIOS; if this does not happen, then you need to check that the connection is correct. The article will describe several ways to force Windows to see the new drive.

Using Disk Management

You can connect new media through the standard utility " Disk management", which is available in the OS. There are several ways to get to it. In the first method, right-click on “Computer” and select “Management”, then select the utility itself in the window that opens. In the second, you need to start the combination Win + R and, in the window that opens, enter diskmgmt.msc and click "OK". After which the following window will open.

All connected drives are displayed at the bottom of the window. If one hard drive has been divided into several partitions and the system does not see them, then in disk management an area will be highlighted with the inscription “ Not distributed" If this is a second physical drive it may be displayed " No data. Not initialized" And in both situations, there may be an area labeled RAW or in another file system; they can be reformatted to the NTFS option, or immediately assigned a letter.

When a new drive is connected, you need to right-click on it and click “ Initialize disk».

In the next window, you need to select the partition style, MBR for version seven and younger, and GPT from version eight of Windows and older. After such actions, the area will move to the “ Not distributed" To be able to use such an information repository, you need to right-click on it and select “ Create a simple volume" In the future, all that remains is to follow the wizard’s instructions, select the file system and the corresponding letter, and you can also set the size.

The unallocated area can be divided into several more logical partitions, if necessary. After completing the wizard, the hdd can be used and will be displayed in the system through Explorer.

Connecting a drive via the command line

This method is best used only by experienced users. You need to launch the command line by going to “ Execute" and entering cmd, or also enter in the search for programs, and then run as administrator, then you need to enter the following commands: diskpart And list disk. In the information provided, you need to remember the number of the section that is not displayed in the system. Next, you need to enter the following commands one by one:

In this case, the partition will be cleared, formatted in ntfs, and the letter D will be assigned to it. It is better not to use this method if the necessary information was in the part that the OS stopped seeing. In this case, it would be better to try to assign a letter to it or use one of the utilities to recover “lost” partitions. For example, Starus Partition Recovery can help you find and return a partition without loss or help you recover information.

This article explains in detail what to do if Windows 7 does not see the hard drive. You will also learn how to deal with errors and problems that arise when reinstalling the Windows operating system.

This is information that will be useful for everyone to know, because nowadays there is a personal computer in almost every home. Moreover, most often it is Windows that is used as the operating system. Simply put, if you have problems with the operating system while working on your computer, then this article will help you. Let's look at the situation when the system does not see the hard drive. Initially, you will need to perform a couple of simple steps:

Find the “My Computer” shortcut on your desktop, hover your mouse over it and right-click. A menu will appear in which you need to click on the “Management” line (Figure 1).

Figure 1 – Context menu

In the “Computer Management” window that opens, click on the “Disk Management” line from the “Storage Devices” category (Figure 2).

Figure 2 - Computer management

Figure 3 - Change drive letter

Now all that remains is to change the drive letters so that the OS can find it. Also, those who installed Windows 7 instead of Windows XP can move the settings of programs installed on the computer and the “My Documents” folder to the Windows system directory, which will allow them to use the new OS. Hard drive not detected during Windows reinstallation

Quite often, when reinstalling Windows, users encounter the problem that the hard drive is not detected. There are several ways to fix this problem.

Method 1. The most well-known method is to disable AHCI in the operating system through the BIOS (Basic Input Output System). Immediately after you do this, the computer will be able to detect the hard drive. Now let's describe in more detail how to do this:
1. Restart your computer. Press “F2” or “Delete” on your keyboard from the moment it starts to turn on. This will take you to the BIOS settings.
2. Select the operating system settings menu and turn off AHCI mode, as shown in (Figure 4).

Figure 4 - Disabling AHCI

Method 2. It may well be that the computer does not see the hard drive due to problems with the motherboard (when reinstalling any version of Windows). In this case, you need to download the driver for the motherboard of your computer on the Internet and burn it to disk. Next, use this disk to add the driver to the root directory of the operating system.

This is done as follows:
1. Insert the driver disc into the drive.
2. Restart the computer and while it turns on, press “F6” on the keyboard.

Method 3. If the two methods described above did not bring the desired result, then you will have to integrate SATA drivers into the OS distribution. The first step is to integrate individual SATA drivers or, in some cases, entire packages. You can also integrate drivers together with updates.

You can find out exactly what updates and drivers are required on the website of the manufacturer of your motherboard installed on your computer. To find out what kind of motherboard you have, you can right-click on the “My Computer” shortcut and through the drop-down menu go to “Properties”, where this data is indicated. You can also look at this information in the documents that were given to you when you purchased the computer.
It is worth saying that a large number of users encounter a situation where the system does not see the hard drive, especially when reinstalling Windows. If you also encounter this problem, then it is not necessary to contact a service center or specialists to solve it. You can handle it quite well on your own.

First of all, if the hard drive is not detected when reinstalling the operating system, you must resort to the methods described earlier (integrating motherboard drivers and disabling the AHCI parameter through the BIOS). If these actions did not give the desired result, then you will need to check whether the connection is made correctly on your hard drive. Figure 5 shows an example of a correct connection.

Figure 5 - Connecting a hard drive

The main thing you should learn for yourself is that the device, thanks to which the hard drive is connected and attached to the computer motherboard, has two main connectors. One of them is black, the second is blue (cyan). Moreover, this characteristic is the same regardless of what version of the Windows operating system you have. Of interest to us is the blue connector, which is responsible for the operation of the hard drive and floppy drive (device for external reading). It is better to connect the hard drive to the blue connector, because, as practice has shown, the black connector is quite unstable.

If, after checking the connection, the hard drive is still not detected or a message is displayed stating that the HDD device is not working correctly, then most likely it is all due to software errors.

If none of the methods described above helped, you will have to contact qualified specialists.

The hard drive is one of the most important hardware components of a computer, without which it is impossible to save any data. When the user turns on the computer, the first step is to recognize the BIOS hardware, including connected hard drives, and then the boot record is determined, after which control is transferred to the operating system. But it happens that there is a failure in this chain.

In such cases, the computer either does not see the hard drive completely, or it is not displayed in Explorer. If it is a system drive, Windows will not boot and an error will appear on the screen. Most often it is “WARNING! HARD DISK NOT FOUND" or "DISK BOOT FALTURE, INSERT DISK AND PRESS ENTER", but there may be other messages indicating the absence of a hard drive.

The reasons why a hard drive is not detected can be either hardware or software in nature, but most often they are associated with hardware problems. What to do if the computer does not see the hard drive? The first step is to rule out faults in the hardware and only then look for what’s wrong with the software.

Hard drive is not detected in BIOS

The hard drive may not be accessible in Explorer or Device Manager, but it should be visible in the BIOS. If it is not detected in the underlying I/O system, it may indicate a hardware problem. Consistently check the correct connection of the cables, make sure that they are in good condition (you can try replacing them). Pay special attention to the quality of the contacts, see if there are any traces of oxidation on them. The disk itself may also be faulty. The easiest way to find out if everything is okay with it is to connect it to another computer.

On computers with two physical disks, you should pay attention to a special connector located on the HDD case between the power and data connectors. If you look closely at it, you can see four pairs of contacts and a special jumper that closes one of the pairs. This jumper is used to change the priority of the hard drive. If the disk is the main one, the jumper must be set to the Master position; if it is an additional one, it must be set to the Slave mode. Setting this jumper to the same position on both media will most likely prevent the BIOS from recognizing them correctly.

Note: The jumper for switching between priority modes is not present on all hard drive models.

All of the above mostly applies to ordinary prefabricated PCs, but with laptop computers everything is a little more complicated. If the laptop does not see the hard drive, and you suspect that it is due to hardware problems, you may have to limit yourself to checking the contacts of the drive, the corresponding connectors of the motherboard and the drive itself. It is not recommended to disassemble a laptop without the appropriate knowledge and experience; in such cases, it is better to take the device to a service center.

If everything is in order with the hardware, check the settings of the BIOS itself - the SATA and IDE controllers should be enabled. In different BIOS versions, the names of the settings you need may have slight differences, but usually they always mention the word SATA (ATA) or IDE. If this is an Ami BIOS, the required setting will most likely be located in the section Advanced – Onboard Device Configuration. Go into it and find a controller whose name mentions SATA or IDE. Make sure it is set to Enabled.

In the Award BIOS, you need to go to the Integrated Peripherals section and make sure that the On Chip Primary PCI IDE and On Chip Secondary PCI IDE parameters are Enabled, and the On Chip SATA Mode parameter is set to Auto.

As a last resort, you can try resetting the BIOS to factory settings. There are six reset methods in total, but only two will be available to you. Here's the first one. With the power turned off completely, find the Clear CMOS jumper on the motherboard, switch the jumper from pins 1-2 to 2-3, wait 20 seconds, and then return it to its original position.

And here is the second way. After turning off the power, find the CR2032 battery on the motherboard, remove it, also wait a minute and reinsert it. The BIOS will be reset. You can reset the BIOS on laptops in the section Exit – Load Setup Defaults, but this is only possible if the manufacturer does not have password protection installed, otherwise the device will have to be disassembled in order to remove the battery.

The disk is detected in the BIOS, but the system does not see it

Things are somewhat different when Windows 7/10 does not see the hard drive, but it is perfectly detected by the BIOS. If it is a system drive, Windows will naturally not boot, and it is important to understand what exactly is causing the problem. These could be problems with the disk itself, incorrect BIOS settings, or damage to the operating system. The latter is important to exclude. To do this, try to access the hard drive data by booting from a LiveCD or flash drive.

If the disk is visible in the built-in LiveCD file manager, most likely there is something wrong with the operating system itself. In other cases, the first thing to do is go into the BIOS and see if your boot priorities are set correctly. By the way, the Operating System not found error may indicate a lost priority. In Ami BIOS you can do this on the tab Boot – Boot Device Priority, and in Award BIOS – in the section Advanced BIOS Features – First Boot Device.

Also in the Edward BIOS you need to make sure that in the Standard CMOS Features section the mode for the hard drive is set to Auto.

All of the above is true for additional (second) disks. If everything is fine with the BIOS settings, but the computer does not see the second hard drive, check the following points:

– By opening the Disk Management utility through the Start menu, find your disk in the list and make sure that it is initialized. If not, right-click on it, initialize it, and then create a new volume on the disk.

– Disk space is not allocated. Again, create a new volume.

– The drive letter is not assigned. Assign it a free letter, otherwise it will not be displayed in Explorer.

– The file system of the media is defined as RAW. Format the disk or perform a file system restore with the command chkdsk [drive letter]: /f. Alternatively, you can use special utilities like TestDisk for this.

– Disk drivers are damaged or not installed. Open Device Manager, look for your second drive under Disk Devices, and see if it has a yellow sign. If checked, this may indicate that the necessary drivers are missing. Download drivers from the official website of the disk manufacturer and install them.

The case when the computer does not see the hard drive when installing Windows 7/10 deserves special attention. This problem is quite common on laptops with caching SSDs, SATA drives and RAID arrays. Its main reason is the lack of specific drivers that allow working with such configurations. It doesn’t matter, you can download drivers from the official website of the manufacturer of your laptop model or motherboard. The names of such drivers usually contain the words "SATA", "Intel RST" or "RAID".

Copy the driver to the USB flash drive from which you are installing Windows and boot from it. When an empty window appears for selecting a partition to install the system, click “Download”, specify the path to the copied driver and install it.

If the system is installed from an optical disk, the driver file is also copied to a flash drive, which must be connected to the laptop/computer before turning it on, otherwise the portable media will not be recognized. After installing the driver, the disk should appear in the installation wizard window.

The computer does not recognize an external hard drive connected via USB

What to do if the computer does not see the hard drive connected via USB? Almost everything is the same as mentioned above. The only difference is that in the BIOS we check whether USB controllers are enabled. In Award BIOS these are USB EHCI controller, USB EHCI controller, USB Keyboard Support, USB Mouse Support and Legacy USB storage detect; in AMI, USB device settings are usually located in the Advanced – USB configuration or Advanced – Peripherals section.

Problems with USB ports. Their serviceability also needs to be checked.

Lack of power is another reason why an external drive may not be recognized by the system. If possible, do not use extension cords; the connection itself must be made through the port on the rear panel. If possible, use an autonomous power source when connecting drives, this will increase the stability of the drive. And one last thing. An external drive may not be recognized by Windows for the same reasons why the system does not recognize flash drives and other USB-connected devices. We recommend that you read the article; perhaps you will find a lot of useful information in it.

This article explains in detail what to do if Windows 7 does not see the hard drive. You will also learn how to deal with errors and problems that arise when reinstalling the Windows operating system.

This is information that will be useful for everyone to know, because nowadays there is a personal computer in almost every home. Moreover, most often it is Windows that is used as the operating system. Simply put, if you have problems with the operating system while working on your computer, then this article will help you. Let's look at the situation when the system does not see the hard drive. Initially, you will need to perform a couple of simple steps:

Find the “My Computer” shortcut on your desktop, hover your mouse over it and right-click. A menu will appear in which you need to click on the “Management” line (Figure 1).

Figure 1 – Context menu

In the “Computer Management” window that opens, click on the “Disk Management” line from the “Storage Devices” category (Figure 2).

Figure 2 - Computer management

Next, right-click on the required drive and in the drop-down menu click on the line “Change drive letter or drive path” (Figure 3).

Figure 3 - Change drive letter

Now all that remains is to change the drive letters so that the OS can find it. Also, those who installed Windows 7 instead of Windows XP can move the settings of programs installed on the computer and the “My Documents” folder to the Windows system directory, which will allow them to use the new OS. Hard drive not detected during windows reinstallation

Quite often, when reinstalling Windows, users encounter the problem that the hard drive is not detected. There are several ways to fix this problem.

Method 1. The most famous method is to disable AHCI in the operating system through the BIOS (basic input/output system). Immediately after you do this, the computer will be able to detect the hard drive. Now we will describe in more detail how to do this: 1. Restart your computer. Press “F2” or “Delete” on your keyboard from the moment it starts to turn on. This will take you to the BIOS settings.

2. Select the operating system settings menu and turn off AHCI mode, as shown in (Figure 4).

Figure 4 - Disabling AHCI

Method 2. It may well be that the computer does not see the hard drive due to problems with the motherboard (when reinstalling any version of Windows). In this case, you need to download the driver for the motherboard of your computer on the Internet and burn it to disk. Next, use this disk to add the driver to the root directory of the operating system.

This is done as follows: 1. Insert the driver disk into the drive.

2. Restart the computer and while it turns on, press “F6” on the keyboard.

Method 3. If the two methods described above did not bring the desired result, then you will have to integrate SATA drivers into the OS distribution. The first step is to integrate individual SATA drivers or, in some cases, entire packages. You can also integrate drivers together with updates.

You can find out exactly what updates and drivers are required on the website of the manufacturer of your motherboard installed on your computer. To find out what kind of motherboard you have, you can right-click on the “My Computer” shortcut and through the drop-down menu go to “Properties”, where this data is indicated. You can also look at this information in the documents that were given to you when you purchased the computer. It is worth saying that a large number of users encounter a situation where the system does not see the hard drive, especially when reinstalling Windows. If you also encounter this problem, then it is not necessary to contact a service center or specialists to solve it. You can handle it quite well on your own.

First of all, if the hard drive is not detected when reinstalling the operating system, you must resort to the methods described earlier (integrating motherboard drivers and disabling the AHCI parameter through the BIOS). If these actions did not give the desired result, then you will need to check whether the connection is made correctly on your hard drive. Figure 5 shows an example of a correct connection.

Figure 5 - Connecting a hard drive

The main thing you should learn for yourself is that the device, thanks to which the hard drive is connected and attached to the computer motherboard, has two main connectors. One of them is black, the second is blue (cyan). Moreover, this characteristic is the same regardless of what version of the Windows operating system you have. Of interest to us is the blue connector, which is responsible for the operation of the hard drive and floppy drive (device for external reading). It is better to connect the hard drive to the blue connector, because, as practice has shown, the black connector is quite unstable.

If, after checking the connection, the hard drive is still not detected or a message is displayed stating that the HDD device is not working correctly, then most likely it is all due to software errors.

If none of the methods described above helped, you will have to contact qualified specialists.

Read related articles:

softataka.com

Windows 7 does not see hard drive

There are cases in which a normally turned on computer, after a normal boot process, displays the message “Operating system not found” on the screen. This can only tell us that our OS was unable to detect the required system files to boot. If in your practice you have encountered this kind of problem, then thanks to these instructions you can get rid of this problem.

Reasons why Windows 7 will not be able to see the hard drive

There are several reasons why the system does not see the hard drive:

  1. The hard drive is damaged
  2. The Master Boot Record (MBR) of Sector O is damaged or has errors.
  3. Incorrectly set priority of disks responsible for which disk the operating system will be loaded from.
  4. It also often happens that there is an error in the BIOS of your computer, and because of it it is not possible to detect the hard drive.
  5. Among the hardware reasons, we can name the following: the interface cable that connects the computer and the hard drive is damaged, then it needs to be replaced and checked. And for SATA, it is best to choose a cable that has metal latches.
  6. If you just installed a new hard drive and did not have time to properly prepare it and create partitions, then Windows 7 will definitely not see it. To solve this issue, simply download the Acronis Disc Director program and quickly divide our disk into partitions. Just don't mix up the discs!

Now let's try to solve the problem. First, we need to find the “Manage” item by clicking on the “My Computer” icon using the right button of your mouse.

Then in the “Computer Management” item, select the “Disk Management” sub-item. Next, feel free to right-click on the required drive and then select an item such as “Change drive letter.”

You definitely can't go wrong further. In order to swap two disks, you will have to rename them several times. First, you will need to replace the letter on any of the drives with an unallocated one: drive “D”, for example, change to “X”, and drive “E” to “D”, then you can change the former drive “D”, and now "X" - to "E".

Windows 7 does not detect hard drive after system reinstallation

Very often there are cases when, after reinstalling the OS, the hard drive ceases to be visible. Then this instruction will help with this problem.

  1. If you have a case in which Windows 7 cannot detect the hard drive due to a conflict coming from the motherboard, then first try downloading the necessary drivers for the motherboard of your computer. Save them to disk and download these drivers to the root folder of your OS. To do this, insert your driver disk into the drive and after restarting the computer, press the “F6“ button.
  2. Another way to solve the problem. While the computer is booting, you need to go into the BIOS (read how to do this here), and in the system settings itself, find the parameter responsible for disabling AHCI, and only when you disable this setting will the hard drive be found immediately. You will see how to do this in the pictures below.

    If this does not help you, then you need to do such a difficult task as integrating SATA drivers, or even have to download entire driver packages. Also, there is a possibility that integrating all driver packages along with their updates will help. And they need to be integrated into the OS distribution using any of the methods presented below.

In order to select the necessary drivers and updates, you need to go to the website of your motherboard manufacturer (to quickly find out the motherboard model, read this article).

The solution to this problem is not as difficult as it seems at first glance. In most cases, users who have installed or reinstalled the operating system encounter this problem. Don’t immediately panic and call service centers to have a specialist come to your home; first try disabling an option such as AHCI in the BIOS, then try to integrate all the drivers for the motherboard into the distribution of your computer.

If the above does not help, then try to determine how the HDD connector is connected, and how correctly. This very device, thanks to which it is possible to connect a hard drive to the motherboard, has only two connectors - black and blue, which should be connected to the hard drive, since it works more stably.

computerology.ru

Why the computer does not see the second hard drive and how to fix it

Whatever one may say, today’s people can no longer imagine their life without computer technology. The most common operating systems (OS) are windows and Linux. It often happens that windows does not see (does not detect) the second hard drive in the system. This problem occurs often, and today’s review is dedicated to this.

Why does the system not see the hard drive?

Option #1

The reason why the computer does not see the hard drive is a motherboard failure. Pay attention to what version of Windows OS you are installing. Perhaps downloading a specific one will help
drivers (corresponding to the OS) for the motherboard. It’s not hard to download, since absolutely everything is available on the Internet. You just need to burn the drivers to disk and add the drivers to the root of the OS. Manual:

  • Insert the disk with the downloaded driver into the drive.
  • Restart the computer and press the “F6” key.

Option No. 2

The problem why the computer does not see the second hard drive is the BIOS system, which has failed and the OS does not see the media. A typical problem that occurs due to voltage fluctuations in the network. To fix the problem, you need to go into the BIOS, find the AHCI parameter, disable it, after which the system will immediately detect the boot disk after rebooting. Manual:

  • We restart the computer and simultaneously press the “F2” button (or the “Delete” key) to call up the BIOS system.
  • Go to the operating system settings and disable ANSI mode.

Option No. 3

There is another reason for the problem - the drivers have been lost to the hard drive. Only a specialist can solve it by integrating SATA drivers.

Advice! If you find any faults in your computer, immediately call a technician who will promptly fix the problem. Otherwise, you can seriously damage your computer.

Why doesn't the computer see the second hard drive?

To figure out why Windows doesn’t see the second hard drive, first of all you need to calm down. After all, everything is fine with your hard drive, you just need to initialize the media in the OS. To do this you need to follow the instructions:

  • Press the right mouse button, point to the “My Computer” button and find “Management”.
  • Then click on the “Storage Devices” section and find the “Disk and Media Management” subsection.
  • In the lower right window, find the “New Disk” section, right-click, select “Initialize” and create a partition.

Now the computer can be restarted, and the system will “see” the second hard drive. Remember that in case of any malfunction it is better to contact a specialist who will save you time and money.

tehno-bum.ru

If Windows 7 does not see the hard drive

The Windows operating system does not detect the hard drive. Step-by-step instructions for troubleshooting problems and errors when installing and reinstalling Windows OS. In our age of widespread computerization, modern people no longer see their lives without the presence of a personal computer in it. The most popular software product in this regard is the brainchild of Microsoft – OS windows. If you encounter problems and malfunctions in the operating system, this article is for you.

Let's consider the case when Windows 7 does not see the hard drive. So, you will need to take a few simple steps:

1. Right-click on the “My Computer” icon on the desktop of your PC and select “Manage” in the context menu that appears;

Selecting Control from the menu

2. The “Computer Management” window will open, where you need to select the “Disk Management” item;


Computer control window

3. Call the context menu again by right-clicking on the second item in the open window. In the menu that appears, select “Change drive letter”;


Note for those who installed Windows 7 OS instead of XP, transfer “My Documents” and the settings of already installed programs to the Windows 7 OS system folder and enjoy the new operating system.

You may have a problem after reinstalling the operating system with identifying the hard drive; if during reinstallation Windows does not see the hard drive, there are several solutions to this problem.

Option #1. Most likely, the conflict comes from the motherboard, regardless of which version of Windows you reinstall. You need to download drivers for the motherboard of your PC and add the drivers to the root folder of the operating system via a floppy drive or using a floppy disk reader. For this:


Option #2. In the BIOS system settings, find the parameter that is responsible for disabling AHCI; by disabling this setting in the OS, the boot disk will immediately begin to find the hard drive (hard drive). For this:

  1. When loading the Windows OS, call the BIOS by pressing the “F2” or “delete” key;
  2. Disable AHCI mode in the OS settings.

Disabling AHCI mode


Integration of SATA drivers

Option #3. Most likely, you will have to integrate SATA drivers into the operating system distribution in one of three ways, but this is provided that the first two options did not have the desired effect.

The first thing that can help is integrating SATA drivers or downloading entire driver packages. You can also try integrating driver packages along with updates.

Please note that you can decide on the necessary drivers and updates on the official website of the manufacturer of the motherboard that is installed on the PC. The type of motherboard can be determined in the documentation that was saved after purchasing PC components or directly in the “properties” section by right-clicking on the “My Computer” icon.

One of the more common problems that PC users encounter is when Windows does not see the hard drive during installation. There is a solution to this problem and there is no need to call a specialist to your home or take your PC to the service center office.

Firstly, you must understand that when reinstalling and installing a new OS for the first time, problems may arise identical to those that we described above. Try to solve the problem by disabling the AHCI option in the BIOS or integrating the motherboard drivers into the distribution on your PC.

If the operating system still does not detect the hard drive, then you need to determine whether the connector on your HDD is connected correctly.


Correct connection of the connector on the HDD

Regardless of what version of Windows OS, you should know that the device, with which it is attached to the motherboard and connected to the PC hard drive, has two main connectors, one blue (blue) in color, the other black. It is the blue connector that supports the operation of an external reading device (CD drive) and a PC hard drive (HDD). The hard drive should be connected to the blue connector, since experience has shown that the black one is unstable.

If after all the manipulations you still see a message that the storage device controller is working with errors, most likely the cause of the failure is the lack of the necessary driver.

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AntonKozlov.ru

Why doesn't Windows see the hard drive? Main causes and their elimination

Greetings, dear readers.

Sometimes users encounter a situation where the computer cannot detect the hard drive. Moreover, this situation is accompanied by various symptoms. Today I will try to tell you why Windows does not see the hard drive under certain conditions.

During installation(to contents)

Sometimes computer users encounter a situation where the device does not see the HDD when installing Windows. The problem is mostly due to a lack of the right drivers. This usually occurs when the desired section is not in Explorer, but the BIOS sees what it needs. There are several options for solving the disease:


After installation (to contents)

Sometimes the memory may not be shown after installing the OS. Or as a result of connecting to a new computer. In this case, the first thing you need to check is the correct connection.

In addition, the second hard drive can often simply be turned off in the system to speed up work. To change the situation, you need to do a number of actions:


In the first case, right-click on the disk name. Select “Initialize”. We indicate the GPT or MBR structure (not always). It is recommended to use the latter. At the end you will get the “Unallocated” area.

Then right-click on this segment again and select “Create simple volume”.

We follow the wizard's instructions.

After this, the second hard drive should appear in Explorer. Sometimes the device needs to be rebooted.

The last option can be solved by right-clicking on the desired area and selecting “Format”. Sometimes assigning a letter can help.

In AHCI mode(to contents)

The mechanism itself is designed for devices connected via the SATA protocol. It allows you to use additional functions that speed up your work.

Sometimes there are situations in which a device in AHCI mode is simply not detected. In this case, if you turn it off, everything starts to function normally.

There is a solution to the problem, although it may be somewhat painful for many users. To do this, we need an installation disk with Windows 10 or other latest versions of Microsoft OS. So, we need to do a number of actions:


External device(to contents)

Many users come across a situation where their system for some reason does not accept an external hard drive. As usual, this can be for various reasons.

For example, often a HDD-USB just purchased from a store may simply not be formatted. The solution is simple - using built-in or third-party utilities, we produce everything necessary.

In addition, drivers can also become a problem. You can find this out simply - try connecting the equipment to other units. If everything is fine on them, then the solution is simple:

To do this, right-click on the element and select the desired line. If the system cannot automatically find what it needs, we go to the official website of the removable device or motherboard. We find suitable software and install it.

In addition, you can use a special program that automatically finds and installs everything you need. I have already mentioned it more than once and talked about it in previous articles.

Another, albeit drastic, but effective method is to reinstall Windows.

Moreover, it is worth noting that it is better to find a clean image, without any additions. This often helps when using components with large amounts of memory, for example, 3 Terabytes.

Mac OS(to contents)

I would like to separately tell you that similar problems often arise among users who, in addition to Windows, also use Mac OS. The fact is that the latest operating system supports interaction with different hard drive manufacturers. But at the same time, for constant stable operation you need to use only certain ones. And unfortunately, it is not yet possible to solve this situation differently.

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