D:\ is not accessible. The volume does not contain a recognized file system Error

Eliwi

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Dec 2, 2014
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Hello. I've been having problems with my computer for a while, and this is the last straw.

I built a PC about two or three months ago (with the help of friends), and it was working just fine until I got the blue screen (kernel data inpage error) followed by a black screen (insert proper boot device). I had help and fixed the problem, we basically wiped everything and then installed everything again.

Last night I was installing windows, everything was going smoothly, I made a partition of the disk (D), started the PC and all was good! Until I click to access D and I get this message:

You need to format the disk in drive D befor you can use it. Do you want to format it?

I click cancel and get this:

D:\ is not accessible. The volume does not contain a recognized file system. Please make sure that all required file system drivers are loaded and that the volume is not corrupted.


So I looked it up but I only get answers to external HD, and since I don't know much about computers I'm scared that if I follow directions for that it might cause something bad to happen to my pc lol.

Please help? I don't know where to go from here. I'm tired of losing my work and not being able to work because of always having problems with my pc.

Thank you in advance!
 
Solution
I'm guessing your OS is installed on C:. Windows needs to format the D: drive for it to be accessible. When given the option, let Windows format the drive with default options.

Eliwi

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Dec 2, 2014
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Yes, the OS is installed on C:. Could you explain what happens when formatting D:? I've been told by other people not to do it, but I don't really understand why. Thanks!
 

George Mulligan

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Sep 20, 2014
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Formatting sets up a file system on the disk, which is a library of sorts that allows the OS to access data on a physical location on the disk. It must be done for the disk to be usable. For a disk that already has data on it, a format will wipe out any previous library, making the existing data un-addressable and un-findable (there are exceptions, but this is the simple explanation).

The only reason you would not want to format a drive is if it already had needed data on it. Is this a new drive or one with data already on it?
 

Eliwi

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Dec 2, 2014
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No, there's no data in it yet. Thank you for explaining, I'll try it out and see what happens!

Edit. ha, well that was embarrassing. Thank you for all the answers, I was just afraid of formatting and screwing it up again!
 

TheGrayWolf81

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Nov 19, 2015
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What would I do if I have data on it? I have a 2TB WD Blue HDD with a large amount of important files on it and formatting the disk is not a choice for me :/