hard drive showing as other device and not in disk management or file explorer

kwarde · Jan 26, 2016

I can not access a new hard drive in my computer. I have tried several things but still stuck. I suspect it is some driver issue but not sure what next steps i can try. Details below...

symptoms:
- I can see the hard drive in the bios
- I can not see it in disk management (nor the file explorer)
- I can see it under device management as an "other device." i can not seem to update the driver (automatically)

physical checks:
- I tried different ports, sata cables, and power connectors - all with known working combinations from the other HDs
- I tried the HD in a different computer and it worked perfectly

i have tried:
- updating the bios
- reinstalling windows (3 times or so)
- searching WD website for drivers or utilities
- switched from IDE to AHCI and reinstalled windows

computer specs:
- OS: Win 10
- Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-H55M-S2H
- Processor - Intel i3-330
- SSD - boot/windows Corsair Force Series 3 CSSD-F90GB3-BK 2.5" 90GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
- Hard Drive 2 - storage Western Digital AV-GP WD5000AVDS
- Hard Drive 3 - storage WD 2 TB AV-GP WD20EURX <<<<< HD Can not see

D_Know_WD · Jan 27, 2016

Hi there kwarde,

One thing you can do is to go to your MOBO's website and update all the drivers, especially the SATA ones.

Is this a new drive? Do you have some data stored on it?
In case this is a new drive and it is not partitioned and formatted, you can boot up Ubuntu from a flash drive or a CD, partition and format, switch back to Win and see if the drive would be recognized.

Thread on Ubuntu Live CD: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/267999-32-recover-data-mode

Let me know how this goes,
D_Know_WD

kwarde · Jan 27, 2016

Hey D_Know_WD,
Thanks for the reply. I have tried the MOBO updates and no luck. It is a brand new drive. I have plugged the new drive into another Win 10 computer and formatted it, even though it was recognized right away.
Would taking the Ubuntu step do anything more than I have already done?
Any other suggestions?
Thanks

D_Know_WD · Jan 27, 2016

Nope, the Ubuntu thing was just an easier thing to do than moving the drive to another system.
Well, given all the things you've tried, I would say that the issue you are facing is really strange.
I guess you can reset CMOS: http://www.wikihow.com/Reset-Your-BIOS

If this doesn't work, I guess you can contact the MOBO's Support.

Hope this will help,
D_Know_WD

kwarde · Feb 2, 2016

So going to Ubuntu was the right path. Once there, i finally could see the drive but not access it. i deleted or removed the partition and restarted into windows 10 and it was there. Argh! so much time wasted in Windows and it was right there in linux.
thanks

D_Know_WD :

D_Know_WD · Feb 3, 2016

It's great you've sorted this out.
Well, Ubuntu seems to handle better some problematic drives.

I guess it will not hurt to test the drive with WD's DLG tool(both short and extended tests): http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=1DcnWi
The results should show you the overall health status of the drive.

Cheers,
D_Know_WD

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