Trouble getting Laptop to recognize 2nd drive

mrhobo3 · Aug 30, 2016

Hi,

I recently purchased the Acer Aspire E 15 E5-575G-53VG for school. The laptop only has a 256GB SSD, but it has space for a second storage drive. I bought the HGST Travelstar 7K1000 2.5-Inch 1TB drive to install into it. The space for the second drive is very open, so I called Acer and they sent a holder to keep the drive from getting disconnected. At this point, I have the hard drive hooked in and held in place, but it is not being recognized in Windows disk management or in the BIOS. Both the laptop and second hard drive are new, so I wouldn't think it would be a hardware problem, but I have no clue what to do as this is my first time installing a hard drive into a laptop. Do I need to download any drivers for the second drive or anything like that? Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

Boogieman_WD · Aug 31, 2016

Hey there, mrhobo3.

Adding a secondary storage drive to a laptop is basically the same as doing with a desktop computer. No additional driver should be needed in such a case. Have you checked if the drive is recognized in your BIOS, Device Manager and Disk Management? Basically for new HDDs, they have to be initialized, partitioned and formated in order to appear in Windows Explorer (This PC, My Computer). Here's how to do that:
How to initialize or write a signature to a secondary hard drive or Solid State drive in Windows
How to partition and format a drive on Windows and Mac OSX.

Hope that helps.
Boogieman_WD

mrhobo3 · Aug 31, 2016

Hi,

The disk isn't showing up in the BIOS or in Disk management. I'm beginning to wonder if I just got a bad drive.

Thanks

Boogieman_WD · Aug 31, 2016

It is possible that you might have gotten a faulty HDD, these things happen sometimes, however it would be better to give it a try with a different computer by connecting it either externally or internally, to see if the same problem occurs.

mrhobo3 · Aug 31, 2016

When I first placed it in and turned on the laptop, the hard drive was making a really strange sound. It hasn't made it since, but from what I've read online, a failing hard drive makes sounds similar to the ones I heard. I recorded a closeup video of the sound. Here's a link to it.

https://youtu.be/2mXA_BiOoSM

I don't think I've ever actually heard a failing hard drive before, so I'm not sure if those are just normal sounds that a new hard drive makes or if those are indicative of something bad.

I don't have a SATA to USB cable, so I went ahead and ordered one. I'll see if I can get my desktop to recognize the drive when the cable arrives.

Thank you for your help!

Boogieman_WD · Sep 1, 2016

This sound is really not OK. Judging by what I've just heard, the drive is probably damaged. So I'd recommend that you get in touch with the vendor you got it from, or the manufacturer and get it replaced.

Here's some more info on HDD sounds: How to tell if the noise or sound the drive is making is normal. Even though this probably does not cover 100% of the types of sounds and noises you might here from a drive it can give you some idea of what might be an OK noise and what is not OK. Basically I'd say that what you hear is definitely not good.

mrhobo3 · Sep 1, 2016

Hey there,

Thanks a ton for helping me out. I bought a new hard drive and popped it in and it works as one normally should, so it appears that the hard drive was the problem, not the computer. I've returned the damaged drive.

Thank you for your help!

Boogieman_WD · Sep 2, 2016

The important thing is that everything is OK now. Good job!

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