First PC built went fine but wont recognize HDD NEED HELP PLEASE

[Jkkeagy85]

Hello,
I just finished building my first pc. Everything went well. I have a Crucial m4 SSD with windows and it works fine. The same Cable is being used to power both the ssd and the hdd. I unplugged the power cable to the hdd itself then plugged it back in and felt it start to spin. I just cant figgure out why it isnt being recognized at all. Please help.

 

[Paperdoc]

When you say the HDD "isnt being recognized at all", what is the evidence? Why do you make that conclusion?

You should recognize at the start that a new empty HDD will NOT show up in My Computer at all. Go back a couple of stages and you can check it properly.

1. Go into BIOS Setup and look there to see if the BIOS can recognize the HDD as a valid piece of hardware, with the proper size. If yes, the HDD is probably OK, so proceed.

2. In Windows, go into Disk Management. To do that, click on Start at lower left, RIGHT-click on My Computer and choose Manage. In the left menu, click on Disk Management. On the right you will see two panes, upper and lower, and each of them SCROLLS so you can see all they contain. The upper right pane shows you all the drives Windows fully understands now and can use. But concentrate on the LOWER RIGHT pane which also shows you hardware devices that Windows can't deal with yet. If your HD was in the BIOS OK, it should also be here, with all of its space showing as Unallocated Space. If that's what you see, proceed.

3. RIGHT-click on the Unallocated Space of your HDD and choose to Initiate it. Or, maybe it will offer you a choice to Create a Partition on it and Format it. This must be done before Windows can use it. A Partition is a chunk of space on the HDD that is treated as one "drive" in Windows. You can use all or part of your HDD's space for one Partition; you can create more than one Partition if you wish, and each will be a separate "drive" with its own drive letter name. Often, people choose to make just one Partition and have it occupy all of the available space. Whatever your choice, Create a Partition and make it a Primary Partition (that is, not Extended) that is not bootable - this is a drive for data, since you already are booting from your SSD with Windows installed there. Often in the same Wizard you will now set the options for the Format Operation. Formatting simply creates all the hidden file structures to keep track of files stored on the drive. Have it install the NTFS File System. If you have many hours to let it run, accept the default choice of a Full Format which does some error checking for you. If you're in a hurry and want your new drive usable in about 15 minutes, choose a Quick Format. Run the process. When it is finished, back out of Disk Management and reboot your machine to update the Registry. You will now find your new HDD in My Computer, ready to use.