Newbie help on HDD not recognized in My Computer?

[clock245]

System info below:
LIAN LI A71F
P8P67 Deluxe
2 x Corsair XMS3 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 Desktop Memory Model CMX8GX3M2A1333C9
1 x Crucial RealSSD C300 CTFDDAC064MAG-1G1 2.5" 64GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive
I7-2600K
Asus SATA 24X DVD Burner
XFX Radeon HD 6950 2GB 256-bit Video Card
XFX Black Edition 750W 80+ SILVER Modular PSU
Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Noctua NH-D14

I've installed the OS on my SSD on a SATA 3 port. I have my WD installed on a Sata 6 port. However, it does not appear in "My Computer". I see it on startup and in the boot menu. I'm a newbie so it could be something simple that i'm missing...

 

[clock245]

i also checked disk management and did not see the drive listed...

 

[haphestus]

Try plugging the HDD into another SATA port? See what happens.

OR

Go into the BIOS and make sure the SATA port it is plugged into is enabled. If you dont know which one, then just turn them all on.

Sweet build by the way......and let me know how you get on.

 

[Paperdoc]

You may not be looking in the right place. I'm assuming this is a brand new HDD with nothing on it.

You are seeing in on startup POST messages, which proves your BIOS is detecting it as valid hardware. BUT no OS (including Windows) can use a HDD that is completely empty. There are two steps of preparation needed to get the unit ready to use. Fortunately they can be done within Disk Management. You seem to know how to get to that point.

Now, you'll need to look at a particular place in Disk Management. On the right there are TWO panes. NOTE that each of them SCROLLS so you can see their entire contents. The upper right pane shows you all the disk devices Windows can use right now, but that will NOT include an empty new HDD. Look instead at the LOWER RIGHT pane, which will show you all the valid hardware drive units the BIOS can detect, even if Windows does not understand them all yet. Each drive unit is represented by one horizontal block with a little label block at its left end with info: a unit number like Disk_0, a device type, a size, and a status. A large sub-block to the right of that represents the way the space on the unit is allocated. Optical drives won't have a defined block there because they don't have any flexibility. But a Hard Drive unit can have its space allocated to one or to many Partitions. Windows will treat each Partition as a separate "drive" with its own letter name. To use any HDD you MUST first do two operations on it: Create one or more Partition(s), and then Format each of these. Once these are done, the block(s) for the Partitions each contain a new set of info showing the disk name you assigned when it was created (like "Harry's Disk"), the letter name Windows will use for it, the Partition's size, the File system installed, and a status.

To do this work you find the new 1TB HDD in the LOWER RIGHT pane. That large sub-block to the right probably says it is "Unallocated Space." RIGHT-click on that and choose to Partition and Format it. A Wizard will pop up to help you. You can choose to make it any size you want, but I suspect you intend to have just one Partition on this HDD unit that encompasses ALL of its space, so set it that way. This should be a Primary Partition, but it does NOT need to be bootable since you are already booting from another drive (the SSD). (If at some future time you do expect to mount an OS on this HDD and boot from it, you can make it bootable now.) For the Formatting options, you should choose the NTFS File System, and then select either Full Format or Quick Format. The Quick version does the necessary stuff in a relatively short time - less than 15 minutes. The Full version does that, and then goes through the entire drive testing it for errors and making notes in Windows never to use any bad sector it finds. The Full Format is not necessary usually with a new HDD, but it's a good safety measure. It takes SEVERAL HOURS to do its job, so be patient! Fortunately, the Wizard helps you set up BOTH of the operations needed - Partition and Format - so you just have to run that when your selections are set, then wait.

When it is finished, I suggest you back out of Disk Management and reboot. Your HDD will now show up in My Computer ready for use.

 

[capt_taco]

^^^

Listen to this guy; he knows what he's talking about when it comes to hard drives.

Don't worry, this problem is basically what happens to everyone the first time they try a primary-secondary hard drive configuration. The above is exactly the way to fix it and you'll be fine.

 

[oopie45]

Actually, same happened to me on my HDD in my build; my Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB smiled in my BIOS but Windows Installer didn't see it. I played the "Shift+F10" game after I entered my language, etc. to get the Command Prompt (CMD).

To use the Diskpart.exe utility to clean the hard disk, follow these steps:
Insert the DVD into the DVD drive.
On the disk selection screen, press SHIFT+F10. A Command Prompt window opens.
Type diskpart, and then press ENTER to open the diskpart tool.
Type list disk, and then press ENTER. A list of available hard disks is displayed.
Type sel disk number, and then press ENTER. number is the number of the hard disk that you want to clean. The hard disk is now selected.
Type det disk, and then press ENTER. A list of partitions on the hard disk is displayed. Use this information to verify that the correct disk is selected.
Make sure that the disk does not contain required data, type clean all, and then press ENTER to clean the disk. All the partitions and all the data on the disk is permanently removed.
Type exit, and then press ENTER to close the diskpart tool.
Close the Command Prompt window.
Click the Refresh button to update the disk selection screen. This step lists the disk.
Run Windows Setup to perform a clean installation of Windows.

I'm gonna be honest, "Clean All" will take a long time. You may want to refer to what's below to determine if a "Clean All" is necessary, or if you want to just "Clean".

More on the Disk Utility in Command Prompt here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/300415

Cheers