new hard drive

[chadpmarshall]

I recently finished my first PC build, and have everything up and running well. I installed Windows 10 on my SSD, and I have a 1 tb HDD that I plan to use for pictures, music and things like that. I formatted the drive, and it appears to be ready to be used for storage, but there is no file system on it like what is on the main drive with windows. I am really new to all of this, so pardon me if it appears obvious to you. What do I do to have a file system on the drive? Or do I need to worry about that. I realize I can create folders and create my own file system, but on the main drive, it already has directories set up for me, like programs, and documents etc. I hope this makes sense, as its hard to explain for me. Does partitioning the drive do that? Is there a windows tool that does that for me? Thanks so much for the help. This community is absolutely wonderful in helping people.

 

[Luminary]

Hello chadpmarshall,

Congrats on getting your first PC up and running!

1) You can check to see if you have a 'filesystem' installed by right clicking the start icon on the bottom side of the desktop and selecting 'Disk Managemnt'. You should see your 1TB drive there, and NTFS (the file system type) next to the size. If there is no file system, you'll need to right-click the 1TB drive and add the NTFS file system to it.

2) What you MAY be asking is just the folders within the drive once it is ready to use. A new drive won't have any pre-created folder trees like "My Documents", "My Pictures", etc. Once the drive is formatted correctly you'll need to make those yourself!

It's easy to get terminology confused, so remember that typically a 'file system' refers to HOW a drive is formatted. Windows typically uses the NTFS file system, while Mac and Linux use others. A folder tree (or folder hierarchy), on the other hand, might be the term you were searching for.

 

[chadpmarshall]

That is exactly what I was asking, and that answers my question. The drive is listed, and NTFS is also there along with healthy. So looks like all is good and I will have to create those new directories myself. Thanks so much!

 

[Luminary]

You're most welcome. Cheers!