Cannot add a drive letter to an external hard drive

[perkinw]

I am setting up a new computer running Windows 7 Pro 64-bit. I attached an old 500GB USB 2.0 hard drive. System notification showed the driver was successfully installed. However when I looked for the drive in Windows Explorer, it did not show up under Computer.

I ran Microsoft's Computer Management application. Under Disk Management, I see that the drive does not have a drive letter (see attached screenshot). However when I right-click on the drive, the option to assign a drive letter is grayed out. I searched Microsoft's documentation, but the only reason I could find for not being able to assign a drive letter would be if the disk was a system partition or boot partition. But this is just an ordinary HDD that I want to use for backups. What am I doing wrong?

 

[GokAy]

Try to reformat it with NTFS if there is nothing on it. Use Partition Wizard free if Disk Management won't

 

[perkinw]

Try to reformat it with NTFS if there is nothing on it. Use Partition Wizard free if Disk Management won't

Thank you, I will try that!

 

[perkinw]

I downloaded Partition Wizard, but it is not obvious how to reformat the disk with NTFS. I should have mentioned that I don't care about data on the disk. It should be wiped clean. I just want a clean disk that Windows can use.

Partition Wizard shows the disk like this:

 

[GokAy]

Well, try first deleting the partition in disk management. If it deletes then create another one.

In PW you should get the choices upon right clicking on the partition.

 

[Layback Bear]

Disk Management in Windows 7 should be able to format that drive and also assign a drive letter.

Use this tutorial by Golden to post a complete Disk Management picture.

Pleas follow the tutorial exactly.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/274797-disk-management-post-screen-capture-image.html

 

[CKWD]

Hello perkinw!

You could try diskpart to try and assign a drive letter or even reformat the drive.

1. Open the Start Menu, type diskpart, press Enter
2. Type list disk, press Enter
3. Type select disk X (where X is the number the certain drive), press Enter
4. Type assign letter=Y (Y is the letter you'd choose), press Enter
5. Type exit, press Enter

If you'd want to reformat:

1. Open the Start Menu, type diskpart, press Enter
2. Type list disk, press Enter
3. Type select disk X (where X is the number the certain drive), press Enter
4. Type clean, press Enter
5. Type create partition primary, press Enter
6. Type format quick fs=ntfs, press Enter
7. Type assign letter=Y (Y is the letter you'd choose), press Enter
8. Type exit, press Enter

Hope this helps, but keep in mind that, yes, these actions will erase the data from the HDD.

Good luck!

CK_WD

 

[perkinw]

Hello perkinw!

You could try diskpart to try and assign a drive letter or even reformat the drive.

CK_WD

Thanks, I will try it.