Solved Win7 not recognising new 3rd HDD

[OldNick]

The BIOS sees it. System Info for Windows sees it, but shows no drive letter. Device Mangler lists all 3 drives, but is not much help because Properties shows no Volume or capacity for any of the HDDs.

Can I assume this drive is an unformatted blank? How do I format it if Win is not seeing it?

Any help really appreciated.

 

[seavixen32]

Before we can offer the best advice we need to see a screenshot of your fully-expanded disk management layout please.

By fully-expanded, we need to see not only the partitions but a full view of their respective titles.

If the drive hasn't been partitioned Windows won't see it.

 

[OldNick]

Thanks for the reply. I am not sure what you mean, but I hope thsi works.

 

[dsperber]

No... what is needed is a screenshot from running DISKMGMT.MSC.

Then maximize it to full-screen and spread the columns so that the test in each cell of the upper-half is fully readable.

 

[seavixen32]

This is what we need.

 

[OldNick]

Thanks again guys. I think I am seeing the answer but I will ask you to confirm. The disk is a blank.

See attached, but also when I ran diskmgmt.msc I was told that I had to initialise the new drive before it could be used. That seems pretty definitive.

EDIT: Uploaded a better shot.

 

[seavixen32]

Initialising a drive is the same as giving the drive a partition.

Every new drive needs to be intialised and formatted before you can use it.

Just right-click the drive in question, choose the option to create a new volume (partition), then give the new partition a quick format and a drive letter.

Windows should then see it, but you may need to reboot first.

 

[OldNick]

OK. Thanks.

I was worried that maybe Win 7 was not seeing the drive, although it had data on it. I realise that an empt6y drive will not be seen by Windows. I was worried that somehow Windows would not see a drive that _did_ have data on it. I think that has happened.....

As I said, when I started to use the diskmgmt.msc utility, I started to believe that the disc was empty.

So. Thanks for the help guys, again.

 

[seavixen32]

You're very welcome.

If you feel your problem has been resolved, please mark the thread as solved.

If you need further help, don't hesitate to post back.

 

[OldNick]

I'm still not quite sure. The diskmgmt.msc app is still under windows. Can I be sure that the drive is empty, based on what I am seeing? I do not want to unnecessarily lose data. As I say I would just like confirmation.

 

[OldNick]

I am sorry. I should clarify. I called this a new drive. But it's not new. It is a drive that I had in the cupboard. It came from another PC and I am surprised that it is blank/empty. That is why I am being cautious.

 

[whs]

There can be no data in unallocated space.

 

[OldNick]

Ok. Thanks. I have done some silly things recently with computers and I wanted to be sure.

BTW your reply sounds like a good line for a SciFi movie.

"There can be no data in unallocated space......"

Off to format a disc and thank you all. I will mark as solved.

 

[seavixen32]

You're very welcome.

If it's any consolation to you, we've all done silly things with a computer, it was ever thus.

 

[OldNick]

HAH! I do wish to comment that this has been a really direct and helpful thread. They can otherwise sometimes. This was excellent. That's not a "feel good" I reckon good news should get back as well, sometimes.

 

[seavixen32]

We're just pleased your problem has been solved.

 

[dsperber]

I am sorry. I should clarify. I called this a new drive. But it's not new. It is a drive that I had in the cupboard. It came from another PC and I am surprised that it is blank/empty. That is why I am being cautious.

If you FORMAT this drive then any data previously on it is [theoretically] lost.

The fact that you say it "is not new", but that "I had it in the cupboard, and it came from another PC" is consistent with your "I am surprised that it is blank/empty". But of course the mystery is why it doesn't appear to have a partition on it, nor any file type (e.g. NTFS).

What was the old computer machine environment from which it came? Was it previously FAT, FAT32, NTFS, from a Mac, what?

I suspect that if you go ahead and create a new partition on what Windows believes is an "empty" drive that you've really lost access to whatever was there before.

What was this drive in its previous life???

You've checked this thread as "solved", but was it really? Did you actually create a partition (say as NTFS) and all of your previous data on this drive was still there? I can't imagine that would be true.

So exactly what does "solved" mean? Is the drive now simply 100% empty and usable under Windows, but with all previous data lost and that's acceptable? Or what?

 

[OldNick]

Thanks for the reply.

Having used the diskmgmt.msc tool and seen that it, too could not find anything, I went ahead and formatted the drive.

I figured two things: the data could not be devastatingly critical and recovering it was not going to be easy.

So yes. I was happy to accept that there was no data on the drive, and it's now formatted and ready to use as an empty drive.

Like you I am puzzled why the drive should show as completely blank and unformatted. I am not able to tell you what its history was, regarding file systems etc. To be honest I needed some more storage space, and found this drive.