Perhaps one of the most annoying problems that can cause users to panic is when they purchase a new hard disk to add to the existing one or to use as an external hard drive. After installing it in the computer, and opening the File Explorer in Windows to view the partitions, they notice that the new partition does not appear. This makes them think that the problem lies with the new hard disk, even though other storage devices like USB drives appear without any issues.
In reality, there is no problem with the hard disk itself. The reason why the disk doesn’t show up is that it is not formatted by the manufacturer, meaning it is unrecognized or inactive. This is why the partition associated with it does not appear. However, Windows will still read the hard disk without any problems. The solution here is to format the hard disk to make it visible again, and we will go through the steps to do this in this article.
To begin, you need to launch the Disk Management tool in Windows, which is used to manage storage units connected to the computer. You can open it in several ways. In Windows 8 and 10, right-click on the Start menu and select Disk Management from the options that appear. In Windows 7, right-click on My Computer icon on the desktop and select Manage to open the following window.
After opening the Disk Management tool, you will see all the drives used on the computer and their respective partitions. Focus on the lower part where connected storage units are displayed. If you have already installed the new hard disk, you will find it in this section based on its size. Right-click on it and select “Initialize Disk” to proceed.
Clicking on “Initialize Disk” will start the initialization process. You will be prompted to choose between using MBR or GPT for the disk’s reading system. After making your selection, click OK to complete the disk initialization. However, the problem will not be resolved yet. Let’s move on to the steps of formatting the hard disk to be able to use it.
After initialization, right-click on the new hard drive in the Disk Management window and select “New Simple Volume.” A wizard will guide you through setting up the format or storage unit. Click “Next” to review the setup steps.
In the initial steps of formatting, you will be asked to specify the amount of space you want to use on the disk. By default, the entire space will be allocated, but you can specify a certain space in MB for a partition and format the remaining space for an additional partition in the same section. Click “Next” once done.
In the second step, you will be asked to specify the drive letter for the hard disk, allowing you to choose a letter to distinguish the hard disk.
In the third step, select “Format this volume” to format the hard disk. Choose the file system (NTFS by default) and name the volume label. Click “Next” to finish the formatting settings and close the settings window.
After formatting is completed, you will notice that the section for the additional or external disk has changed from black to “dark blue,” indicating that the hard disk is ready for storing data. You can now close the Disk Management tool and go to File Explorer to see the new partition among the others. You can now use it without any issues.
