Windows 7 does not detect my new hard drive?

I just built a really nice new PC.

Some specs...

Intel i7-930 CPU
ASRock Extreme X58 motherboard with sata 3 and USB 3.0
12gb of G-Skill DDR3 RAM
80gb Intel G2 Solid state drive for Windows 7 and other programs to run on
Windows 7 Pro 64bit OS
2 1gb graphic cards for 4 monitor support

Thats the main components.

Well today my new 1tb western digital hard drive came which I plan to use for data to preserve the life of my SSD (hopefully).

I hooked up it's sata power input and then hooked up it's sata data cable to a sata 2 port on my motherboard, I boot windows 7 and go into my computer and the drive is not showing up with my other drives. I then re-boot again and check again, no luck. I then shut down the PC and open the case back up, I then check my connections and they all look good. I then boot up and I can see the new HD is on and spinning. I then go into my BIOS settings to see if it registers there and it DOES! It shows I have a WD 1tb hard drvie on sata 2 port 6.

So I am at a loss of why it is not showing up as an option in windows? Windows acts as if the drive is not there.

Please help

JasonDavis

Posted 2010-04-29T21:14:23.953

Reputation: 4 852

Answers

It sounds like you need to initialize and format the disk through disk management. It should be in Administrative Tools in the Control Panel.

Holocryptic

Posted 2010-04-29T21:14:23.953

Reputation: 404

I just did this. I googled and found that tip as you posted this and got it working so you were on the right track. Thanks I will also post an answer with more info for others who might search and find this question someday as a reference – JasonDavis – 2010-04-29T21:29:18.900

Based on the same answer that Holocryptic posted.

1)
I went to the Windows 7 Start menu and clicked it, then I typed in diskmgmt.msc into the search box that says "Search programs and files" diskmgmt should come up as the search result and click on it to open it up.

2) From this disk management program I was able to find my 1gb drive and right click it and format and assign a drive letter to it.

3)
Once done it shows up as a working drive, very simple!

JasonDavis

Posted 2010-04-29T21:14:23.953

Reputation: 4 852

Drives come absolutely clean as you don't know if it will be put in a Mac, Linux, Windows, or other system. Every OS has a number of file systems they support as well. So the usual steps are 1)physically install, 2)partition, 3)format, 4)assign drive letter or mount point. – Fiasco Labs – 2012-05-05T16:37:07.913