When buying a new disk, both an SSD and a hard disk, both an internal mounted disk and for external use, it may not be immediately recognized by the computer.
Although they may have a different size and a different technology (SSD or HDD), from the internal and external point of view they are all the same, only the type of connection to the computer changes which is the USB cable for external drives and the SATA cable for internal disks.
In both cases it may happen that, after connecting the disk, it does not appear in the list of disk drives in it explores resources and seems invisible.
Some might think it is a question of drivers to install, but from Windows 7 and then in Windows 10 the disk drivers are already included in the system so that is not the problem.
With a new drive or an external drive that has not been used for some time, it may be necessary to format and / or initialize the disk instead.
This is a very simple operation that can be performed using the Windows Disk Management utility to which we had dedicated a guide some time ago.
To open Disk Management you can use the search field of the Windows Start menu or go to Control Panel> Administrative Tools> Computer Management .
In the Disk Management window, the newly installed or connected SSD or hard disk (if external) will surely appear.
If it does not appear, then there is a hardware problem that can depend on the USB cable used or on the power supply of the external disk or on the fact that it is broken.
In another article we tried to look for all the possible causes and solutions if external disk or USB stick is not detected by the computer .
If all goes well, the newly connected disk appears in Disk Management and needs to be formatted.
As you can see, each disc is marked with a number (Disc 1, Disc 2, etc.) and that the total memory space is indicated for each.
If the disk has multiple partitions, they are displayed separately, each with its own letter.
Typically, the letter C: indicates the Windows installation disk, although it may be different in the case of a custom installation.
Internal disks are indicated as Basic while external disks and USB sticks are indicated as Removable.
Initialize the disk
If there is a disk that is not recognized by the PC, this may be indicated as Unknown and uninitialized and certainly has unallocated partition space.
If the disk is not initialized, clicking on it with the right mouse button will find that each option is disabled and you cannot even format it.
Before proceeding to initialize the disk and format it is important to know that all the data inside it, if present, will be deleted.
If we have important files on the disk that is not working, refer to the guide to recover files from broken hard drive or dead computer.
From Disk Management, to initialize it, right click where it says unknown and not initialized and use the Initialize disk option and select the type of partition as MBR (Master Boot Record) or GPT (GUID partition table) and press OK.
Usually, if the disk is used on Windows PC, the MBR partition is chosen.
Format the disk
Once the disk is initialized, you can press on the unallocated space with the right mouse button and create a new simple volume .
The wizard for creating a new volume can be continued without changing anything, unless you want to assign a letter to the disk partition other than the default one, being careful not to use a letter already taken.
The letter is the one with which you can recognize the disk in computer resources)
As for the size of the partition, it is better to use all the capacity, unless there are needs to leave free unallocated space to be used to create a second partition later.
Following the wizard, you finally get to the window to format the volume.
Here you can give an optional label and choose the file system which is always NTFS for internal or external disks or even SSD and Fat32 or exFat for USB sticks (READ ALSO: difference between NTFS, FAT32 and FAT.
You don't need to choose to perform a full format, but quick formatting is also fine.
Procedure to format and initialize the command line disk
These operations to initialize and format an external or internal disk to make it operational and functional on PC can also be done from command prompt.
From the Windows Start menu, search for and open the command prompt as an administrator and run the following commands:
diskpart
list disk
Find the disk number to format (and run the command:
select disk 3 if for example if it is 3.
clean to erase everything
create partition primary
Active
format fs = ntfs label = "give a name"
assign letter = R if you want to assign the letter R to the disk (check that it is not used by other partitions).
This is also the ideal procedure to format a USB stick by cleaning it and recovering all available space .
READ ALSO: How to create hidden or locked hard disk partitions as virtual drives
Although they may have a different size and a different technology (SSD or HDD), from the internal and external point of view they are all the same, only the type of connection to the computer changes which is the USB cable for external drives and the SATA cable for internal disks.
In both cases it may happen that, after connecting the disk, it does not appear in the list of disk drives in it explores resources and seems invisible.
Some might think it is a question of drivers to install, but from Windows 7 and then in Windows 10 the disk drivers are already included in the system so that is not the problem.
With a new drive or an external drive that has not been used for some time, it may be necessary to format and / or initialize the disk instead.
This is a very simple operation that can be performed using the Windows Disk Management utility to which we had dedicated a guide some time ago.
To open Disk Management you can use the search field of the Windows Start menu or go to Control Panel> Administrative Tools> Computer Management .
In the Disk Management window, the newly installed or connected SSD or hard disk (if external) will surely appear.
If it does not appear, then there is a hardware problem that can depend on the USB cable used or on the power supply of the external disk or on the fact that it is broken.
In another article we tried to look for all the possible causes and solutions if external disk or USB stick is not detected by the computer .
If all goes well, the newly connected disk appears in Disk Management and needs to be formatted.
As you can see, each disc is marked with a number (Disc 1, Disc 2, etc.) and that the total memory space is indicated for each.
If the disk has multiple partitions, they are displayed separately, each with its own letter.
Typically, the letter C: indicates the Windows installation disk, although it may be different in the case of a custom installation.
Internal disks are indicated as Basic while external disks and USB sticks are indicated as Removable.
Initialize the disk
If there is a disk that is not recognized by the PC, this may be indicated as Unknown and uninitialized and certainly has unallocated partition space.
If the disk is not initialized, clicking on it with the right mouse button will find that each option is disabled and you cannot even format it.
Before proceeding to initialize the disk and format it is important to know that all the data inside it, if present, will be deleted.
If we have important files on the disk that is not working, refer to the guide to recover files from broken hard drive or dead computer.
From Disk Management, to initialize it, right click where it says unknown and not initialized and use the Initialize disk option and select the type of partition as MBR (Master Boot Record) or GPT (GUID partition table) and press OK.
Usually, if the disk is used on Windows PC, the MBR partition is chosen.
Format the disk
Once the disk is initialized, you can press on the unallocated space with the right mouse button and create a new simple volume .
The wizard for creating a new volume can be continued without changing anything, unless you want to assign a letter to the disk partition other than the default one, being careful not to use a letter already taken.
The letter is the one with which you can recognize the disk in computer resources)
As for the size of the partition, it is better to use all the capacity, unless there are needs to leave free unallocated space to be used to create a second partition later.
Following the wizard, you finally get to the window to format the volume.
Here you can give an optional label and choose the file system which is always NTFS for internal or external disks or even SSD and Fat32 or exFat for USB sticks (READ ALSO: difference between NTFS, FAT32 and FAT.
You don't need to choose to perform a full format, but quick formatting is also fine.
Procedure to format and initialize the command line disk
These operations to initialize and format an external or internal disk to make it operational and functional on PC can also be done from command prompt.
From the Windows Start menu, search for and open the command prompt as an administrator and run the following commands:
diskpart
list disk
Find the disk number to format (and run the command:
select disk 3 if for example if it is 3.
clean to erase everything
create partition primary
Active
format fs = ntfs label = "give a name"
assign letter = R if you want to assign the letter R to the disk (check that it is not used by other partitions).
This is also the ideal procedure to format a USB stick by cleaning it and recovering all available space .
READ ALSO: How to create hidden or locked hard disk partitions as virtual drives
