The computer does not see HDD what it means and how to deal with the problem.

First of all, you need to decide what is a hard drive. A hard drive (called a "hard drive" in slang) is a device for storing data.

In fact, all information on a computer is stored on it (with a few exceptions).

Diagnostic Measures

If the computer does not see the disk, you need to decide on the "culprits". That is, find out if the problem lies in the device itself or in the system.

To do this, you will have to connect to another computer.

If it recognizes the device, then the problem is in the system, if not, then the hard drive itself is faulty. Further work on it is better to entrust the masters.

Or use a warranty replacement or repair.

If the problem is in the "native" hard disk, that is, there are several ways to eliminate it on your own.

The few things you can do yourself will help you avoid spending on professional services.

Some Helpful Tips

• You can enter the BIOS settings by pressing the F2 or
• It's better to remember well correct connection cables with SATA outputs;
• It is better to wrap the hard drive removed from the system unit in an antistatic agent;
• The lower part of the device, which is with boards, is also better to always put on antistatic.

Main problems and solutions

There are a number of problems with the hard drive that you can overcome with your own hands.

A software conflict or outgoing contacts can be corrected without contacting specialists.

Outgoing contacts

The problem may lie in the banal lack of contact. To fix it, you will need to remove the cover of the system unit and try reconnecting the cables.

If the result is not followed, then you can use other, parallel cables.

Incorrect BIOS settings

In the case when even the BIOS does not detect the hard drive, you need to look at the system date. Its incorrectness indicates a configuration failure. Resetting the settings will help fix the situation.

To do this, you will need to remove the battery motherboard, wait 10-30 minutes and install back.

After these simple steps, the hard drive should be defined as a physical device.

The problem may be in the order of boot devices. In this case, you do not need to completely reset the settings.

It is enough to find the menu item, in the name of which there is the word "Boot".

It will list the priority of devices to boot. In this list, you need to move the HDD to the first line.

Not enough food

If the device periodically disappears and appears, then you need to listen to it.

The characteristic buzzing sounds of changing cycles of work indicate a lack of power. Then you will have to purchase a more powerful power supply or turn off some less important device.

Device conflict

Two hard drives of the same brand in the system can cause conflicts. To avoid them, you need to check and configure each one in turn with a separate connection to the system.

Bus version

Versions prior to Vista may not support the SATA(SATA II) interface.

The easiest way in this case is to change the operating system to a newer one.

If this is not possible, then you still have to reinstall the OS, but with integrated drivers for SATA interfaces.

OS problem

If the BIOS detects the device, but Windows does not see the hard drive, then you will need to manual setting Windows tools. To do this, proceed as follows:

1. Open the "Control Panel" in the drop-down panel "Start";

2. Double-click on the "Administration" item;

3. In the window that opens, the item "Computer Management";

4. In the list on the left, the item "Disk Management".

Question from user

Hello.

Bought not too long ago new computer(ordered immediately with 2 hard drives). not to pay for Windows installation- I decided to do it myself, everything seems to work. But I go to "My Computer" - and I see only one drive ("C:\"), on which the system itself is installed, and the second one is not. Is it not working or am I misconfiguring something?

By the way, when installing the system, I saw two disks that could be selected under Windows. It's kind of strange...

Michael (note: contacts are overwritten)

Good day!

If you could select both drives under Windows when installing it, then for sure now the drive is invisible in Explorer due to the fact that it is not formatted (this is all the time with new PCs / drives). As a rule, it is enough to open the special. utility in Windows "disk management" (or third-party analogues) and format it.

Below in the article I will show how to do this step by step, and I will also give a number of other reasons. So...

The drive is not formatted

Most common cause: Explorer simply doesn't display an unformatted drive that it can't recognize (and on which you, in principle, cannot record anything yet) . To view all "visible" and "invisible" drives connected to the computer, you need to run the utility "disk management" .

To open it:

1. press button combination Win+R;
2. enter the command diskmgmt.msc into a string "Open" ;
3. click OK (screenshot below).

Screenshot: How to open disk management

Next, you will see a list of drives: usually new drives are marked in black (as an unallocated area, see the screenshot below). To bring them into a "working" mode: click on the unallocated area with the right mouse button and select from the menu "Create Simple Volume" .

Note!

If your drive is not displayed in Disk Management, then I recommend and see if the PC could detect it at all. More on this in the article below.

By the way, the created volume must format (when formatting, most often, the NTFS file system is chosen. You can see the difference in file systems).

Important! Formatting will delete all data on the drive.

Disk management - format drive

I note that after formatting the disk becomes visible in "My computer" ("This computer").

ADDITION!

In addition to the standard Disk Management utility in Windows, you can use special programs to work with hard drives. For example, AOMEI Partition Assistant, Acronis Disk Director, MiniTool Partition Wizard, etc. They are also able to "display" all drives connected to the PC and format them.

Drive letter conflict

By default, Windows automatically assigns a specific drive letter to all mapped drives, say "Drive D:\" or "Drive E:\" and so on. But sometimes it happens that there is an "overlay" and the letters match (e.g. letter hard drive may match any) . Because of this, it is possible that your drive will not be displayed (even if it is formatted).

To fix this, simply manually change the assigned drive letter. For this you need to open "Disk Management" (a little higher in the article it is described how this is done) and right-click on the disk name, for example, "Local D"(see the example below) - select from the menu "Change drive letter or path..." .

After the changes, restart your PC.

Is the hard drive visible in BIOS/UEFI

It also happens that the disk is not visible anywhere: neither in Explorer, nor in "My Computer", nor in "disk management", nor in any special. programs for formatting drives.

In this case, you must first make sure that the drive is visible in BIOS | UEFI. Simply, if it is not displayed in the BIOS, then you will not see it in any Windows program ...

To help!

If you do not know how to enter the BIOS / UEFI, then here is a small instruction on this topic:

In addition, usually, when buying a laptop / PC, it comes with those. documentation (it also shows how to enter the BIOS and configure it).

In most cases, in modern BIOS versions information on the drives is immediately visible (even no partitions need to be opened). See if the disk model, size, serial number is displayed.

Is the disk visible in UEFI (its model, volume, etc.). On the screenshot, the arrow shows the hard disk (Storage) - its model has been determined, i.e. the disk is "defined" (clickable)

What to check first

If the disk model is not defined in the BIOS (or it is not visible at all that the disk is connected), then going to Windows and trying to configure is pointless. Most often, the problem lies in the hardware.

Outgoing contacts

First, turn off the computer and check all cables and disk contacts. The most common cause of "invisibility": poor contact between the contact tracks of the disk and the cable.

By the way, if you have a disc that is already in use, take a closer look at these "tracks" to see if they are covered with dust or sour. It is advisable to carefully clean them with an eraser (eraser, see the screen below).

If you have a PC (and not a laptop, where there is no "choice"), try connecting the drive to other cables (often, when one of the cables "plays" and does not provide a reliable connection).

Lack of nutrition

Also, a very common problem when connecting a second / third drive to the system is a lack of power. This affects typical office system units more, in which, for the sake of economy, they put inexpensive low-power power supplies. As a result, when an additional drive is connected to the system, it may simply not have enough power.

How to recognize/define it?

1. monitor the operation of the disk (a characteristic feature of the work in this case): if there is a lack of power, the disk can be normally detected, but as soon as data begins to be written to it, an error occurs and it "disappears", becomes invisible (after a while it may "appear" again).
2. you can try to run the HWMonitor utility and look at power surges under load: if there are "dips" of 5% -7% (or more) - the power supply is clearly not coping;
3. the easiest way: use a special device to connect the disk to USB port (they are simply called BOX for HDD). Moreover, BOX can be of different configurations. (with and without power supply): you need one that has its own power supply! If the disk with the power supply works fine, but without it it constantly "disappears" - the problem with the power supply is "on the face".

Try connecting the drive to a USB/other PC

The easiest way to check the operation of the disk (as already recommended above) is to use special. BOX. With it, the disk can be connected to regular USB and look at his work.

Pay attention to the BOX construction: there is nothing complicated in it. As a rule, it is enough to insert a disk into a box with a compartment, close it, connect the disk to the USB and power adapter with cables, and turn it on.

Where to buy such a thing? In any computer store. If you are not in a hurry, you can order for "penny" in Chinese online stores:

BOX for connecting a disk to a laptop / PC

You can also use another PC / laptop to recheck the disk.

To help!

How to connect a hard drive from a laptop to a computer -

Disk hardware failure

If no tricks allow you to "see" the disk, it is possible that it has simply become unusable. By the way, there are statistics that 0.1% -0.3% of disks are damaged and become unusable during "long" transportation (especially in our country, where boxes with drives are often thrown and thrown during unloading) . Add to this a possible factory marriage ... Therefore, even relatively new disk, and there is nothing so surprising in this ...

If there is a warranty on the disc - just replace it. By the way, if you are dealing with an external HDD, then do not rush to throw it away. The fact is that some of them can be tried to be restored: moreover, it is often possible to do this at home. I provide a link to the article below.

External hard drive repair at home // attempt to restore performance -

For additions on the topic - a separate merci ...

That's all for now, good luck!

All "advanced" computer users have encountered such a situation. It happens that the disk categorically refuses to be detected in the OS.

And well, ate only in the system. There are several reasons for this disk behavior. The most common is the presence of "broken" sectors. But first things first.

The computer does not see the hard drive. What is the reason and how to fix it?

The answer to this question varies depending on how the hard drive is not defined. If the disk is determined by BIOS boot and is not visible in, then this is not so bad. Maybe it's the drivers.

Or boot sector, which contains the information required for the connection, is located in the damaged area. Then the OS does not see the partition table and reports that "The disk is not formatted." This can be fought.

And the standard functions of Windows OS. It is much worse if the disk is not detected when the computer boots.

In some cases, the HDD is not detected in the BIOS. There are many reasons for this: a "glitch" of the BIOS itself, damage to the HDD, wire failure, incorrect jumper position, etc. You can return the hard drive to working capacity.

But sometimes you have to take care of buying a new storage medium. What to do to make the computer see the hard drive?

If the drive is not detected inBIOS

The first task in this case is to determine the cause of the malfunction. It's not all that simple here. If the disk is not visible in the BIOS, then this is already quite a guard, because the reasons may be different. And well if it's not boot disk with installed OS.

If the hard drive does not want to be detected in the BIOS, try the following solutions to the problem:

1. Reset BIOS settings to default. It happens that base system I / O sometimes "buggy". After resetting the settings, everything should work fine.
2. IN BIOS settings, related to the hard disk, turn off AHCI mode. Sometimes the disk does not want to be detected due to the inclusion of this option.
3. Try updating the BIOS. Sometimes “bugs” and “glitches” are fixed in new firmware versions. previous versions. It is possible that after the update everything will work.
4. Check connection loops by connecting others. Over time, the wires connecting the HDD to the motherboard fail. Check their performance by replacing the wires.
5. Checking jumpers. If two HDDs are connected to the computer, and both of their jumpers are in the “Master” position, one of them will not be detected. It is necessary to change the position of the jumper by selection.
6. Last option. Connect the HDD to another computer. If the disk is not detected there either, then it's time to scrap it.

If the above methods did not help, then everything is very bad with the disk. And here the dilemma arises: to recover data or repair the disk. It's not the same thing. When restoring data, the disk is not repaired, but simply thrown away.

When the disk is repaired, the data disappears. Considering the cost of modern HDDs, there is no point in repairing them. And there is no guarantee that after repair it will last a long time. But the data can be recovered. And move them to a new HDD. But this is the worst scenario.

If the drive is not detected inWindows

Let's assume the BIOS detects the hard drive. But Windows OS categorically refuses to see it. What to do in this case? The system may not see the HDD for several reasons.

The most common of them: the presence of "broken" sectors and problems with drivers. In the first case, there is little we can do. But in the second, you can try to reinstall the drivers.

If the system greets us with the message "The disk is not formatted", then this is a sign that the boot sector has been damaged. As a result, the OS is unable to read the information required to connect this disk. There is a solution to this problem. Go to the "Start" menu, select "Run" and enter the combination "cmd".

opens command line. In it, enter the command "chkdsk drive letter: / F / R". This command starts a disk check. Key "F" - automatic error correction, key "R" - data recovery. The process may take a long time.

Depending on the volume and degree of cluttering of the disk. 99 chances out of a hundred that after this procedure, the OS will see the hard drive.

If it's the drivers, then we need to reinstall them. To do this, go to the "Device Manager", look for the designation of the HDD and click the "Uninstall driver" button. After that, the computer must be restarted.

After rebooting, the system itself will try to install a driver for an unknown device. In most cases, this is sufficient. But if this does not happen, go to the "Device Manager", click on the icon with the device we need and select the "Update drivers" item. The OS itself will find the appropriate driver and install it.

After that, we restart the computer and rejoice at the determined hard drive.

If nothing helps

If the above methods did not give any result, then the HDD "died". There is only one thing left - to try to recover the data. You can do this yourself, but it is better to entrust professionals.

If you decide to recover data on your own, then there are several good programs who can help you. However, all of them are good only if the hard drive is detected at least in the BIOS.

Recuva- perhaps the most famous data recovery program. It can recover almost any type of files. The positive quality of the utility is that it is completely free.

However, the percentage of recoverable information is not so high. But the application is completely in Russian and has a simple and intuitive interface. Manage sim product is easy.

R-studio- the most "cool" utility for data recovery. This monster will restore everything without further questions. He knows how to pull data from the disk even after formatting it.

Flexible program settings allow you to adjust the recovery process depending on the type of files. The program has only one drawback - you will have to pay for its use. Because the unregistered version cannot recover large amounts of data.

However, it makes sense to spend on full version, in order to further protect yourself from the threat of losing all the necessary files.

Seagate File Recovery – powerful program. It will find and restore everything that is possible even on an undetectable HDD. The utility is undemanding to system resources and is free. But there is one significant drawback.

The application works exclusively with Seagate hard drives. The utility does not notice HDDs from other manufacturers at all. Considering that most users use hard disks from this manufacturer, then the appearance of this utility in this list is quite justified.

Data Rescue PC- an excellent tool designed to work with disks outside operating system. The program is loaded as a Live CD and can work even with badly damaged disks.

This utility is capable of restoring everything. It will be especially useful in cases where the system disk is damaged and the OS does not want to boot in any way.

Despite all the professional "goodies" and the Live CD mode, the utility has a nice and intuitive interface. The program is completely free and does not require activation.

With the help of all these programs, you can try to pull out at least some information from a damaged hard drive. If they do not help, then you need to contact professionals.

Such an appeal will cost a lot, so it’s worth considering whether the information stored on a damaged HDD is really so necessary. May be, best solution would be just buying a new hard drive.

Conclusion

Thanks to this mini-instruction on the topic “The computer does not see the hard drive. What is the reason and how to fix it? many users can save time, money and nerves. If we summarize everything that is written above, we can say that in most cases, troubles with hard drive reversible.

Even if it is corrupted, there are ways to get information out of it. By using specialized programs this can be easily achieved. And so that such unpleasant situations do not arise, use the “Check disk” system option more often. Checking and correcting errors will help keep your HDD in good health.

The hard drive is one of the most important components personal computer. It is on it that everything is stored. Unfortunately, the user may encounter the fact that the computer simply does not see the hard drive. This trouble occurs quite often, and there is a solution for it. The first step is to understand why the computer does not display the hard drive, and only then look for a way to solve an urgent problem.

Hard drive problems and solutions

The problem may lie, for example, in a conflict between the hard disk itself and motherboard. To solve this problem, you need to insert the CD with drivers from the HDD and install them.

In addition, the problem may lie in the BIOS "e. In order to understand whether this is really the case, you need to go into the BIOS itself and find the AHCI parameter (Configure SATA As item). This setting must be disabled and restart the computer. If the problem is really was this, then the hard drive will be detected.

If the problem is not solved, then you can use another method. First you need to check the disk itself. You need to go to the "Start" menu and right-click on "Computer". A special menu will appear, where "Management" is selected. It is worth noting that the launch of the control is possible only with administrator rights or their confirmation. The "Computer Management" window will open, where you need to find the "Disk Management" item. After clicking, information about the computer disks (local and hard disk in general) should appear. Need to find the right one local disk, which is not displayed and right-click on it. In the menu that appears, select the category "Change drive letter or drive path". A specific letter is selected and the action is confirmed. Usually such simple actions it is enough for the computer to see the hard drive.

The problem may also lie in the fact that not all cables can be connected to the hard drive. To do this, you need to disassemble system unit and check if this is true. If all the cables are connected, then you need to look at the wires themselves, they may be damaged. If everything is in order here, then most likely the problem lies in the disk itself and you need to look for a replacement. Just in case, in order not to waste extra money, you can ask your friends for it and connect it to a PC. If the computer sees it, you will have to buy a new one.

Every computer has a hard drive that stores the software and other files it needs to work. Note that this component is very sensitive, and problems with it often occur. This is due to the presence of elements moving at high speed inside the disk. One of possible problems is a situation where the computer does not see the hard drive. Why is this happening and how to solve it? We'll talk about this.

Problem in connection interface or power supply

First you need to check if the disk is working. To do this, it must be connected to another computer. This is easy to do: just remove 4 (or even 2) screws, pull out the power cable and SATA cable and connect it to another computer. If he sees the disk, then this will clearly indicate a problem with the computer from where the drive was removed.

Why does the computer not see the hard drive if another system was able to notice it? There may be several reasons:

There is a small chance that after these manipulations, the hard drive will work. These are the most elementary operations that the user can quickly take to solve this problem. If nothing helped and it is still unknown why the computer does not see the hard drive, then you need to look deeper for the cause.

BIOS settings

The BIOS may well be the reason why the computer does not see the hard drive. Therefore, its settings must either be changed or reset. The last option is the easiest. To do this, restart the computer, enter BIOS system(usually you need to press F2 or Del when rebooting) and look for the menu item "Load Optimized Defaults". It can also be the string "Load Optimal Defaults". We select this item, press Enter, the system asks us for confirmation, we agree. Now press F10 (save and exit), confirm the action, the computer restarts again. The system will then be able to see the hard drive, after which it will boot.

No interface support

If the computer does not see the hard drive, the cause may be the SATA interface, which older operating systems cannot work with. However, there is an opinion that this problem is solved by downloading drivers for SATA or installing Windows distribution, in which required drivers are preset. However, the easiest option is to install a more recent operating system (Windows 7, for example), where the necessary drivers are available by default.

By the way, the lack of drivers in the system is possible if pirated copies are used. software in the form of various assemblies from unknown users.

Device conflict

If several SATA interfaces are connected to the computer at once hard drives from different manufacturers, there may be a device conflict. Checking if this is actually the case is quite easy. To do this, turn off each drive in turn and see how the system reacts to this. It may turn out that after disconnecting the first drive, the operating system will freely detect the second drive, and when the second one is disconnected, it will see the first one without any problems. In this case, the reason why the computer does not see the new hard drive will be obvious - a device conflict. If the disk is new, then it is advisable to replace it with another one - from the same manufacturer as the main one.

Operating system problems

In some cases, it is not clear why the computer does not see the hard drive, while Windows loads, and information about it is displayed in the BIOS. In this case, there is a problem with the operating system. You can try to solve this problem by means of Windows itself.

To do this, open the "Control Panel" and go to the "Administration" section. There is an item "Computer Management". We select it and see "Disk Management" in the tree on the left. Right-click on it, the context menu is called, click on "Change drive letter or path." A new window opens in which we can change the drive letter. Specify a new letter, click "OK", restart the computer.

In some cases, this helps to solve the problem, but not always. This solution works when there is already another device in the system (for example, a DVD drive) that is assigned the letter D, which is used to designate the default primary disk partition.

When the disk is not enabled by the system

When you connect an additional hard drive, the system may crash and not prepare it. However, you can also do it manually. To do this, go to the same section "Disk Management". All disks connected to the computer will be displayed there - working or not. If there is a line "No data" opposite the additional disk, then this means that it has not been initialized. Right click on it and select "Initialize".

Also opposite the disk may be written "Unallocated". Right-click on it, select the option "Create a simple volume" and follow the instructions of the system.

If the drive system is RAW, it means that the drive needs to be formatted in file system NTFS or FAT32. Click on it with the right mouse button and select the "Format" option. In this case, all information from the drive will be deleted.

If the computer does not see the external hard drive

Note that external drive is a more modern analogue of a flash drive. It connects via USB interface. Therefore, if the computer does not see external hard disk, then first of all you need to try to connect it to another USB port.

If this does not help, then you need to change the drive letter. The way to do this is described above. It is also worth considering that the new disk may not be formatted. This will have to be done on your own. You need to format it in FAT32 or NTFS in the same "Disk Management" section. Be careful, as formatting permanently deletes all data from the disk.

Lack of drivers is another reason why the computer does not see the hard drive. What to do in this case? Yes, you just need to install the driver. It is possible that a disk with utilities came with the external hard drive - they need to be installed. If there is no disk, then the necessary "firewood" can be found on the Web, downloaded and installed. And although in 90% of cases Windows automatically connects external hard drives (the drivers are already in the system), sometimes it happens that you need to download applications yourself.

Finally

These are the main reasons why the computer does not see the hard drive. You now know what to do in these cases, but if nothing happens, and the system still cannot recognize the presence of a drive, then a hardware failure of the device cannot be ruled out. It can be determined exactly by connecting the drive to another computer. And even if another system could not recognize it, then it is clearly broken. However, if it is new, then it will be replaced under warranty. As for old discs that are more than 5 years old, then you should not worry about them, since they do not have the longest life. Drives are extremely sensitive devices with moving parts inside. And if we are talking about SSD drives, then these do have a limited service life, since memory cells disappear when information is written and erased.

In general, now you understand why the computer does not see the hard drive and how to fix it. similar problem. Note that this is a common phenomenon, which in most cases is solved by a software method.