It’s a recurring question. We buy a new disk or drive and the drive doesn’t appear in Windows 10 or Windows 11. In these cases, even though it is correctly connected to the computer, we won’t be able to do anything with it. To put an end to this headache, we’ll tell you what you can do when a drive doesn’t show up in Windows!
Drive not showing up in Windows? You can solve it like this!
Before we start with the possible fixes, we must make sure that the disk is correctly connected and detected by the BIOS. To open the BIOS on your computer, you usually have to press the correct function key when your PC is booting up. The specific key may vary between different manufacturers. Some are with the F2, others with the F8 or F10. Varies a lot. However, when we turn on the PC, this information usually appears there.
As soon as we manage to enter the Bios, we must check if the disk is being recognized or not in the boot or storage section. It’s just that until it’s gone, there’s nothing to do.
Configure Disk Settings in Bios
If for some reason the disc doesn’t show up in the Bios there are a few things you can do. However, this varies from manufacturer to manufacturer.
The point is to go to Storage Settings, Serial ATA, SATA Configuration and choose IDE Compatibility Mode. Then save the settings and restart the PC.
This way it’s likely that everything will work.
Make sure the disk is initialized
Once you have a new disk, you need to initialize it to use it within Windows. Otherwise, it doesn’t appear in File Explorer or the Disk Management utility. However, in the Windows search you can write Initialize disk and on the right side click on Open.
update the drivers
However, it can also be a good idea to update your controller drivers. To do this, we just have to go to the device manager and click on the storage space controller. Then, on the Driver tab, choose the Update Driver option.
And just like that, it is possible for the disk to be recognized.
