I just got a brand new WD hard disk, but it's not appearing on my computer. I'm not sure what steps to take to get it recognized. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
5 Answers
If the disk isn't showing in Disk Management, it might not be getting power. Check your motherboard manual; sometimes cheaper boards won't supply power to certain slots if others are in use, like an m.2 SSD affecting your SATA ports.
First things first, make sure it's plugged in properly! Check both the data and power cables to ensure they're connected securely.
You should open up Disk Management to see if the drive appears there. If it does, it likely needs to be formatted since new drives don't usually come pre-formatted. Just format it and you should be good to go!
I had the same issue, but after a bunch of tries, it finally scanned and recognized the hard disk!
Remember that brand new drives are often unformatted, so they won't have a drive letter until you format them. If you see it in the BIOS, it should definitely show up in Disk Management for formatting.
That sounds great, but what if it doesn't show up in Disk Management at all?