Since your computer has an already installed primary hard drive, the BIOS configuration can cause detection problems for the second drive. Or disk driver issues are also something to blame, not to mention connection issues and drive letter assignment issues.
How to Fix Second Hard Drive Not Showing Up Issue
Before moving on to solutions, you should ensure the connection between your second hard drive and computer is good. Then, you can try the given solutions:
Enable from BIOS
BIOS, your computer’s firmware, can act as a switch to enable or disable attached I/O devices. And BIOS have settings to auto-detect such drives when booting. The first hard drive connected to your computer would be configured as the Primary hard drive, and any subsequent would be the Secondary one. So, make sure you have the right settings configured. If the list doesn’t consist of your second disk, ensure proper connection of the disk with the computer.
Check Connection
Interruption between the physical connection of Hard drive and computer can also cause the discussed issue. Faulty ports, cables, or even slots may be the actual reason behind the interruption. To ensure that isn’t the issue, try to reconnect the cables and if necessary, reseat the device properly. You can also use different sets of cables. Using a different slot of your computer would help you narrow down the issue even further. Then if the problem persists, connect the hard drive to another PC. If it works on another computer, BIOS may have been misconfigured.
Reset BIOS
The misconfiguration of BIOS can be fixed by resetting the BIOS settings to default factory settings. The exact steps for BIOS differ according to the motherboard. However, general steps would include:
Hardware Troubleshooter
You can apply a quick fix by running the Windows hardware and devices troubleshooter. It would automatically scan and resolve fixable issues for any connected hardware device, including the second hard drive.
Fix Driver Issues
Then, the first software problem that you should try to resolve would be related to the disk driver. Windows operating system tries to communicate with your hard drive using driver software but if it’s outdated or corrupted, drive detection issues will arise. But, if no update is available, or the update didn’t fix your issue, you can try to reinstall the driver. The second disk’s driver should reappear.
Rescan Disks
Scanning a new piece of hardware attached to the system is an automatic process of Windows. But sometimes, it may not do, so you can manually scan and detect your hard drive from the Disk Management utility.
Initialize Disk
If the disk is visible in Disk Management but not in Windows Explorer, chances are the disk itself isn’t initialized. It is possible if the hard drive is new or recently formatted. To fix it, you can initialize the disk.
Allocate the Drive Space
After initializing the disk, the next step would be to create a volume within it so, that the space lists on Windows Explorer. It would also be helpful for already initialized Hard disk having unallocated space marked: Now instead of showing unallocated space, the space should be shown New Volume along with the drive letter, its size and the file system (NTFS by default).
Assign Drive Letter
If the issue wasn’t of the driver or unallocated space, Windows might be experiencing a drive letter assignment problem. The operating system needs to assign some drive letter to your hard drive partition/volume in order to show it up in Windows explorer. The process should be automatic, but in rare cases, Windows might not assign any drive letter. To resolve the issue,
Format Data and Recover Drive
Accessing the hard drive sometimes becomes impossible if it is corrupted with bad sectors and partitions. So, you will have to format it first to make it usable. But, after formatting, the data within it’s gone? Not at all; even after formatting the drive or deleting everything from the drive, you will be able to recover data unless you have overwritten it. To format the drive, open diskmgmt.msc and follow the steps below: Now, to recover the formatted data, open-source software called Test disk can be used. Download it from their website and continue with the steps below: Other third-party paid software would provide GUI experience and are also able to recover directory structures.
Replace/Repair
If the hard drive doesn’t show up in any instance, it might be physically broken. But repairing on your own won’t be possible if you haven’t got hardware-related expertise. So, visiting a repair center or contacting a technician is recommended.
