I can't see my Internal 2tb hard drive after installing windows 8, only my ssd

I installed windows 8 and formatted my SSD to do so, and now Win 8 is on it clean installation.

I loaded up computer, and can't find my 2tb hard drive? It's not showing anywhere.. where has it gone? It shows in device manager but I can't access it.. :(

October 29th, 2012 5:59pm

Try making sure the Hard disc is connected securely inside the system. If so, try disconnecting it and run the pc, then reconnect it and re run the pc, and see if it works. is there a master slave problem maybe? make sure you have the SSD connecting where the Hard disc was connected originally and the Hard disc connected where you currently have the SSD. let me know what happens.
  • Edited by Davidx92 Monday, October 29, 2012 8:20 PM
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October 29th, 2012 8:18pm

Try making sure the Hard disc is connected securely inside the system. If so, try disconnecting it and run the pc, then reconnect it and re run the pc, and see if it works. is there a master slave problem maybe? make sure you have the SSD connecting where the Hard disc was connected originally and the Hard disc connected where you currently have the SSD. let me know what happens.
  • Edited by Davidx92 Monday, October 29, 2012 8:20 PM
October 29th, 2012 8:18pm

I too am having this same problem, if it shows in device manager then it should be connected right I would think?
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October 29th, 2012 9:06pm

Open up windows explorer by holding the windows button and hitting "e". Right click "computer" and select "manage".... click disk management. You should see your new disk here (if you don't see below). Right click on the disk and select "format" if it's a NEW drive (it will erase data). If not select which option fits your need.

If you don't see your drive in disk manager you may need to install a driver for your raid/ide/sata (hard drive) controller. Visit your hardware manufacturer website for the driver.

Hope this helps - Ryan

  • Proposed as answer by Ryanbac Tuesday, October 30, 2012 12:36 PM
  • Marked as answer by Nicholas LiModerator Thursday, November 08, 2012 6:53 AM
October 30th, 2012 4:22am

Open up windows explorer by holding the windows button and hitting "e". Right click "computer" and select "manage".... click disk management. You should see your new disk here (if you don't see below). Right click on the disk and select "format" if it's a NEW drive (it will erase data). If not select which option fits your need.

If you don't see your drive in disk manager you may need to install a driver for your raid/ide/sata (hard drive) controller. Visit your hardware manufacturer website for the driver.

Hope this helps - Ryan

  • Proposed as answer by Ryanbac Tuesday, October 30, 2012 12:36 PM
  • Marked as answer by Nicholas LiModerator Thursday, November 08, 2012 6:53 AM
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October 30th, 2012 4:22am

Similarly to the steps below from Ryanbac. 

Once your in Disk Management and you can see your 2nd hard drive, you'll need to assign a letter to it. 

Right Click on the Drive > Change Drive Drive Letter and Paths > Choose a letter. 

Once this is done you'll be find your 2nd or 3rd HDD when you open My Computer. 

If you can't then you'll definitely need to format it. 

Hope that helps :) 

October 31st, 2012 11:33am

Similarly to the steps below from Ryanbac. 

Once your in Disk Management and you can see your 2nd hard drive, you'll need to assign a letter to it. 

Right Click on the Drive > Change Drive Drive Letter and Paths > Choose a letter. 

Once this is done you'll be find your 2nd or 3rd HDD when you open My Computer. 

If you can't then you'll definitely need to format it. 

Hope that helps :) 

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October 31st, 2012 11:33am

Hi,


Please go to Device Manager, under Disk drives, can you see your second hard drive?


If so, please right click it and choose uninstall. Reboot your system, let Windows reinstall it automatically and see how it works.


If issue persists, please provide us a detailed screenshot of Disk Management for further research.


Hope this helps.

November 1st, 2012 8:23am

i solved similar problem by installing intel ahci driver, which replaced MS version. You can tell this is the problem whe you switch to IDE mode in bios and boot into repair console using win8 dvd. it fails to see the hard drive there until ahci was turned off.
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November 4th, 2012 2:19am

i solved similar problem by installing intel ahci driver, which replaced MS version. You can tell this is the problem whe you switch to IDE mode in bios and boot into repair console using win8 dvd. it fails to see the hard drive there until ahci was turned off.
November 4th, 2012 2:19am

I did this and there is no change. it shows as unallocated space so I'm not sure what I should do next, I just want to be able to use this drive for storage of pics, music, ect.

it shows in the same area as the system reserved files, O drive.

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November 5th, 2012 3:11am

A big Thank you to both Ryan and COJ, i was having the same problem and that fixed it right away

Cheers

December 2nd, 2012 1:43am

... and see how it works.Jeremy Wu

TechNet Community Support

Jeremy, we have tried this. Please read my following post. The instability of the September 2012 Release edition of win8 is such that it is 50:50 whether you will even see those HD drives in Device Manager over your next dozen wishful win8 PC installations. (write me if you want to know how to locate IDE's every time using command line switching, for now).

The drivers and so on are all in place. Microsoft now has to stabilize a platform that for some computers is a violent storm at sea.

Burb Our hearts go out for all our Philippines support techs. Super Typhoon Bopha's winds went from 200 to 260  in just two hours, and that jump comes as she is slamming into their city center Island coastlines. Good luck to all of you, Microsoft and our support techs.

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December 3rd, 2012 6:29pm

... and see how it works.Jeremy Wu

TechNet Community Support

Jeremy, we have tried this. Please read my following post. The instability of the September 2012 Release edition of win8 is such that it is 50:50 whether you will even see those HD drives in Device Manager over your next dozen wishful win8 PC installations. (write me if you want to know how to locate IDE's every time using command line switching, for now).

The drivers and so on are all in place. Microsoft now has to stabilize a platform that for some computers is a violent storm at sea.

Burb Our hearts go out for all our Philippines support techs. Super Typhoon Bopha's winds went from 200 to 260  in just two hours, and that jump comes as she is slamming into their city center Island coastlines. Good luck to all of you, Microsoft and our support techs.

December 3rd, 2012 6:29pm

i solved similar problem by installing intel ahci driver, which replaced MS version. You can tell this is the problem whe you switch to IDE mode in bios and boot into repair console using win8 dvd. it fails to see the hard drive there until ahci was turned off.

This is VERY INTERSTING! IDE boot will not work with Windows 8 Upgrade Release. 

My system builder found that win7 Indexing shuts off win8 access to PC-AT-IDE external bays as of November 28 2012. All external and internal access to PC-AT-IDE user data is lost as of December 01 2012. This condition results immediately after running a reinstall using option to Remove everything and reinstall Windows. System builder is unable to find a hardware solution and states that this is solely an operating system problem: a fact confirmed by Microsoft Research.

Microsoft is aware of the global issue where SSD based machine locates IDE disks, but Windows 8 cannot install IDE drives (internal or external). Microsoft advises upcoming Windows 8 release will resolve This IDE Issue. This issue is identified by Windows 8 Team Research.

For now you may see your disks in Device Manager, but they cannot be accessed in Computer Management / Disk Management. If you elect to keep any IDE attached to Windows 8 system, multiple system hardware conflicts are likely until next release, and software outcomes are also possible.

 

FYI My system is all Intel using SSD 520 series with internal locals ranging in size from 120 to 480 GB. Our internal  and external PC-AT-IDE backup systems are on hold until the upcoming Windows 8 release. Grin and bear it.

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December 3rd, 2012 7:48pm

i solved similar problem by installing intel ahci driver, which replaced MS version. You can tell this is the problem whe you switch to IDE mode in bios and boot into repair console using win8 dvd. it fails to see the hard drive there until ahci was turned off.

This is VERY INTERSTING! IDE boot will not work with Windows 8 Upgrade Release. 

My system builder found that win7 Indexing shuts off win8 access to PC-AT-IDE external bays as of November 28 2012. All external and internal access to PC-AT-IDE user data is lost as of December 01 2012. This condition results immediately after running a reinstall using option to Remove everything and reinstall Windows. System builder is unable to find a hardware solution and states that this is solely an operating system problem: a fact confirmed by Microsoft Research.

Microsoft is aware of the global issue where SSD based machine locates IDE disks, but Windows 8 cannot install IDE drives (internal or external). Microsoft advises upcoming Windows 8 release will resolve This IDE Issue. This issue is identified by Windows 8 Team Research.

For now you may see your disks in Device Manager, but they cannot be accessed in Computer Management / Disk Management. If you elect to keep any IDE attached to Windows 8 system, multiple system hardware conflicts are likely until next release, and software outcomes are also possible.

 

FYI My system is all Intel using SSD 520 series with internal locals ranging in size from 120 to 480 GB. Our internal  and external PC-AT-IDE backup systems are on hold until the upcoming Windows 8 release. Grin and bear it.

December 3rd, 2012 7:48pm

would u plz help me what to do. I installed win 8.1 . when i installed it i have to off one of my hard disk to connect my DVD ROM. After installing os connect HDD but it shows in my computer but cant access.   From disk management it shows its size and partition . What to do ?
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December 1st, 2013 4:38am

Change Drive Letter and Paths on Disk Management, It's work! Fully thanks
  • Edited by Songkham Monday, March 17, 2014 5:58 PM
March 17th, 2014 5:58pm

Change Drive Letter and Paths on Disk Management, It's work! Fully thanks
  • Edited by Songkham Monday, March 17, 2014 5:58 PM
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March 17th, 2014 5:58pm

Is this still a problem?  It is now August of 2014 and I seem to have this exact problem with a new PC.  The system knows that a 1TB disk is there but I can not make it operational.  Only the SSD drive is functional.  This a new PC with Win 8.1.
August 5th, 2014 12:19pm

It was doing this to me, also.  I went to disk management, right clicked the unallocated partition, and created a basic volume, using the entire partition.  It formatted the unreadable partition, I gave it a drive letter, and now it shows up as a usable device.  Hope that helps!
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August 6th, 2014 4:05am

Desktop Dell, Windows 8.1

I cloned the OS partition (~60GB) from seagate (1TB) to SSD (128GB). OS boots from both. When booting from Seagate, SSD had letter "I". When booting from SSD letter changes to "C" and Seagate doesn't show up in Windows explorer and Disc management. It showed up in BIOS.

Went to BIOS>Boot>Hard drive drivers or partition (?)> 1st Boot as Windows Boot Mode (not sure about exact words).

>2nd Boot> disabled (idea was to disable booting from seagate).

This corrected the problem, seagate shows up everywhere when booting from SSD.


  • Edited by HS Sidhu Tuesday, August 12, 2014 2:51 PM
August 12th, 2014 2:50pm

Desktop Dell, Windows 8.1

I cloned the OS partition (~60GB) from seagate (1TB) to SSD (128GB). OS boots from both. When booting from Seagate, SSD had letter "I". When booting from SSD letter changes to "C" and Seagate doesn't show up in Windows explorer and Disc management. It showed up in BIOS.

Went to BIOS>Boot>Hard drive drivers or partition (?)> 1st Boot as Windows Boot Mode (not sure about exact words).

>2nd Boot> disabled (idea was to disable booting from seagate).

This corrected the problem, seagate shows up everywhere when booting from SSD.


  • Edited by HS Sidhu Tuesday, August 12, 2014 2:51 PM
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August 12th, 2014 2:50pm

Thank you so much! Assigning a drive letter fixed my problem!
September 19th, 2014 3:40pm

You, sir, are my hero. I could not believe I forgot that this was the solution as my last few formats did not remove the label on my storage drive. I was in an utter panic. Thank you!! :D
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October 16th, 2014 6:02am

It was doing this to me, also.  I went to disk management, right clicked the unallocated partition, and created a basic volume, using the entire partition.  It formatted the unreadable partition, I gave it a drive letter, and now it shows up as a usable device.  Hope that helps!
This worked for me! Thanks ;0
December 14th, 2014 11:22am

I have similar problem, but if I uninstall will i loose all my things on it?
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August 24th, 2015 1:30am

it also work`s on windows 10
August 31st, 2015 6:09am

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