If your windows computer is unable to detect your second hard drive, read this article, in this article, we have explained how you can easily fix windows not detecting or not recognizing the second hard drive issue using 7 effective methods.
Some people use two hard drives for additional space or backup purposes. A common complaint is that Windows 10 not detecting the second hard drive on my computer after a Windows upgrade. So, in this article, we will explain the causes of Windows 10 not detecting the external or second hard drive issue and the probable solutions to fix this issue.
Prior to fixing the Windows 10 not detecting the second hard drive issue, let's understand the reasons why the second hard drive does not appear in Windows.
Here are the reasons why the second hard drive does not appear in Windows, File Explorer, or on the PC
1. Connection issues
The second hard drive might not show on Windows may be because the hard drive is not connected properly. Or the power supply, cable or USB port, etc, might go wrong
2. The hard drive is not initialized
If the disk is marked as unallocated or not initialized in Disk Management, you will not be able to find a second hard drive in Windows.
3. The hard drive is not partitioned
If the hard disk has no partition and all disk space is unallocated, it won't show up on the PC.
4. Hard disk partition without a drive letter
If a partition of the hard disk does not have a drive letter, then you cannot find it in Windows
5. Outdated disk driver
When the driver of the hard disk is outdated, it won’t be detected by your computer
6. Bad sectors on the disk
If there are any bad sectors on the disk, the Windows system might be unable to recognize them.
Now that we are aware of the reasons for the second hard drive not showing up on Windows, we will move ahead with the steps to fix the unrecognized second hard drive.
You can fix an unrecognized hard drive on a PC, laptop, or Windows computer using the methods listed below.
Windows 11/10/8/7 comes with this troubleshooter inbuilt. If you recently installed a new driver or some hardware and find some things are not working as you’d like them to, use this troubleshooter.
The Hardware Troubleshooter will open. You can set it to fix the detected problems automatically or select and opt to fix only the ones you want.
Click on Next to run the Hardware and Devices Troubleshooter. Once the scan is completed, it will present you with a report.
Choose the ones you want to fix and click Next.
When your hard drive is disappeared from File Explorer or Disk Management, check on the hard drive power cable and SATA cable first.
Step 1: Take out the hard drive from your computer with a screwdriver.
Step 2: Check if the hard drive connection is loosened.
If yes, unplug and re-plug the hard drive from the computer case. If the cables are damaged, change the SATA cable and the power wire, and reconnect the drive to the PC.
Step 3: Put the computer case back on and restart the PC; check if your hard drive shows up.
Applies to: Fix Windows not recognizing hard drive in BIOS error.
Step 1: Restart the PC and press F2 to enter BIOS.
Step 2: Enter the Boot Menu and check whether the second hard drive is showing or not.
Step 3: In case the hard drive is not visible to you, then follow the below tips.
First, enter the Setup section under System Setup, and check the state of the second hard drive.
Next, if the System Setup option is Off, turn it ON. Save the changes.
Remember to restart the PC each time to check if the second disk shows up in the BIOS. If the hard drive still doesn't show up, it's probably having a physical issue.
Sometimes your hard drive may be properly connected and functioning well. But if it doesn’t have a letter assigned, then it will not be shown on This PC/My Computer. So try changing the drive letter using the steps explained below.
Check if you can detect your hard drive; if not, you can check for driver updates explained in the next step.
Before you upgraded your system to Windows 10, was your system detecting the second hard drive? If yes, your current hard disk drivers are probably not compatible with Windows 10. To solve this issue,
When the hard drive is not initialized, you won’t be able to see and read it in Windows File Explorer.
Partitions on the drive can get corrupted or lost due to file system file corruption or due to virus attacks. This results in data becoming inaccessible on that drive. In such cases, you need to make use of data recovery tools like Remo Recover.
Remo Recover is an advanced hard drive recovery software to recover more than 500 file formats like photos, raw images, videos, documents, excel files, etc. This tool works with a read-only interface to recover files from any hard drive, such as SSD, USB drives, memory cards, and many more. Moreover, the Deep Scan feature of this tool allows you to recover files from corrupted, dead, unrecognized, unreadable, or formatted hard drives. Download this tool now!
Follow the below steps to start the recovery process of your deleted or lost partitions: