Installed new SATA hard drive but now I cannot "see" it

[soarwitheagles]

Hi everyone!

I hope someone here can help me. I just installed a new Maxtor 1TB SATA II/300 hard drive on my system but I cannot seem to find it when I click on my computers.

This new hard drive does show up in the BIOS.

I did see some notes on the Maxtor install instructions about needing to use the Force 150 jumper if I have a VIA chipset. I have no clue if I have a VIA chipset. I think it may be a VIA because it is a ECS 945GCT-M/1333. Yet, I am not sure if using the Force 150 jumper is the right thing to do.

I wanted to ask someone here what should I do. My system is running so well thanks to many people here and I did not want to mess something up.

Can someone help me discover how to "see" this new hard drive on my computer?

Thanks,

Freddy

 

[Lexluethar]

I believe you need to format the new drive in order for the OS to recognize it. You should format it in the NTFS file format, there are a number of software programs that will do this for you. SOmeone else may be able to point you in the right direction.

 

[KSoD]

Hello Freddy,

Lex is right. You will need to format the drive to NTFS to be able to use it properly. To do so open up Disk Management.

Start>Right click on Computer (OR My Computer in XP) and select Manage. In that window on the left side select Disk Management.

Once that comes up you should see the drive but it will be unallocated Space. If that is the case, right click on the drive and create a new simple volume. From there format it to NTFS.

If the drive can not be seen from the Disk Management screen then you will have to use a 3rd party tool like Acronis Disk Director, Partition Magic, GParted or something like that to get it formatted.

Cheers,
Mak