Why doesn't my PC read my second Hard Drive? (SATA)?

Question

I recently installed a second SATA hard drive in my PC (not sure what motherboard it is...it's a recent Dell PC and I know for a fact it takes up to 3 more SATA hard drives).

I've changed the settings in the BIOS so it reads the second hard drive (I tested it without the connection, and I know I'm on the right track there) but I can't see it in 'my computer' on the desktop.

I CAN see it when I go into 'control panel' >> systems >> device manager, but I can't see it in 'My Computer'.

Also, it says the device IS working properly. So I'm not sure what the problem is - or why I can't see it next to the C drive in 'My computer'. Any thoughts? Many thanks in advance. Sham.

EDIT: As I right click on the Disk 1 in computer management, I get the options, "new partition"...not 'format'..

??? Where do I go from here?

DONE! THANK YOU!

Answer 1

Hard drives are shipped blank. You need to partition and format the drive before the computer will recognize it as usable space.

The easiest way would be to typ "diskmgmt.msc" in the run dialogue on your start menu.

From there you will see the details of all the drives on your computer. You should see the drive you installed, then you should just have right click on the drive and select format. Just make sure you are not formatting a drive that is already active. You will be able to tell because your new drive will not have a drive letter assigned to it.

After it is complete, you will be able to use the drive.

Answer 2

It's probably not formatted yet. Right-click My Computer and click Manage, then find Disk Management. All available drives installed should be listed. Disk 0 should be your C: drive, and Disk 1 will be the new one. If Disk 1 doesn't say something about "NTFS" or "FAT" and doesn't have a drive letter then it's not formatted yet - right-click on it and click Format.