How do you make your drive visible in Windows?

File Explorer can't find your drive. That's annoying, but it's nothing that can't be fixed. The first step is to figure out what the problem is. You do this by going to Disk Management. We'll explain how to do this, how to find out what went wrong, and how to solve it.

• First: go to Disk Management
• Cause 1: your drive isn't initialized yet
• Cause 2: your drive isn't allocated yet
• Cause 3: your drive isn't formatted yet
• Cause 4: your drive doesn't have a drive letter yet

To find out why your HDD or SSD can't be found, open Disk Management. You do this by going to the bottom left of the screen and clicking on the Windows icon with your right mouse button. Select Disk management. It's also possible to use the shortcut Windows+X and select Disk Management. You'll get an overview of every drive and partition in your computer. Enlarge the window until you see the grid at the bottom of the screen.

You need to initialize to use the drive. You can do that in the window Initialize drive. Choose between the MBR or GPT partition styles. Do you have a drive of up to 2TB? Choose MBR. Is the driver larger than 2TB? Choose GPT.

Initialize your drive

1. Open drive management.
2. If your drive isn't initialized yet, you'll get an Initialize drive pop-up.
3. Didn't you get a pop-up, but do you see a notification with Not initialized? Right click on the drive in the grid and choose Initialize drive.
4. Choose between MBR (up to 2TB) and GPT (larger than 2TB).
5. Click OK.

Your drive is now initialized, but not yet allocated. You can tell by the notification Unallocated. By creating a new simple volume on your drive, you can partition and format the drive in one go. Tip: When formatting, it's best to choose NTFS.

Create new simple volume

1. Right-click your drive in the grid and select New simple volume.
2. A new window open, click Next.
3. In this window, you can choose the volume size. Keep it as it is and click Next.
4. Choose a drive letter and click Next.
5. In the next window, you format the drive. Select the file system, preferably NTFS.
6. Make sure the cluster size remains Standard and choose a volume name. This will become the name of the drive.
7. Check the box Perform a quick format and leave File and folder compression. Click Next.
8. Click Complete.

It's possible that your disk is initialized and partitioned, but not formatted or not formatted for Windows. In that case, the file system will say RAW. Note: when you format again your drive, all files will be erased. That's why you should only do this with new drives or after you've made a backup.

Format your drive

1. Right-click the drive in the grid and select Format.
2. Choose a volume label. This is what the drive will be called.
3. Select the file system, preferably NTFS.
4. Leave the cluster size on Standard.
5. Check the box Perform quick format and leave File and folder compression empty. Click OK.
6. You'll receive a warning. Only click OK if you're sure that your files are safe.

There's a small chance, but it's possible your drive is initialized, partitioned, and formatted, but doesn't have a drive letter yet. A drive letter is (D:) for example, like you see in the explorer.

Assign a drive letter

1. Right click the right drive in the grid and select Assign drive letter and paths.
2. Click Add if you want to add a new letter or Change if you want to change it. Click OK afterwards.
3. Select a letter. Click OK.

Windows still hasn't found your hard drive or SSD? Perhaps your device doesn't support the drive. Reread the manual of your computer or laptop. If you're sure that your device supports the drive, it's possible that the drive or the connector of your device is broken. Try installing the drive in another device and check if it works then. Is it still not visible? Please contact our Customer Service.