Adding hard drive

[Nashsafc]

I've added a hard drive to my computer. It appears up in device manager. But i need to format it don't i before it appears up as a lettered drive. How can i do that. I've tried right clicking and going to propeties on device manager and i know which drive it is i want formated. I can't find any format option. The drive doesn't appear in my computer either only in device manager.

 

[HappyBison]

You have to create a partition first, then you can format it.

You did not mention what OS you are running so it's not so easy to suggest correctly.

If you have something like Win XP, you can do the following:
1. Right-click on My Computer and click Manage. That will get you into Computer Management.
2. Click Disk Management on the left pane.
3. You will see a list of disk drives. Your new drive should appear here in the list so you can create a primary partition on it and format it from the same menu.

Win Vista and Win 7 are very similar.

 

[Nashsafc]

i have vista 64 bit. I managed to do it with a windows xp instalation disk, i created a partition on the second hard drive and exited the instalation before it proceeded to install xp on the hardrive. i formatted the drive when it appeared up in "my computer" But i would still liek to know how to do it properly. So right click on computer in the folder or on the folder? Where is the management tab?

 

[Paperdoc]

To get to Disk Manager, start at the Start button. From its menu, RIGHT-click on "My Computer" and choose "Manage" from the options. In the resulting window expand "Storage" if necessary and click on "Disk Management".

On the right in the upper pane there is a list of all the devices Windows knows how to use right now. In the lower right pane (scrollable so you can see them all) are blocks representing all the hardware devices in the machine, including ones Windows can't use yet like a new empty drive. For each block there will be a small box at the left showing something like "Disk 0" and a size and status. To the right of that there will be other blocks. For a new unit it likely will just have one large block called "Unallocated Space". If you RIGHT-click on this you'll have a small menu of choices and you can Create a Partition. Choosing that probably will get you a Wizard to help. You can choose the size of the Partition, its type, whether or not it is bootable. When you get to Formatting it (may be included in the Wizard, or you may have to do manually AFTER the Partition is created) you specify the file system (use NTFS unless you know you need FAT32) and a Quick Format unless you want to spend time on disk testing. When it's done it should have a letter name assigned to it.

The Partition, once created and formatted, will show up now as a new block in this device. If you RIGHT-click on the Partition's block you have some options including Change its Name - you can change to any letter not in use now. A drive Partition must have a letter name for Windows to use it. When you have done all you want in here, exit out of disk Manager and reboot to let Windows set all these thing up in the Registry. My Computer will show you your new drive ready to use.

 

[Nashsafc]

it's ok i found it now thanks.