Question Hard Drive Problems?

[Malsumi]

So my PC has a 1TB Western Digital hard drive, but the computer shows only 120GB of storage available, I’m new to computers and Im not sure what to do or if something is wrong. This PC was pre-built, it’s an Inspiron 5680 btw

 

[NightHawkRMX]

Can you show us a screenshot from disk management?

Press WIN+X --> Disk Management

 

[Malsumi]

Can you show us a screenshot from disk management?

Press WIN+X --> Disk Management

Sorry if this seems dumb but how do I do that? haha

 

[USAFRet]

Sorry if this seems dumb but how do I do that? haha

Save the screenshot as a jpg or png.
Upload it to imgur.com.
Post the BBCode link here.

 

[Malsumi]

Can you show us a screenshot from disk management?

Press WIN+X --> Disk Management

 

[USAFRet]

And what tells you it is supposed to be a 1TB WD drive?
That looks like a 128GB drive.

Have you opened the case and eyeballed the drive in question?

 

[NightHawkRMX]

It appears there is both a 120gb drive and a 1tb drive in your system.

You must be looking at the 120gb drive.

 

[Malsumi]

And what tells you it is supposed to be a 1TB WD drive?
That looks like a 128GB drive.

Have you opened the case and eyeballed the drive in question?

Yes, I opened the PC and checked everywhere until I saw what looked like where the hard drives go, and sure enough, it was a 1TB WD hard drive I physically saw it

 

[Malsumi]

It appears there is both a 120gb drive and a 1tb drive in your system.

You must be looking at the 120gb drive.
Can you assign the 1tb partition a drive letter?

Can you walk me through how to do that?

 

[USAFRet]

So...

Disk Management shows a single 128GB drive, probably an SSD.
Eyeball shows a single 1TB HDD.

Speculation:
A physical 128GB SSD you've not seen, and a possibly disconnected 1TB HDD.

 

[Malsumi]

So...

Disk Management shows a single 128GB drive, probably an SSD.
Eyeball shows a single 1TB HDD.

Speculation:
A physical 128GB SSD you've not seen, and a possibly disconnected 1TB HDD.

Under Device Manager, Disk Drives, it shows "Liteon CV8-8e128-11 sata 128gb" but no 1TB HD

 

[NightHawkRMX]

Could be a hidden M.2 perhaps.

Make sure the 1tb hdd is connected. It is not showing up in your system.

I thought i saw the 1tb drive but what i saw was a 1gb partition.

 

[Malsumi]

Could be a hidden M.2 perhaps.

Make sure the 1tb hdd is connected. It is not showing up in your system.

I thought i saw the 1tb drive but what i saw was a 1gb partition.

From what I've seen, there are 2 cables connected to it, one that's a couple of wires grouped together which might be the power from what I've researched, and a blue cable.

 

[NightHawkRMX]

Unplug both cables and plug them back in. Make sure the smaller data cable feels like it clicks into place.

There should be the other end of the data cable that plugges into your motherboard. Take that out and put it back in.

Could be a dead drive too.

 

[USAFRet]

Under Device Manager, Disk Drives, it shows "Liteon CV8-8e128-11 sata 128gb" but no 1TB HD

Yet your eye shows a physical HDD.

Disconnect and reconnect the cables leading to this HDD. Obviously, with power OFF.
See what happens.

 

[Malsumi]

Unplug both cables and plug them back in. Make sure the smaller data cable feels like it clicks into place.

There should be the other end of the data cable that plugges into your motherboard. Take that out and put it back in.

Could be a dead drive too.

I plugged them back in, even applied a small amount of pressure to them to make sure. On a related or unrelated matter I also saw a red and black cable not connected to anything, it’s just dangling and it says “P4” on where it should connect to something.

 

[NightHawkRMX]

Can you take a picture of the connector?

Usually there are un used psu connectors.

 

[Malsumi]

Can you take a picture of the connector?

Usually there are un used psu connectors.

I tried taking a picture on my phone, importing it to the PC, and using the website someone mentioned but it didn't work. The connector of the red and blue cables look almost exact to the one connecting to the HD

 

[Malsumi]

I tried taking a picture on my phone, importing it to the PC, and using the website someone mentioned but it didn't work. The connector of the red and blue cables look almost exact to the one connecting to the HD

red and black! im sorry my bad i meant to say the red and black cables look almost exactly to the blue one connecting to the HD

 

[Malsumi]

Can you take a picture of the connector?

Usually there are un used psu connectors.

I opened BIOS and it says “First HDD” then “WDC WD10EZEX...1000GB”

 

[NightHawkRMX]

I opened BIOS and it says “First HDD” then “WDC WD10EZEX...1000GB”

Good, your bios sees the drive at least.

Does disk management show it now?

 

[Malsumi]

Good, your bios sees the drive at least.

Does disk management show it now?

no, looks the same as the screenshot i showed

 

[Malsumi]

Good, your bios sees the drive at least.

Does disk management show it now?

I'm really late but I wanted to give a quick update, it was the actual hard drive that wasn't working. I went ahead and bought a new one (Western Digital 1TB Blue) but I forgot to buy a SATA cable so I just decided to connect the one that was connected to the one in the HD that I was having issues with to test the cable and sure enough it worked. Formatted the HD and now it's up and running and I've even installed some games I've always wanted

 

[need4speeds]

--1st try to run it upside down and on each side. Maybe the bearings wore a certain way? I found turning it suddenly the way the disks turn helps and then trying to either stop suddenly or gently worked.
--Put the old one in the freezer for 10mins or so. Give the old one a bang when it;s installed. About half the time i found the drive will work long enough so you can get the files off. If not sometimes overnight in the freezer worked too. ----Im gonna assume you wanted your stuff off of it...

 

[need4speeds]

Don't change anything you can get software that recovers files too.