HDD Isn't Showing Up

Selphious

Honorable
Feb 27, 2013
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So I just built my new PC and when installing Windows 8.1, it asked me to choose between my 1 TB Western Digital Caviar Blue or my Samsung 120GB SSD, and of course I chose the SSD to install the OS on. But, now I can't seem to find my HDD for installing games and such on. Is it some issue with Windows 8.1?

Thanks much for any help!
 
Solution
If it's not an IDE versus AHCI issue, Win 8.1 might need you to Import the old drive into your new Windows (from within Disk Management).
Or it's choking on something, maybe some security thing it wants you to authorize before it lets you access that drive.
Obviously the trick is if you need to preserve any important precious old files... otherwise, if you can break out the old partition(s) it's easy to get that old HD going.
Actually, I can find the WDC Blue HDD when I check the drivers and devices and such, I just can't find the storage space. There's LocalDisk(C:) for the SSD and (D:) for the optical drive, but I just can't find the storage space for the HDD :/
 
It's possible (if it's a few years old) your old rig ran the WD Blue in IDE mode and not the more modern AHCI mode.
Your new rig will want to run AHCI, which you need for a SSD anyway.
But if you connect a HD that was originally partitioned and formatted using an IDE controller, an AHCI controller won't be able to read it.
In that case, the drive may still appear in Device Manager but you would need to re-partition it to use it (obviously resulting in the loss of any files).
To check this, investigate your old rig's harddisk controller setup within its BIOS, and see.
If your old rig was running it AHCI, then we have different issues. But this would be the important fundamental first step...
 
If it's not an IDE versus AHCI issue, Win 8.1 might need you to Import the old drive into your new Windows (from within Disk Management).
Or it's choking on something, maybe some security thing it wants you to authorize before it lets you access that drive.
Obviously the trick is if you need to preserve any important precious old files... otherwise, if you can break out the old partition(s) it's easy to get that old HD going.
 
Solution
What kind of partition was last set up on the WD?
If you can see the hardware but the partition is not available, it is possible that it is either damaged or not recognized.
Is there any chance the WD was formatted with a dynamic partition? If so, your system may not be able to access it. It seems strange that the disk itself is available but not the space on it. WD Blue disks aren't that old, and the HDD is a pretty basic piece of hardware so I doubt that the system could have any trouble recognizing it.
If it were possible I would remove it and try to connect it externally by USB that way you could at least rule out the AHCI scenario.
If you get the same issue over usb then you could try running a disk check tool for any errors or a partition editor to see if the partition is intact and also what kind of partition is on the disk.