HDD not connecting

Hey MrFattyGopher. Open Disk Management to see if the drive is recognized there. It might just need a new letter to be assigned to it. Here's how to open it: How to access Disk Management in Windows XP, Vista, 7 or 8 to manage hard drives and please post a screenshot of what you see there about the drive and the partition.
You could also take a look if it's recognized in Device Manager as well, here's how to access it: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/where-is-device-manager

Hope that helps.
Boogieman_WD