Not sure if seagate barracuda st1000dm003 hard drive is working?

larrymoecurly

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Jan 3, 2015
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Hello everyone, I have just completed my first gaming PC build and everything is successfully up and running...except for one thing. I think. For my PC's storage, I chose to install both an SSD hard drive (I went with a Crucial MX100 256 GB) and a mechanical hard drive (the seagate st1000dm003 1TB). The SSD has been working beautifully and I loaded Windows 8.1 onto it, yet when I go into the file explorer I only see one possible hard drive I can access, the SSD. I have both the data cable and the SATA power cable connected to the seagate, and I've rechecked the connections many times, yet I'm still not able to access that particular hard drive in file explorer. Is this normal, or have I done something incorrectly? Thanks for the help.
 
Solution
Hello,

Depite your HDD being installed properly, you have to do one more thing to see it in file explorer.

In Windows 8, right-click the Windows button, and select Disk Management. You can also access "Computer Management" by typing it in Start. Then, in the left pane, click Disk Management (under Storage). You'll see your HDD as "unallocated space". Right-click the black bar or the unallocated white space below it and select New Simple Volume… Click Next.

To create a single, whole-drive partition, make sure the "Simple volume size in MB" value is the same as the "Maximum disk space in MB" value. Click Next.

Assign a drive letter of your choice. Click Next.

Select Format this volume. For File System, choose NTFS if you’ll be using...
I have a similar combination of drives.

Your Seagate is not working normally. With both the power cable and the SATA data connection, you should see the drive in the Windows file explorer. I would check these connections, and try a different SATA cable. If it still does not work, take the drive out, and try it in another system, or externally with a SATA to USB kit with power.
 
Hello,

Depite your HDD being installed properly, you have to do one more thing to see it in file explorer.

In Windows 8, right-click the Windows button, and select Disk Management. You can also access "Computer Management" by typing it in Start. Then, in the left pane, click Disk Management (under Storage). You'll see your HDD as "unallocated space". Right-click the black bar or the unallocated white space below it and select New Simple Volume… Click Next.

To create a single, whole-drive partition, make sure the "Simple volume size in MB" value is the same as the "Maximum disk space in MB" value. Click Next.

Assign a drive letter of your choice. Click Next.

Select Format this volume. For File System, choose NTFS if you’ll be using the drive only with Windows machines. Keep Allocation unit size at Default. Choose a name for the partition under Volume label. Do not select Perform a quick format or Enable file and folder compression. Click Next.

Confirm your selections and click Finish.

You should be able to enter "Computer" and see your hard drive.
 
Solution