Method 1. Initialize the Hard Drive
Let's first determine where the problem comes from. If your hard drive is not detected in file explore, you should check if the disk is a brand new one. Usually, if a new disk is not initialized, it would show up in the file explore. To initialize a hard drive, follow the steps below:
Step 1. Right-click "This PC" (in Windows 10) and choose "Manage".
Step 2. Open "Disk Management", right-click your new hard disk, and choose "Initialize Disk".
Step 3. Select the disk and choose MBR or GPT as its partition style, click "OK" to start.
Step 4. Right-click on the unallocated space on your new drive and select "New Simple Volume...".
Step 5. Set the partition size, drive letter, and file system to the new hard drive.
Step 6. Click "Finish" when the process completes.
Method 2. Change the Drive Letter
All the drives are assigned with an identifying letter.
All drives are assigned an identifying letter when they're created. In some cases, simply changing this letter could solve the issue, as long as your BIOS detects the drive. Follow the steps to fix Windows 10 not detecting the hard drive.
Step 1. Open "Disk Management", right-click the disk partition which has no drive letter.
Step 2. Choose "Change Drive Letter and Paths" from the context menu.
Step 3. Click the "Add" button in the pop-up window.
Step 4. Assign a drive letter to the partition and click "OK" to confirm.
Method 3. Format the Drive to a Compatible File System
As I have mentioned before, the wrong file system can also lead to the error - hard drive recognized in BIOS but not Windows. Thus, you can format the hard drive to a compatible file system. You can format a disk using Disk Management, but if the hard drive is over 32GB and you want to format it to FAT32, you will find there is no "FAT32" option for you. Thus, you are advised to use a third-party tool that breaks the FAT32 limit. EaseUS Partition Master can format a hard drive to FAT32/NTFS and other certain file systems compatible with the Windows system.
- Right-click the external drive or USB you intend to format and choose "Format".
- Set the Partition label, File system (NTFS/FAT32/EXT2/EXT3/EXT4/exFAT), and Cluster size, then click "OK".
- Click "OK" to continue.
- Click the "Execute Operation" button and click "Apply" to format the hard drive partition.
Method 4. Enable the Drive in BIOS
Another way to fix Windows does not detect disk partition but BIOS can is to enable the hard drive in BIOS.
Step 1. Restart PC and press
F2 to enter BIOS.
Step 2. Enter Setup and check system documentation to see whether the not detected hard drive is turned Off in System Setup or not
Step 3. If it's Off, turn it ON in System Setup.
Step 4. Reboot PC to check out and find your hard drive now.
I hope this helps!!!