If your new SSD not showing up in Disk Management/BIOS/File Explorer, you can read this post and follow the 5 solutions to effectively fix the problem.
Is your new hard drive not showing up in either Disk Management, File Explorer, or BIOS after you've put it into your computer? It's really frustrating, especially if you're trying to make it your main drive for installing the operating system. But no need to be upset! As long as the drive isn't physically damaged and it's functioning fine, getting Windows to recognize it isn't difficult. Now, move to the next part to learn how to fix the new SSD not showing up issue, and some of the methods can also be suitable for your old hard drives.
No matter your new SSD is using SATA or PCle (NVMe), you can follow the methods below to effectively troubleshoot it. With causes and solutions, you can understand why the installed new SSD not showing up and how to fix it easily.
If you haven’t done anything for your disk and the new SSD not showing up, which means it hasn't been set up yet, you need to initialize and format it first. What's more, if you encounter a "Disk unknown not initialized" error with an old disk, you can also fix it by following these steps.
Step 1. Open up Disk Management on your computer.
Step 2. Find the SSD you want to initialize, then right-click on it, and select "Initialize Disk".
Step 3. In the dialog box for initializing the disk, choose the disk(s) you want to initialize. You can decide whether to use the master boot record (MBR) or GUID partition table (GPT) partition style. If you plan to use this disk as a system disk, you should choose GPT, especially if you want to use Windows 11.
Step 4. Now that your new SSD can be recognized, but it's not fully ready for use. After initializing your new disk, you'll need to format it to give it a file system for storing data.
Step 5. Right-click on the unallocated space of your disk, then select "Format". Choose "NTFS" and click "OK" to confirm the action.
Your disk is now prepared. You'll see one partition on your disk, and if needed, you can create a new partition to quickly partition the entire disk.
At times, your old/new SSD not showing up in Disk Management because its drive letter is either missing or clashing with another disk, making it hard for Windows to recognize it. You can fix this by giving the SSD a new drive letter manually through Windows Disk Management.
Step 1. Right-click on "This PC" and choose "Manage". Then, go to "Disk Management" under the Storage section.
Step 2. Right-click on the partition of the SSD and pick "Change Drive Letter and Paths...".
Step 3. Click on "Change" among Add, Change, and Remove options, then choose a drive letter from the list. Finally, hit "OK" to confirm.
If the file system is corrupted or if Windows doesn't support it, your SSD will not showing up in Disk Management or File Explorer. This is often the main cause of the problem. Usually, these issues with the file system show up as "RAW", "Free space", or "Unallocated space". Reformatting the disk should solve these problems or fix a RAW drive.
At this time, it is recommended to use a reliable tool like AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard, which is free but powerful computer management software, to effectively solve the problem. This tool can help fix SSD format problems such as RAW or others. You can easily format the SSD drive to FAT32, Ext2, Ext3 NTFS, or exFAT. Once you've installed the tool, you can follow the steps to address the problem of SSD not showing up in Disk Management at no cost.
Step 1. Run the installed AOMEI Partition Assistant software. Next, right-click on the not showing SSD and choose the "Format Partition" option from the menu.
Step 2. After that, select the desired file system (NTFS or FAT32) from the drop-down menu and click OK.
Step 3. Then, click on "Apply" followed by "Proceed" to start the formatting process.
If the SSD not showing up in BIOS, it might not be broken. It could just be that the BIOS settings are wrong. You can fix this by adjusting the BIOS settings so Windows can find your SSD again.
Step 1. Restart your computer and press a specific key (F2), or other keys like F10 or Del, to access the BIOS setup. Press Enter during startup. Or you can directly run the UEFI BIOS Boot Options Manager provided by AOMEI Partition Assistant to enter BIOS.
Step 2. Once in the BIOS settings, locate the "Storage Configuration" section.
Step 3. Find the setting for SATA controller mode and change it to IDE.
Another case is when the SSD is detected but doesn't show up in My Computer (File Explorer). This happens when the disk drive isn't installed properly. To fix the SSD not being detected, you can try reinstalling the SSD driver to see if it solves the issue.
Step 1. Click the Start icon with your right mouse button and choose Device Manager from the menu.
Step 2. Find the new installed SSD, right-click on it, and choose "Update Driver Software".
Step 3. In the window that appears, select "Search automatically for updated driver software" to automatically update the device drivers.
The 5 solutions can be effective for fixing new SSD not showing up in Disk Management/BIOS/File Explorer. If your SSD not showing up in Disk Management or File Explorer, it is a good idea to try AOMEI Partition Assistant methods.
For Windows Server users who want to effectively fix computer issues and manage their devices, this software provides the AOMEI Partition Assistant Server edition.