HDD Not Visible

[Spunky]

Hi

Looking for some help - I am trying to connect a Western Digital 4TB Internal HDD to my PC.
I can see the drive in Drive Management - it doesn't assign a letter.

I am unable to find it through File Explorer.

When I right-click on the drive I can only see options for help and properties.

Description just says 16384.00 GB - Healthy (GPT Protective Partition)

Thanks in advance

 

[yodap]

Found this from Easeus.

Access GPT Protective Partition Without Losing Data

When a GPT Protective Partition appears in the Disk Management, you cannot open, read, or access data on the drive. Read the article so you can figure out reasons and find solutions to the problem.

www.easeus.com

Part 2&3 seems like the way to go. Diskpart can be your friend but make sure you are comfortable using it.

 

[Grizzly]

If the drive does not have a drive letter, you will never see it in File explorer. right click on the drive, then choose [change drive letters and path], then click on [add] and choose a drive letter at your convenience. click on [ok], then again[ok] to exit.

BTW: something is not right with that drive. A drive with 4TB should show up as 3725.90GB in the drive manager and not like yours.
Did you use that drive in a RAID system before??

 

[Spunky]

Hi, thanks for the response - as I said above there is no options but help and properties the change add drive letter is faded out.

I am not sure what a RAID system is so I do not believe so.

 

[davehc]

Right click the start button and select "Disk Management". See if you can allocate a letter there - for convenience of ident, Z would be good. You can change it later

 

[Sir_George]

As mentioned by Yodap, the drive size shown in your image does not match your 4TB statement. See conversion below;

16,384.0 Gigabytes (GB)

=

16.0 Terabytes (TB)

I use the free version of MiniTool Partition Wizard when looking at Windows 11 drive information. It is easier for me to understand the information and do the limited amount of work I perform on computer drives. Another option would be to try formatting the drive and check the results. I have no idea if it would help.

 

[Spunky]

Right click the start button and select "Disk Management". See if you can allocate a letter there - for convenience of ident, Z would be good. You can change it later

Hi - thanks for the advice but it is the same - only help and properties are options - all the others are greyed out.

 

[Spunky]

As mentioned by Yodap, the drive size shown in your image does not match your 4TB statement. See conversion below;

16,384.0 Gigabytes (GB)

=

16.0 Terabytes (TB)

I use the free version of MiniTool Partition Wizard when looking at Windows 11 drive information. It is easier for me to understand the information and do the limited amount of work I perform on computer drives. Another option would be to try formatting the drive and check the results. I have no idea if it would help.

I understand - however when I plug the 4TB drive in that is the new drive that appears....

 

[Spunky]

I understand - however when I plug the 4TB drive in that is the new drive that appears....

Also the formatting option is not there - that is in fact what I am trying to do!

 

[yodap]

You need to remove the GPT (Protected) designation of the drive. When you do, all existing data will be lost but it seems there is no data on it. As Sir_George recommended, Minitool Partition Wizard (free) is a good tool to try. If that can’t fix it you will need the paid version (trial) or use the Diskpart tool from within Windows.

 

[Spunky]

Thank you all, problem resolved with Minitool Partition Wizard and the kind help on here.... 8)

 

[yodap]

Nice! Glad it’s sorted.