How to Fix the Issue of Second Hard Drive Not Showing Up (Updated)

Updated by

Linda 

Written by

Linda 

Last updated on April 19, 2024

A second hard drive is a great way to expand your computer's storage without having to replace your main one. If your computer isn't recognizing your second hard drive, or it's showing up incorrectly, you'll need to troubleshoot the issue and find a solution.

4 Ways to Fix Secondary Hard Drive Not Showing Up in Windows 10/8/7

There are four types of < strong >external hard drive not showing</strong> issues in Windows 10, 8.1, 8, and 7. Check which one applies to you and choose the most suitable solution.

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If you're experiencing any of these issues, you've come to the right place! On this page, we'll go through the steps in detail to help you fix each one so that you can use your second or third HDD or SSD without any recognition problems.

Read more: Boot Drive Not Showing Up in BIOS

Solution 1: Second Hard Drive Not Showing in "This PC" or "My Computer"

Based on the feedback received, more than half of the users reported that their external hard drive doesn't show up where it's supposed to, which is This PC in Windows 10 and 8, and My Computer in Windows 7. You can check in Disk Management, where it might show up as Disk 1 or Disk 2 unallocated. Or, you can do this simpler thing.

TIP: If your secondary hard drive is brand new, you'll need to initialize it first. Uninitialized disks will be considered unallocated space and won't show up in "This PC." Thus, if your secondary HDD is new, you'll need to initialize the HDD or SSD first.

Download a third-party free partition manager tool called tools Partition Master. It can quickly fix this issue by assigning a drive letter to the drive.

Step 1. Launch Partition Master. Right-click unallocated space on the hard drive or external storage device in the main window, and then choose Create.

Step 2. Adjust the size of the new partition, the file system (choose a file system as needed), label, and so on, then click OK to proceed.

Step 3. Click the Run 1 Task button and create a new partition by clicking Apply.

Watch this video tutorial to learn how to create partitions on an NTFS, FAT, or EXT file system.

Close the program when you're done. Your hard drive should now be recognized by Windows, and show up with its new drive letter in File Explorer!

This is one way to do it; read on for three more. If any of these fixes your problem, please click the button below to let others know.

【Fix 2】: Second hard drive not showing in Disk Management

You should go to Device Manager and update the hard drive driver.

Step 1: Click the "Start" button, type Device Manager, and select it from the list of results.

Step 2: Expand the categories, find your device, right-click (or press and hold) it, then select “Update driver.”

Step 3: Select Search automatically for updated driver software.

If Windows can't find the new driver, try looking for one on the manufacturer's website and follow their instructions. Otherwise, you can attempt to reinstall the driver by following these steps: Open Device Manager, right-click on the device, and select "Uninstall." Restart your computer, and Windows will try to reinstall the driver.

Note: If you cannot find the required driver, you can also download the correct one from the manufacturer's website. After installing it, check again if your hard drive appears.

Fix 3: Second hard drive not showing in Device Manager

If your hard drive is not showing up in Device Manager, then you've got a problem. Pray, because your hard drive might be damaged with bad sectors. In this case, you can use the above tool Partition Master to clone and fix bad sectors on hard drive, or run the Windows Hardware and Devices troubleshooter.

Step 1: Go to the “Control Panel” and click on “Troubleshooting.”

Step 2: In the right pane, click on 'Hardware and Sound' and under that select 'Set up devices'.

Step 3: You'll be prompted to run as an administrator. Click Next to run the troubleshooter.

Step 4: If issues are found, you'll be prompted to confirm that you want to "Apply Repairs." Depending on the number of errors detected, this process may repeat several times.

Fix 4: Second hard drive not showing in BIOS

Have you prepared for the worst-case scenario where this second hard drive is nowhere to be found, not even in all the paths you can think of or even in the BIOS? This issue can be tricky, and you might need professional help. As far as we know, your hard drive not showing up in BIOS mainly stems from the hard drive being disabled in BIOS or the drive having issues on its own.

To enable your hard drive in BIOS and have it properly show up in Windows 10, follow these steps.

Step 1: Restart your computer and press "F2" to enter the BIOS environment.

2. In the Settings section, check if the second hard drive is disabled in the system settings. If it is, enable it.

Step 3: Restart your computer again, and check if the second drive is showing up properly.

Make sure that the connection is sound.

Check if the hard drive is connected properly. Verify if the hard drive activity light is blinking normally.

Once the error is fixed, you should be able to view the second hard drive on your computer. You can then use it for whatever you want, such as installing Windows. If you're interested, click the links below:

How to Install Windows 10 on Second Hard Drive

This tutorial offers a detailed guide on how to install Windows 10 on a second hard drive/SSD. You can use the Partition Master tool for a quick system migration or create an installation CD with the Windows Media Creation Tool.

Additional Tip – Recover Data from a Damaged Windows Hard Drive

After solving the issue of the second hard drive not showing, you might encounter another problem – data loss from the secondary hard drive. Don't panic; you can use a Windows 10 Data Recovery Tool to restore deleted files. This data recovery software is a powerful cross-platform tool with all the features you could dream of.

Download the tool Data Recovery Wizard and recover data from the hard drive:

• Restore deleted, formatted, and inaccessible data in various data loss scenarios.
• Effectively, safely, and completely recover photos, audio, music, and emails from any storage device.
• Recover files from the recycle bin, hard drive, memory card, flash drive, digital camera, and camcorder.

Step 1: Select the hard drive where you lost data and click "Scan".

Step 2: After the scan is completed, use the "Filter" or "Search" option to locate the lost files.

Step 3. Select all the files you want to restore and click “Recover.” Then, browse and choose a safe location to save them.

Read more: USB Flash Drive Not Showing Up on Windows 11

Conclusions

There are many effective ways to help you fix the second hard drive not showing up issue. It's not difficult to deal with the problem of Windows 10/8/8.1/7 not detecting the second hard drive. More importantly, the Partition Master tool can also help solve other similar disk issues, such as BIOS sees hard drive but Windows doesn't, USB flash drive shows 0 bytes or no media, HDD formatting takes a long time, and so on.

"FAQ: Second Hard Drive Not Showing Up"

Unrecognized secondary hard drive issues are pretty common, and that's what we've discussed in the article above. If you're still having problems with your second hard drive not showing up, check out the following FAQs.

Why should I use a second hard drive?

The main advantage of a secondary drive is that you can use a faster one, such as an SSD, for computing purposes – like gaming or resource-intensive applications – while reserving the slower drive for personal data storage.

Why isn't my second hard drive showing up?

There are many reasons why you might lose a hard drive.

- Uninitialized drive - Unallocated space - Outdated device drivers - Connectivity issues, etc.

How many hard drives can I connect to my computer at the same time?

Each hard disk needs a drive letter, and there are only 24 of these. So you can have at most 24 hard disks.