Solution: If the drive is new and just needs to be initialized, the solution is to initialize the disk. It's also possible that the disk is having hardware problems or other issues as described further on in this article.

It's either because the disk was never initialized and formatted, or the drive formatting has become corrupted somehow. If you don't see the disk in File Explorer and it's listed in Disk Management as Not Initialized, the disk might not have a valid disk signature. After Computer Management opens, go to Storage > Disk Management.ĭisks that are missing or not initialized, plus general troubleshooting steps.

In the search box on the taskbar, enter Computer Management, select and hold (or right-click) Computer Management, and then choose Run as administrator.

Open Disk Management with the following steps. If you still need help, post a question there, Contact Microsoft Support, or contact the manufacturer of your hardware. That section lists the wide variety of hardware and software configurations you might be dealing with. There's much more information on the Microsoft community site in the Files, folders, and storage section. This article lists just the first few things to try. If you get an error or something doesn't work when following these steps, there's more help available.

Hard disk management