When you have placed a new Hard Drive into your external casing, it is normal that Windows Explorer does not yet recognize the Hard Drive
Windows works with logical volumes, which must be created. The drive must be partitioned and formatted.
When you have installed a drive that came from another system, like DVR, media player, NAS, Hard Disk recorder, Game console etcetera. it is possible that Windows will not recognize the drives. This is because it is formatted in a way, which Microsoft Windows does not support. When you need to use these Hard Disks, you have to re-format the drives in the Windows NTFS file system. When this is not possible from the Windows disk manager, you could try 3rd party apps, like Gparted and MiniTool Partition Wizard etc.
Please note!When you use an existing Hard Disk from another system and you repartition and format the drive, all data will be lost on that partition.
Please create a backup first, on the system where the Hard Disk originally is coming from. After this you can remove the Disk and place it in the housing. We are not liable for any data loss.
Below you can find how to make an unknown partition available in Windows 10/11.
1. Press right mouse button on the Windows start menu icon and press on the Disk Manager with the left mouse button. Disk Manager is started, and you will see the screen below:
2. By default, you will see that the new Hard Disk has the status ‘’Offline”. Please right click mouse button on "Offline" and select "Online" you will see that the drive is "Unallocated".
3. Press with "Right mouse button" on the "Unallocated" space. Now choose "Create new volume" and select "New Simple Volume" and press Next.
4. The following screen will appear:
Windows will determine the maximum capacity of the volume. You could divide the volume into multiple parts, then you must adjust the size of the volume. Press "Next" to continue.
5. You can choose a drive letter to add and press "Next" to continue.
6. Now the Hard Disk has to be formatted. It is recommended to choose the NTFS filesystem. Press "Next" to continue.
7. When done formatting, you will see a summary screen, you can press "Next" to continue. Please wait a few moments to let Windows finish the settings. The drive will now be available in windows explorer.