[FIXED]Hard Disk Not Showing In Disk Management

To find that your storage media (internal or external SSD) is not visible in File Explorer, Device Management, or Disk Management is a moment of genuine anxiety.

We hear from users who report that their disk is not showing up in Disk Management, only to later diagnose a variety of issues, some of which are easy to resolve, while some demand in-lab procedures.

Let’s start with the basics.

पोस्ट को हिंदी में पढ़ने के लिए यहाँ क्लिक करें।

What is Disk Management in Windows?

Disk Management is Windows’ behind-the-scenes control room for all your storage devices. The first thing to know is that Disk Management is very different from File Explorer (which shows only drives that are already healthy, formatted, and assigned a drive letter).

Disk Management gives you a complete list of every connected disk, even if it’s not working correctly or isn’t ready for use yet. So, you’ll see internal HDDs and SSDs, new or used disks, external USB drives, listed in Disk Management with all the technical details such as disk numbers, partitions, file system types (like NTFS or exFAT), and status information (such as Healthy, Unallocated, Not Initialized, or Offline).

Why do people expect to see a drive not showing in disk management? It’s simple.

For many tech savvy Windows users, Disk Management is a handy utility they use when they have to add a new hard drive, recover a drive that suddenly disappeared, or need to create or resize partitions.

In any case, when you expect to see a drive in Disk Management but don’t see it there, you need to perform a basic diagnosis before you can assess whether you need professional help.

The first step is to understand the common causes of a drive disappearing (or never appearing) from Disk Management.

Causes: Why Is Your Disk Not Showing Up in Disk Management?

The likely cause of this problem for a relatively new hard disk not showing in disk management after years of reliable use, versus a new HDD not showing up in disk management right out of the box, versus or an external hard drive not showing up in disk management, is different.

The root cause will fall into one of a few categories.

1. Hardware-Level Issues

• Sometimes your internal drives may have a loose power connector. In the same way, external drives may not be detected if they suffer from underpowered USB ports, faulty cables, or hubs that just don’t deliver enough power.
• Sadly, internal components of HDDs (and in some cases, SSDs) can fail. In HDDs, this may involve a seized motor or damaged read/write heads. In SSDs, a failed controller or degraded flash memory can render the drive inaccessible — often requiring professional SSD data recovery services.
• In many external drives, we see that the disk itself may be healthy, but the enclosure’s bridge circuitry (USB-to-SATA) fails.

All these issues mean that your drive won’t be detected by your PC/laptop.

2. Firmware and Controller Issues

• All storage disks rely on tiny, embedded software for their basic operation. If this goes bad, the drive might not initialize even if its physical hardware is fine.
• If your BIOS can’t see the disk, neither can Windows. So, if the drive is connected to a disabled port or has incorrect settings (like AHCI/RAID mode), it won’t be detected.

3. Driver and OS-Level Issues

• Windows may lose track of a disk if its drivers are out-of-date or corrupted. We observe that this is more likely to happen after Windows updates and reinstalls.
• Sometimes corporate security tools or Windows group policies block disk access at a low level.

4. Severe Logical Corruption

• If your disk’s core metadata and data structures get badly damaged (from power failure, unsafe removal, or malware), Windows may refuse to even acknowledge its existence.

With this knowledge, you can use a simple trick to guess the likely cause of your disk not being visible in Disk Management.

• If you see your disk in File Explorer but not Disk Management, it’s usually a logical or configuration problem, and most of these issues can be fixed at home.
• If you do not see your disk both in File Explorer and Disk Management, you’re likely dealing with hardware, firmware, or serious driver/controller issues, which may necessitate professional help.

What to Do When Your Disk Is Not Showing Up in Disk Management — Solutions and Fixes

When your disk is not showing up in Disk Management, approach the problem methodically.

1. General Checks

a. Unplug and Replug the Disk

• First, disconnect your drive, wait a few seconds, and reconnect it firmly.
• For external drives, try a different USB port, preferably one directly on your computer (not a hub).
• Swap to another cable if possible and if you suspect it may have stopped working properly, or is not working when you use it to connect a different (working) drive to the PC.

b. Restart Your Computer

When you restart your computer, you also reset the hardware detection process, and this can clear temporary glitches.

c. Test the Disk on Another Computer

Connect the drive to a different PC and observe:

• If the drive shows up there, the problem is with your original computer’s configuration, not the disk.
• If it still doesn’t show up, your drive may be physically damaged.

d. Check for Signs of Power

• For external drives, listen for the sound of its platters spinning, or check for an indicator light.
• If you get no response (no sound, no indicator light), the issue may be power-related — a common reason an external hard drive fails to appear in Disk Management. If your external hard drive is not recognized at all, refer to our troubleshooting guide on fixing an external hard disk drive not recognized.

2. Device Manager and BIOS/UEFI Checks

a. Open Device Manager

• Press Win + X and choose Device Manager.

• Look under “Disk drives.”
  • Do you see your disk?
  • Do you see any yellow warning icons?
• If there’s an issue, right-click and select “Uninstall device.”

• Then restart, and Windows will try to reinstall the driver.

b. Check BIOS/UEFI (for Internal Drives only)

• Restart your PC and enter the BIOS/UEFI setup (often Del or F2 at startup. or check for your PC/laptop manufacturer’s specific methods). Once inside, navigate to the “Storage,” “Boot,” or “Information” section (names may vary by brand).
• See if your drive is detected here. If not, this means Windows can’t detect it, and the cause is likely a hardware or connection problem.

3. Disk Management Rescan and Initialization

a. Use “Rescan Disks”

• Press Windows + R, type diskmgmt.msc, and press Enter to launch Disk Management.
• Click Action > Scan for hardware changes.

This action will force Windows to recognize a newly attached or temporarily missing disk.

b. For New or Uninitialized Disks

If you’re troubleshooting a new HDD not showing up in disk management, you may need to initialize the disk as usable.

In such a case, you will actually already see your new HDD in Disk Management, but with a different label of ‘Not Initialized’ or ‘Unallocated’.

• If the HDD shows as “Offline,” right-click it and select “Online” first.
• Look for the disk marked as “Not Initialized” in the Disk Management window.
• Right-click on the uninitialized disk and select “Initialize Disk” from the context menu.
• Select MBR or GPT as needed (be aware this erases all data if the disk was previously used).
• Click “OK” to complete initialization.
• After initialization, the disk will show as unallocated space with a black bar.
• Right-click the unallocated space and select “New Simple Volume“.
• Follow the New Simple Volume Wizard to format the drive, assign a drive letter, and choose the file system.
• Click “Finish” to complete the process.

The drive will now appear in File Explorer and will be ready for use.

4. Contact A Data Recovery Service

If you have tried everything above and your drive is still not showing up in disk management remains unresolved, the issue is most likely at the hardware or firmware level.

At this stage, especially to safeguard and recover your valuable data, we strongly recommend you contact a hard disk data recovery service rather than risk data loss with further DIY attempts.

Hard Disk/SSD Not Showing In Disk Management: Related Issues and Variants

As you troubleshoot a disk not showing up in disk management, you may encounter related or slightly different issues that need their own solutions.

a. Disk Shows in Device Manager, but NOT in Disk Management

If your drive appears in Device Manager but not in Disk Management, this signals a driver, controller, or firmware issue.

• Updating or uninstall/reinstall your storage controller drivers (look under “IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers” or “Storage controllers” in Device Manager).

• Also, update your motherboard or chipset drivers from the manufacturer’s website.
• If the drive still does not appear, connect it to another computer or port to rule out hardware faults.

b. Disk Shows in Disk Management, NOT in Windows Explorer

Sometimes, a drive is visible in Disk Management but not in File Explorer. If your hard drive is showing but files appear missing, read our guide: Fix Hard Drive Not Showing Files Though They Still Exist.

This usually means the drive is missing a drive letter or the partition is unformatted or marked as RAW.

If drive letter is missing:

In Disk Management, check if the drive has a drive letter (like D:, E:, etc.). If it doesn’t, right-click on the partition and select “Change Drive Letter and Paths…”, and then use the “Add” or “Change” option to assign a letter.

If partition is unformatted or RAW:

• In Disk Management, look at the “File System” column for the partition.
• If it says RAW or Unallocated, Windows cannot access it normally.
• Do not format the drive immediately. Use a professional recovery tool or consult a Stellar data recovery service to try to recover your data first.
• If the disk space is shown as Unallocated, right-click it and select “New Simple Volume…” to create a new partition and format it. This also will erase any existing data, so only do this for new or empty drives.

c. Disk Shows in Disk Management, But All Options Are Greyed Out

This can indicate the disk is offline, has corrupted partitions, or is locked by a security policy.

• Try to bring the disk online (right-click the drive > “Online”).
• Run CHKDSK from Command Prompt. Run the command chkdsk X: /f /r, where you have to replace X with the drive letter if possible.

When to Stop and Seek Professional Help

If your issue of the drive not showing in Disk Management still isn’t resolved after all these steps, or if your drive doesn’t appear even in BIOS/UEFI, you should pause all DIY attempts.

Most likely your drive is suffering from a hardware or firmware failure.

If your data is valuable, further “trial and error” could actually worsen the problem or make recovery impossible.

At this point, contact a professional data recovery service like Stellar.

We use specialized tools and techniques that don’t risk your data and can recover drives that ordinary troubleshooting cannot.

The Stellar team is always here to guide you through safe recovery.

If you’re dealing with related storage problems, these detailed articles can help you understand the issue and take the right action:

• How To Retrieve Data From Internal Hard Disk
• Damaged Hard Disk Platter: When Data Recovery Is Possible
• How To Fix Internal Hard Disk Detected But Not Accessible
• What Are the Symptoms of Hard Disk Failure
• What Are Common Warning Signs of SSD Failure