How do I enable a hard drive in the BIOS?
| February 18, 2010 | Posted by computer accessory under BIOS |
I was wondering how to get the hard drive I bought enabled in the BIOS. I think enabling stuff is someplace under add or remove hardware in the control panel or something, but I saw nothing about hard drives. Also, do I have to enable it before I plug it in, or after?
If this is an external hard drive that is a USB device, it should be plug and play.
If it is an internal drive to replace and existing drive or as a secondary drive. It should auto detect at first boot. If it does not, and the computer is a desk top, check that you set the jumpers properly on the drive. If you install a drive as a master, on a cable that already has a master, it will not show up, and may well disable the other drive as well.
If the BIOS detects it, it is already enabled. You should not have to use add or remove hardware to have Windows detect it. It should just show up under My Computer.
The most common reason for not showing up in My Computer is that the drive is not formatted.
You must plug it in with power and the IDE ribbons or SATA cables. Make sure the computer is off until everything is plugged in. Boot up your computer and go into the BIOS.
There should be a hard drive setting; make sure the hard drive is appearing on the list. If it is make sure it is set to slave.
If it is not set to slave or secondary master take out your hard drive. Look at the pins (they are near where the cable goes into the hard drive) (There should be a diagram on the HDD or in a manual.) Change the pin configuration with that little plastic thingy to make the Hard Drive either Primary Slave, Secondary Master or Cable Select. Cable Select is usually the best option because then the BIOS chooses what it wants it to be; the BIOS’s best option.
Once the HDD is appearing in the BIOS it is easy to make it work inside Windows or Linux. If it is appearing in the BIOS but not windows right click on "Computer" and hit the button "Manage". Go to "Storage", "Disk Management". You should see the hard drive here. Format the new hard drive by right clicking it’s rectangle. It should now appear as a hard drive in Windows.
If there is no hard drive in this list then go to Control Panel > Classic View and click Add Hardware and see if it finds it. You will still need to format the hard drive as explained above.