Member Avatar for zalqpz

I have a eMachines computer, quite new (Vista new), and i am attempting to put in a Western Digital Caviar SE16 hard drive as a secondary. the only problem is when i put it in, my computer doesnt recognize that it is a hard drive. it detects that something is there but not that its a hd. please help

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A compact follow-up and checklist for future readers who hit the same symptom: the system "sees something" on the connector but doesn't show a usable hard disk. had the right instinct to check the basics, and ’s report shows this can sometimes clear up by itself. When it does not, the steps below cover the OS-side and diagnostics that weren't spelled out earlier.

If the drive does not appear as a usable volume in Windows, open Computer -> Manage -> Disk Management. A new physical disk often shows as "Unknown" or "Not Initialized" or as "Unallocated" and must be initialized, partitioned and formatted before Windows assigns a drive letter. If Disk Management shows nothing but the BIOS sees the device, check Device Manager (look under Disk drives and IDE/ATA controllers) and use "Scan for hardware changes" — missing controller drivers or an AHCI/RAID mode mismatch can hide a new disk from the OS.

If the disk never reports a model string or only intermittently appears, run vendor diagnostics from outside Windows (WD Data Lifeguard or a bootable SMART utility) or connect the drive to a different host or a USB-to-SATA adapter to confirm whether the drive itself is healthy. Repeated detection failures or unusual noises normally point to hardware failure and should be handled with diagnostics and possible RMA.

Practical notes: delayed or intermittent appearance can come from power/firmware quirks or a transient connection problem; a simple power-cycle and diagnostic test will often reveal the cause. For long-term reliability, keep backups, avoid forced partitioning on an unrecognized disk, and use official motherboard/BIOS updates from the OEM only when they explicitly address drive compatibility.

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Member Avatar for sourcez

Okay - so a couple of things.

- You know the hard drive works? (Does it spin up).
- You have the correct connector (eg. SATA or IDE)


If so, go into the bios and check that all of the IDE devices are enabled and set to auto-detect. (None say disabled).

Also try plugging in the hard drive to a different socket. Sometimes you can put too many devices off one IDE socket.

Once that's done let us know whether it's been found, as from here it would probably be a windows issue. (yay)

Member Avatar for zalqpz

thank you for your time, but i waited a day and now my computer recognizes it. idk how but what ever, im happy it works.

Member Avatar for sourcez

Meh, that's a great result :)

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