Fix: Windows Does Not Recognize my New SSD
Posted by: Timothy Tibbetts on 04/08/2016 07:34 AM
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Did you purchase a Crucial (or other) SSD drive only to find that your computer does not recognize it? Don’t panic; it’s easy to fix and here’s how. For this example, I use Crucial, the drive I had an issue with, but this will work with any new drive that Windows does not recognize.
Get a copy of Windows 10. If you don’t have a copy, download and burn the ISO from here. Now, put the DVD in your drive and shut down your computer, unplug it and install your Crucial SSD. Start your computer and let Windows begin the installation. When it gets to the screen where you have two choices, just choose advanced. From there you will see your Crucial drive. Click on it and select format. It will pick the best settings for you so you now have a correctly formatted drive that Windows can see. In a perfect world, you can now pull the plug, and Windows should recognize your drive.
That said, I did exactly that, and it didn’t show up even though my “install” was already past the formatting and about 3% into the Windows install. So, the question here is, at what point can you truly shut down and it’s correctly formatted? I don’t know the answer, so I just let Windows completely install (20 minutes maybe), and that did the trick. If you’re reading this, odds are you’re already frustrated so why not let it ride and completely install Windows just to be sure and avoid doing it twice?
Of course, you can do this with any copy of Windows. However, I used Windows 10 because many of you don’t have a physical DVD, and Windows 10 can be downloaded, burnt to DVD, and you can bypass the Windows key. Older versions of Windows 7 and 8, for example, don't let you install without a serial number. Windows will ask you for the key later, but you don’t care; you just need to see the drive to copy your old drive to your new Crucial SSD so the new Windows install will be wiped anyway.
I mentioned a second way to format the drive. IMHO, unless you’re a computer geek, it’s much more complicated. You’ll need a bootable hard drive partitioning tool and some knowledge of how partitions work. Since most SSD drives are small, this is a good option if you want to create multiple partitions on your drive, but overkill if you just want to see the drive in Windows and get the job done.
Enjoy your speedy new drive!
Get a copy of Windows 10. If you don’t have a copy, download and burn the ISO from here. Now, put the DVD in your drive and shut down your computer, unplug it and install your Crucial SSD. Start your computer and let Windows begin the installation. When it gets to the screen where you have two choices, just choose advanced. From there you will see your Crucial drive. Click on it and select format. It will pick the best settings for you so you now have a correctly formatted drive that Windows can see. In a perfect world, you can now pull the plug, and Windows should recognize your drive.
That said, I did exactly that, and it didn’t show up even though my “install” was already past the formatting and about 3% into the Windows install. So, the question here is, at what point can you truly shut down and it’s correctly formatted? I don’t know the answer, so I just let Windows completely install (20 minutes maybe), and that did the trick. If you’re reading this, odds are you’re already frustrated so why not let it ride and completely install Windows just to be sure and avoid doing it twice?
Of course, you can do this with any copy of Windows. However, I used Windows 10 because many of you don’t have a physical DVD, and Windows 10 can be downloaded, burnt to DVD, and you can bypass the Windows key. Older versions of Windows 7 and 8, for example, don't let you install without a serial number. Windows will ask you for the key later, but you don’t care; you just need to see the drive to copy your old drive to your new Crucial SSD so the new Windows install will be wiped anyway.
I mentioned a second way to format the drive. IMHO, unless you’re a computer geek, it’s much more complicated. You’ll need a bootable hard drive partitioning tool and some knowledge of how partitions work. Since most SSD drives are small, this is a good option if you want to create multiple partitions on your drive, but overkill if you just want to see the drive in Windows and get the job done.
Enjoy your speedy new drive!
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