Problems connecting my Hitachi 7K500 Travelstar HDD

So I picked up a Hitachi Travelstar 7k500 off Amazon for $110 shipped and got it a few days ago. I'm using it with my new Sager NP5797. I have an external 60GB Hitachi HDD that I put into an external HDD enclosure that I've been using for about two years...so I swapped out the 60GB drive for the new 500GB drive and when I connect it to my computer. It says the drive has been installed successfully and everything is working in good order, but when I click on my computer. I do not see the icon for my external. It doesn't register as a removable harddrive so I don't get it. I plugged back in my 60GB drive and sure enough, the laptop recognizes it...

so what is the problem with this harddrive??

any help?

Brian

 

What do you mean you do not see the icon of the removable?

If the 500GB is brand new, then you must first make a partition, easiest way to do that is on Disk Management (diskmgmt.msc) on XP/Vista/7

 

when I connect the hdd, on the bottom left hand corner, it says the device has been installed and is working properly... but when I click on My computer to see my C drive, D drive and DVD drive...it doesn't show my external drive like it should.... its like it doesn't exist..


yes this is a brand new hdd and I didn't know I had to partition it for Windows 7 identify it... I thought it would just be plug 'n' play

however, if the icon for the hdd isn't there under my computer...how will I partition it?

 

This gentleman is correct. Use diskmgmt.exe (type it into the 'Run' box...) to create the partition on your new drive.

When you buy an HDD by itself, like 98% of them are bare drives (aka OEM) which are just that, bare. That's why explorer doesn't recognize it, is because there is nothing on it to be recognized (no partition = no drive letter). The creation of a partition will cure your woes.

Question: Is this going to be your new internal (C:\) drive? If so, there are different steps that you should take.

 

THANKS A LOT GUYS for the info!

In the future, yes I would like for it to be my internal C drive, but I do not have a Windows 7 disk, only a Windows Vista so I'll hold off in putting it as my internal until I can buy myself a copy of Windows 7 Ultimate.

And I did what you said and it workeD! Thanks again!

 

Sorry about that angry smiley. That was a typo that I didn't see before I posted.

Glad you got it worked out! Let us know if we can be of any further assistance.