Summary
Is your SSD not showing up in Windows File Explorer or Disk Management? This tutorial describes four cases of Windows 10 not detecting a new (old) SSD, and you can try to fix the issue accordingly. Download EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard when it's necessary to recover data from an inaccessible/formatted Solid State Drive.
Oct 11, 2016 Western Digital gets back into the SSD market with another Blue series product. The new Blue SSD has SanDisk’s DNA, and it should be more competitive than the Silicon Edge from 2010. Western Digital SSD Dashboard. Software for Mac GoodSync for WD. Install WD Discovery for Mac. WD Drive Utilities for Mac. WD Security for Mac. Product Firmware.
Relax if your SSD disk is not showing up on your computer. Check the different cases and follow the corresponding solution to get rid of this issue on your own now.
Workable Solutions | Step-by-step Troubleshooting |
---|---|
Case 1. Drive Letter Missing | Open Disk Management > Locate and right-click SSD partition > 'Change Drive Letter and Path'..Full steps |
Case 2. SSD Not Initialized | Open Disk Management > Right-click SSD and select 'Initialize Disk'..Full steps |
Case 3. Unsupported File System | SSD becomes RAW, unallocated, Run EaseUS recovery software and restore data..Full steps |
Case 4. SSD Driver Issue | Open Device Manager > Go to Disk drives > Right-click SSD and select 'Uninstall'..Full steps |
Wd Ssd Software
SSD not showing up in My Computer
'I recently installed a Samsung SSD on my Windows 10 computer, but I find it not showing up under My Computer where the other hard drive is present. Is there any way to display the SSD?'
New SSD not showing up in Disk Management
'I got a new M.2 SSD from Intel. When I connected it to my PC, it does not show up in the File Explorer nor Disk Management. I don't know where goes wrong. Please help.'
The above users' stories are telling the same thing that happens to a Solid State Drive (SSD), which does not show up as other connected hard drives. In Windows 10, as well as earlier Windows operating systems, an external storage device not detected issue would throw people into unpleasant situations. Therefore, the biggest concern is how to fix the 'SSD not showing up' problem without losing data.
Next, we list four cases of SSD not showing up in Windows 10, and you can try to fix the issue accordingly. Download EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Free when it's necessary to recover data from an inaccessible/formatted Solid State Drive.
- Important
- Solutions to Case 1 to Case 3 are based on the prerequisite for the SSD not showing up in File Explorer but you can find it in the Windows Disk Management. And the Windows Disk Management solutions can be replaced by third-party free partition manager software as well, like EaseUS Partition Master, including change drive letter and paths, initialize hard drive and format a hard drive partition. The advantage of using third-party software over Disk Management is the ease of use.
Case 1SSD not showing up because the drive letter is missing or conflicting
In case the drive letter of the SSD is missing or conflicting with another disk, Windows OS will be unable to recognize it. It's fine because you can assign a new drive letter for the SSD in Windows Disk Management manually.
Optimize A Wd Ssd For Macos Windows 7
To assign a new drive letter, follow the steps:
- Step 1: Right-click on This PC, select Manage. Under the Storage section, click Disk Management.
- Here's an alternative way to open Disk Management in Windows 10/8.1/8/7: press Windows + R keys and type diskmgmt.msc in the Run box, hit Enter.)
- Step 2: Right-click on the SSD partition and select Change Drive Letter and Paths….
- Step 3: Among Add, Change, and Remove, click the 'Change' button, and then select a drive letter from the list. Click 'OK' to assign a new drive letter to the SSD.
Case 2SSD not showing up because it is not initialized
If you get a new SSD and it won't show up in the Windows Explorer, it's likely in the 'uninitialized' state. You must initialize a disk before Logical Disk Manager can access it.
Also, for an old SSD that shows the error 'disk unknown not initialized', the result is the same. In these two situations, to fix the problem, you can try to connect the SSD to the other working computer to check if it reports the same error. Otherwise, you need to initialize the SSD in Windows 10.
To initialize an SSD, follow the steps:
- Step 1: Open Disk Management as taught.
- Step 2: Find and right-click the SSD you want to initialize, and then click Initialize Disk.
- Step 3: In the Initialize Disk dialog box, select the disk(s) to initialize. You can select whether to use the master boot record (MBR) or GUID partition table (GPT) partition style.
![Optimize a wd ssd for macos windows 10 Optimize a wd ssd for macos windows 10](/uploads/1/2/6/5/126532104/358280544.jpg)
Case 3SSD not showing up because the file system is not supported
If the above two methods do not work in your case, we need to think further. One presumption is that the file system has corrupted or Windows does not support the current file system.
As investigated, the relevant file system issues are mainly displayed as 'RAW', 'Free space' or 'Unallocated space'. To fix the file system issue, reformatting the disk would be enough.
- Warning
- As Disk formatting will completely erase data on it. If you didn't create a data backup before, download EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for FREE to recover data from formatted SSD.
Step 1. On EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard, select the drive marked with SSD where you lost data, and click the Scan button.
Step 2. When the scanning finishes, find lost SSD data from 'Deleted Files' or 'Lost Files'. 'Filter' and 'Search' may also help you find lost data via file types, file names, and extensions.
Step 3. Double-click to preview lost SSD files, select desired data and click the Recover button. Choose another safe instead of the SSD to keep the recovered data.
Case 4SSD not showing up because of disk driver issues
Just like a hard drive, most times the SSD is detected but not showing up in My Computer because the disk driver is not installed properly. So, you can try to reinstall the SSD driver to check if it can help to fix the issue.
- Step 1: Right-click on This PC, select Manage. Under the System Tools section, click Device Manager.
- Here's an alternative way to open Disk Management in Windows 10/8.1/8/7: press Windows + R keys and type devmgmt.msc in the Run box, hit Enter.
- Step 2: Go to Disk drives. It should list the storage devices that you have connected to your PC
- Step 3:Right-click the SSD and choose the third option 'Uninstall'.
Download android emulator for pc. Remove the SSD and restart your system. Try to connect the SSD again to check if Windows 10 detects the SSD as normal.
Conclusion
SSD, plus every other form of storage media, is prone to mechanical failure and physical damage. And one truth, lifespan is limit. We need to make further plans to safeguard data on the storage drive. Backup is always a wise choice. It's never too late to take actions to save a copy of hard drive data to another safe location, like a backup drive, cloud or network drive..EaseUS Todo Backup Free can do you a favor.
In conclusion, upon the topic of SSD not showing up in Windows 10, we analyzed four cases in total and showcased the corresponding fixes. In the middle and final repair process, we recommend three assistive tools.
- EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard: to recover lost data from inaccessible and formatted hard drive/partition.
- EaseUS Partition Master: to assign a drive letter, initialize a disk and format a hard drive
- EaseUS Todo Backup: to back up a hard drive/partition.
Updated: January 8, 2020 Home » Freeware and Software Reviews » System Optimization and Registry Cleaner
The problem with SSD is the fact that it is the latest technology powered by old operating system such as Windows XP written for HDD. Disk Defrag, Disk Cache and many more are features written for Hard Disk Drives due to its slow read and write speed. With the introduction of SSD, these features are not only unnecessary, they might shorten the life of your SSD. Do you need to “Optimize” your SSD with third-party software? The answer depends on what Operating System you are using, if you are using Microsoft Windows 10, skip this article and do not use these optimization software.
Alternative 2020 Article ➤ 7 Free PC Optimizer, Boost Gaming PC Up To 300% Faster
Western Digital Ssd
If your IT department is considering a roll-out of Windows Server 2012 and SQL Server 2012, it is important to have an understanding of server memory behavior and solid-state storage impact on key release features of both platforms. There are some optimization software for web hosting and data centers, however, if you are a consumer, chances are the manufacturer already bundled free optimization software for the SSD you purchase. I highly recommend using the manufacturer’s SSD optimization utility software over 3rd party. Truth be told, don’t waste your time optimizing your SSD, Windows 10 [ SSD with TRIM support ] knows what it is doing, unless you are still using Windows XP .
- Samsung Magician [ Rapid Booster Mode ]
↓ 01 – Chameleon SSD Optimizer | Free | macOS
Chameleon is an optimization tool for Solid State Drive on Mac OS X system. It can enable TRIM on non Apple-branded disks. Now you can also increase durability reducing I|O writing cycles, set hibernate mode and save space disabling sleep image. Chameleon is able to read sata system profiler info and you can easily check trim status, disk speed or properties. S.M.A.R.T. status is now supported, it’s as mac shows it. Moreover you can hence control the temperature, the firmware version and more. Now you can disable the local Time Machine, the Sudden Motion Sensor or noatime set for the system, you can change sleep mode and gain space disabling the sleep image. MAVERICKS 10.9.5 and YOSEMITE support has been added too!
↓ 02 – Abelssoft SSD Fresh | Free / €10 | Windows
With SSD Fresh you can easily optimize your SSD’s performance. SSD drives are the Holy Grail of computer tuning. The hard drives have dramatically improved access times over traditional plates. The free tool SSD Fresh brings out even more speed from SSD drives, and ensures that they are last longer. The new version is even easier to use, ensuring even greater SSD speed and providing longer drive life.
- Optimize SSD Settings – SSD Fresh increases the performance of your SSD after a complete analysis by disabling useless services and disabling unnecessary write accesses.
- View drive information – Get information about your drive and the manufacturer. SSD Fresh displays general information suitable for the hard drives that are installed in the computer. You can see for example the storage capacity and how much space is already occupied.
- View S.M.A.R.T. data – Modern hard drives use a system for self-monitoring, called S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) system. It analyzes the disk and already indicates defects before they can cause data loss. SSD Fresh reads this information and displays it in the window.
- Ready for Windows 10 – This application has been already optimized for Windows 10. This means for you: You don’t have to care which Windows operating system you have installed, you can buy this application today and even when you are switching to Windows 10 you can continue using this application without problems.
- Disabling the Windows defragmentation [ €10 Plus version ] – Since SSDs have the same access time for all memory cells, there is no need to store them coherently. In addition this, the defragmentation process generates write hits, which reduce the lifetime of the SSD. Therefore, it is highly recommended to deactivate the defragmentation process.
- Prefetch off [ €10 Plus version ] – Prefetch supports preloading of frequently used applications into RAM. Because of the fast access times off SSDs, this function is useless and can be disabled.
↓ 03 – Tweak-SSD | Free / €10 | Windows
Tweak-SSD is a specialized product beside our famous ‘Tweak’ product line, which started with Tweak-XP back in 2001. It was designed for SSD ‘drives’ (Solid State Drives) and to optimize Windows 7, Windows 8.x and Windows 10 for the use of such drives in order to get the most out of an SSD.
- System optimization: Optimize your Windows 7, Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 system for SSD ‘drives’
- System tweaking: Enabled several SSD related system tweaks
- SSD optimizer: Your SSD lives longer with the included tweaks to minimize read and write access
- Eays to use: Intuitive wizard like user interface
- Optimization wizard: Includes a wizard that guides you through the optimization process
- Intuitive system status gauge: System optimization status gauge for immediate system status information
- TRIM optimizer [ €10 License Version ] : TRIM optimizer included (licensed version only)
- Exclusive: Designed exclusively for Windows 7, Windows 8.x and Windows 10 – 32bit or 64bit.
↓ 04 – Elpamsoft SSD Tweaker | Free / $18 / $40 / $250 | macOS | Windows | Linux
SSD Tweaker is not your average optimization software, it is enterprise level software designed for web hosting servers. Optimize and Restore Performance of your SSD in Windows XP, Vista, 7 and 8. The SSD Tweaker has a massive distribution around the world for its simple yet powerful features and interface. It has been reviewed and recommended by many PC magazines and Tech Websites. Try the SSD Tweaker today and get the most from your powerful SSD. This utility can help you make changes in seconds that can restore the performance of your SSD in just a few steps. It does a System Restore backup upon use to make sure you can reverse any changes and has a reset to default config to take your computer back to original windows settings. Works great on Microsoft’s Windows 10 and Apple’s macOS.
- Windows Services (Pro Only)
- Query and Set Windows 7 TRIM Status (Pro Only)
- TRIM Optimization (Pro Only)
- Hibernation Settings (Pro Only)
- Use Large System Cache
- Disable Date Stamping
- Disable Boot Tracing
- Windows Prefetcher
↓ 05 – MaxVeloSSD | Free / €10 / €20 / €100 / €210 | Windows
Persistent, hardware-independent SSD cache for Windows. What is SSD caching? SSD caching uses solid state drives (SSDs) to improve the performance of hard disk drives (HDDs) drastically. Why do we need SSD caching? Professional and private IT environments worldwide are under intense pressure to both capital and operating cost savings as well as providing the best possible performance. SSd caching with VeloSSD from EliteBytes delivers the free scalable and cost effective software solution to catapult your Windows environment from HDD to SSD speeds. With the improved performance you can serve more users with fewer servers, saving capital and operating costs. The end user experience gets improved through the faster system behaviour. MaxVeloSSD is a block level RAM and SSD cache System. It caches any storage Volume content on HDD. It is persistant. Benefitting from RAM usage it accelerates beyond SSD speeds. Allowing higher IOPS / MBPS values than VeloSSD.