Home » Useful Tips » WHY THE COMPUTER DOESN'T SEE THE HARD DISK, what to do if the hard drive is not detected and not visible on the computer or laptop?
- So, the most common problem is a bad interface cable or power cable. The problem most often occurs on older computers that have an IDE interface. The problem with it is that here one loop can be used to connect three devices, which means if you often change the PC configuration, it wears out very quickly, which leads to its failure.
In the case of SATA, there are also problems with cables, but much less often. In both cases, it may not be the interface cables, but the power cables. To determine this breakdown, you will need an electrical tester.Bad port on the motherboard
- This problem is also quite common and can also cause a hard disk to fail. If it is an IDE, then none of the devices connected to the bus will be recognized by the computer. In the case of SATA, it will only be a hard drive.
- Try connecting the device to other ports on the same loop. A bad port is a problem that only a specialist can handle.
- By the way, on modern motherboards, IDE disks may not be displayed by default. Now this interface is no longer used, so the detection of such devices is disabled in the motherboard settings.
Software reasons
- In principle, they cannot be. The fact is that the hard drive is detected even at the stage of computer boot, and, accordingly, the only software that can affect its operation is the BIOS of the motherboard. In fact, there are failures in its work and the failure to "see" the hard drive - quite a common result of such a failure.
But what if the matter is in the disk itself?
- Above, we considered possible problems from the computer, but these may be problems of the disk itself. If everything is in order with the connectors, cables and software of the motherboard, then most likely the microcircuit has burned out on the hard disk or the internal software has failed, which is also sewn into the board. Again, only a specialist can help here.
In the case of SATA, there are also problems with cables, but much less often. In both cases, it may not be the interface cables, but the power cables. To determine this breakdown, you will need an electrical tester.
