Bought a Samsung SSD (Solid State Drive), and it would not show up in the Windows.
I just bought a
Samsung 870 QVO 1TB SSD hard drive and an
external SSD Enclosure. The problem occurred when I plugged it in as an external USB hard drive to my laptop. It wouldn't show up in the Windows along the side of C: drive. I tried everything including using the Samsung Magician software. The new SSD was also tested on two different computers, and I used two different external hard drive enclosures, nothing worked.
I tested an older SSD and made sure the computers and the SSD enclosures are functional. After it, I started doing some research online for a solution. It was not my first solid-state hard drive, nor my first external hard drive. Never encountered this problem until now.
The reason behind the problem identified!
My quest for a solution found that it is a common problem with Samsung Solid State Drives. Or rather a
BUG. Nothing is broken.
It is caused by the fact that the new SSD has never been formatted.
After some playing around, I finally found the solution to format an undetectable hard drive in Windows 10. Then the OS successfully detected the new SSD.
As I said just now, it is a common problem/bug. However, since it is not due to faulty hardware, and easily fixable, I decide to share my experience. Repeat, it is NOT DOA (Dead on Arrival), and easily fixable!
Step-by-step instruction to format an undetectable hard drive to make it show up in Windows 10.
First,
Make sure your SSD is plugged in and powered.
- Open Disk Management by typing "Disk Management' in the run box at the bottom left of the Windows 10 screen and hit Enter.
After you brought up the Disk Management, as you can see the undetectable SSD was only undetectable along the side of Local Disk C:, but it is actually in the disk management in an unusable state as "Disk 1" right below the "Disk 0". This is the sign that the SSD is just fine.
Right-click on the box of "
Unallocated", and click "
New Simple Volume"
It will bring up the next screen -
Welcome to the New Simple Volume Wizard. Just click
Next.
It will bring up the following screen - Specify Volume Size. Do not do anything if you don't plan to divide the drive into several parts. Just hit Next again.
The following screen will be - Assign Drive Letter or Path.
My default was - D. So I let it be since the only other drive was C.
After the "Next" button, the only thing I did was to change the
Volume Label to "Samsung 870 QVO SSD". (It was simply "New Volume") before I changed it. You can change it to anything you like. It is just the name of the drive you will see from now on, and you will be able to change it any time you wish in the future.
After the
Next button, hit
Finish.
You will notice that after hit the
Finish button, the "Unallocated" has changed to "Formatting" right below the "931.5GB".
Once the "Formatting" is done, you can see the "Samsung 870 QVO SSD" I just inputted has shown up in the Disk Management.
At the same time, BOOM! The new D: drive showed up beside C: Drive.
You are all set. Cheers!
Now you can remove files and folders to the new SSD the same way you move them around to a USB flash drive.
Well, it took me a bit of time to figure everything out. Especially the formatting part which actually fixed the bug. I did not find any step-by-step instructions for this part. So I thought I'd share for anyone who might run into the same problem. The worst-case scenario for anyone who encounters this problem might send the drive back lol. Yes, the thought of "Dead on Arrival" did cross my mind. Good thing it is not the case.
Please let me know if my post is helpful to you. :
It will make me happy knowing the post is not a waste of my time and actually helped someone.