Drive E is not displayed: You can do that

If your E drive is not displayed under Windows, this can have a number of different reasons. We will show you what you can do in such a case to make the drive visible again.

Drive is not shown - general tips

The following points will help you to find the source of the error:

1. Check whether the hard drive is recognized by the system at all. You can do this directly in the BIOS or use the Windows Control Panel: Under Windows press the key combination [Win] + [R] and execute the command "devmgmt.msc“ (without quotation marks) to start the device manager The drive should be listed under "Drives".
2. Check the hard disk connections. The cables may not be properly inserted in the drive or mainboard of your PC. If you have replacement cables, replace the cables.
3. With old hard disks with IDE interface, you should carry out the master-slave cabling correctly. A master hard drive belongs to the black connector, a slave hard drive to the gray connector.
4. A hard drive failure can also be the reason why the drive is not recognized by Windows. When the PC is on, you should feel vibration when you touch the hard drive with your finger. A persistent clicking noise may indicate a hard drive failure. However, this does not work with SSD drives.
5. The hard drive may be in a file system that Windows cannot read. This applies, for example, to the Ext file systems common on Linux. If you want to access such a drive under Windows, you need special software such as Paragon ExtFS.
6. If the drive is a USB hard drive, you should make sure that it is supplied with sufficient power. In addition, resource problems under Windows can cause problems here. In this case, it can help if you plug the hard drive into another USB port or disconnect other USB devices that are not currently needed from your PC.

Map drive letters in Windows

Your drive will not be recognized under Windows even if no drive letter has been assigned to it or if the assignment has been lost. However, you can quickly correct both.

1. Open the Windows Disk Management by pressing the key combination [Win] + [R] and executing the command "diskmgmt.msc" (without quotation marks). You will now see a list of all data carriers connected to Windows.
2. Right-click on the drive that is not displayed correctly and select "Change drive letter and path

   You can also recognize the drive by the fact that there is no drive letter in parentheses after the volume name.

3. Click "Add" and assign a drive letter that is still available. Confirm your selection. The drive should appear correctly on Windows.

Format hard drive and create partition

A new and still empty hard disk may not have been formatted or partitions have not yet been created. You can also do this via the data carrier management.

1. Press the key combination [Win] + [R] and execute "diskmgmt.msc" (without quotation marks).
2. You can recognize an unformatted drive by the "RAW" message: right-click on the drive and select "Format"

   ". Then follow the instructions on the screen.

3. The note "Not mapped" indicates a missing partition. Right click on the appropriate drive and select "New Simple Volume

   "and then follow the further steps on the screen.

If it is a drive for optical data carriers, there are other possible solutions. In the next practical tip we will show you what to do if your DVD drive is not shown.