How to Activate a New Drive

Activating a new drive added to your computer is an automated process. Once the drive is installed and you turn on your computer for the first time, the hardware and software will auto-detect the new hardware. The BIOS will add it automatically to the hardware configuration of your computer. When Windows boots up, it will automatically detect the new drive and install the necessary drivers to make the hard drive usable. If all of this does not happen, then you will have to do a few things manually to make the new drive work properly.

Instructions

1. Step1

   Click the "Start" button on your taskbar.

2. Step2

   Right-click "Computer" if you are running Windows 7 or Vista, "My Computer" if you are using Windows XP.

3. Step3

   Select "Manage." Click the "Continue" button if the User Account window opens asking for affirmation to continue.

4. Step4

   Click the "Disk Management" icon located under the Storage drop-down menu. In the middle pane you will see all of the drives you currently have active on your computer. If the new drive is not displayed as "Healthy" in the Status column then that may be because it is not formatted. New drives will come preformatted, but in some cases you may have to format the drive for Windows to see it.

5. Step5

   Right-click the drive you have to format. Select the "Format..." option.

6. Step6

   Select "NTFS" in the File System drop-down menu. This file system is more secure than the other options available.

7. Step7

   Click the "OK" button. The formatting will take some time on larger drives. Do not close the Computer Management window until the format is finished. Under the Status column you will see the word "Formatting." When this changes to "Healthy," you will know that the formatting process is finished and that your new drive is now accessible.