EXTERNAL DRIVE NOT ASSIGNED A LETTER

[MJACQUEZ]

I HAVE AN EXTERNAL DRIVE HOOKED UP AND MY PC RECOGNIZES THAT IT IS THERE BUT WILL NOT ASSIGN A LETTER TO IT, THEREFORE I CANNOT OPEN THAT DRIVE??

[Allan]

Open Disc Management. What happens there?

[MJACQUEZ]

WHERE WOULD I TRY THAT?

[Allan]

Start - Run - diskmgmt.msc

[MJACQUEZ]

THANKS, I WILL TRY

[patio]

You can turn off the capslock now...

[MJACQUEZ]

It says it is "Unallocated"

[Raptor]

You can turn off the capslock now...

says it is "Unallocated"

I love it when someone suggest a fix and it works immediately. Good catch, Patio! 

[Raptor]

It says it is "Unallocated"

Is this a new hard drive?

[MJACQUEZ]

Used

[patio]

Right clik the Unallocated section in Disk Management...select allocate...when it's done do the same and select Format...
NTFS should be the file system chosen.

[Raptor]

Used

Although I fully agree with Patio's post I think this guy might be trying to hook up a hard drive with data on it?
After all it is "used". Whatever that may mean.

[MJACQUEZ]

Worked like a charm, thanks very much.  Now I am going to try on a flash drive with the same problem.

[patio]

NOTE: With both external HDD's and flash drives remember to get into the habit of using the "Safely Remove" widget in the tray to prevent losing all data...

[Raptor]

Guess there was no data on there worth keeping.