Question

You have just added a brand new hard disk to your Windows-based computer. When you power on the computer, the disk is not shown in File Explorer. To troubleshoot this issue, you open the disk management console and see that the disk is present but is shown as unknown. Which of the following disk management steps is most likely required first?

a) Initialize the disk
b) Create a new volume
c) Assign a drive letter
d) Format the disk

Answer 1

The first step to troubleshoot the issue of a new hard disk not showing up in a Windows-based computer is to initialize the disk through the disk management console. Afterward, create a new volume, assign a drive letter, and then format the disk.

Step-by-step explanation:

If you have added a new hard disk to your Windows-based computer and it appears as unknown in the disk management console, the first step you need to take is to initialize the disk. This is because before a hard disk can be used, it must be initialized, which creates the necessary data structures for the operating system to read and write data to the disk. After initializing, you will then need to create a partition and format that partition to create a usable volume. Once a new volume has been created, you can assign a drive letter, which will make it visible in File Explorer and allow you to start storing data.