HD not recognized in My Computer / Explorer

[REX-T]

My Wester Digital Hard disk is recognized in the Bios, in Device Manager, in Disk manager but not in Explorer and My computer.

In disk manager I can't choose to partition only Delete and Help. It also has no drive letter assigned. Disk manager says it is healthy and has 100% free space but in fact it is almost full.

It is a 500 Gb disk I took from my Toshiba External Hd because it seemed dead. Now when attached to my other computer which has SATA ( and the WD disk has also) it does spin again. So it seems, hopefully, that I can get my data back. but now I don't know what to do next to get Windows XP recognize this disk. It doesn't have to do something with the fact that it was on a Vista pc before and now in a XP computer?

The file system is FAT 32 if I'm right. (Had the 4Gb max restriction when it still was external)

Suggestions anyone? thanks in advance.

[Rudra.J]

You might need to initialize your hard disk. That means creating partitions only then it will be shown in my computer...! You can do that from Disk management. Right-Click on my computer then click on manage, then click on disk management. All the Best!

[Aiden]

Have you partitioned/formatted the new HDD, yes?

If you've done that, and the drive is still not recognized, have you accessed Disk Management to see if you can assign a drive letter to that drive?

If you still not found, tell me what's the model of the ASUS motherboard you're using?

[Hardwareman]

In disk manager I can't choose to partition only Delete and Help. It also has no drive letter assigned. Disk manager says it is healthy and has 100% free space but in fact it is almost full.

Right click the drive and select Change Drive Letter and Path.
Give the drive a letter and you are all set.

Other suggestions:
Well if it's an IDE drive the make sure it's connected correctly, push it down and make sure the pins are making contact with the motherboard. Also, make ure you have the little plastic pin set-up correctly, try setting the hard drive as master.

Or, if it's a Sata Hard drive then try moving it to another sata port. Then check the bios and see if it detects it now.

[Rudra.J]

Ok, First delete the partition that is shown as 100% free, then create partitions as suites you. You'll get through... All the best!

[REX-T]

Guys first of all, thanks for the advice,
but it's not a new hard drive, in fact it's my former external Toshiba hard drive which I have opened up to try to retrieve my data.

It is a SATA drive and I can't assign a letter to it in Disk Management.
I have changed to another SATA port but it didn't recognize it either in my computer or explorer, but it does in the bios.
When I delete my partition (there's only one) I will lose all my data and I don't want that.

I am now trying to retrieve the data with free data recovery software but I can't help thinking it must be able to have Windows XP recognize the disk fully.