Newly installed DMS Cannot Detect Internal Hard Drive

[Dead Eye]

...command result
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[Dead Eye]

...notice how you are notified that the disk has been selected but the command prompt stays the same. Disk 4 in my example is the 'FOCUS' of the DISKPART tool at this point and any subsequent command will be performed on the selected disk.
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[Dead Eye]

The command we are after is the 'CLEAN' command. This will reset the disk of any and all parameters, including any corrupted disk geometry table which is what I suspect is wrong because I had got a disk from Amazon that had the problems as you are having and this was the only way that I could get the disk working. After doing this type 'EXIT' to leave the 'DISKPART' tool. Reintroduce the drive to the Windows environment and initialize the drive when prompted. Create a simple volume GPT partition for anything larger than 2TB then do a quick format.
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[Down2Earth]

Wow...…. Dead Eye, that is some very informative instructions to follow, hope this will help the poor guy out in getting his unit working. Would say if this doesn't work for him the odd one out would be the DMS box itself.

[Dead Eye]

Thanks D2E...I know it has helped me more than once!

[CPUTO]

Many thanks, Dead Eye! I am also running Windows 7. I'll give it a shot and see what happens. If the disk ends up back at factory new specs, I really haven't lost anything. It is mostly blank right now.

[Dead Eye]

CPUTO...the caution is to make sure you keep it straight in your mind that you have selected the right drive...mistakes are irrevocable! For example if you have multiple 4 TB drives...one with all your family photos and other 'KEEPER' software and the other is blank.

GOOD LUCK!

[CPUTO]

Dead Eye, I got through everything as you outlined it. Got the right drive, CLEAN acknowledged that it was successful. However, when I reintroduced the drive to Windows, Windows Explorer cannot find it to then partition and format. Interestingly, when I click on the desktop to "safely remove device," the drive shows up without a location designation, e.g., H: but it lets me safely eject it. I tried formatting it using disk manager, but it won't let me. I'm not sure what the options are, but I'm open to suggestions. The DMS could be the culprit here, but I don't know how to verify that short of buying another one to see if it works better and then returning the defective one.

[Dead Eye]

CPUTO...within the Disk Manager program there is a 'Rescan Disk' function from the action menu...try that and give it some time(2 min.).

The first thing that has to be done is the disk has to be initialized. No other operation can be performed on the drive until it is initialized...if you don't get the prompt to initialize the disk it is FULL STOP!
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[Dead Eye]

CPUTO...this is the dialog box you should see. This computer I built has a 4 Bay SAT III back plane that is hot swappable, I inserted a 2 TB drive that I had cleaned some time ago. When I put it in a free bay so that I could capture the dialog box for this post I did not get the dialog until I launched the disk manager tool, but it did show up as a removable device.
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Until you deal with drive successfully within the Windows environment it is to early to say that the DMS is the culprit.

[CPUTO]

Dead Eye, you are impressive! I'm not particularly good a screen shotting, but the disk has been formatted, and the message in Disk Manager says:

"New Volume G:"
3725.90 GB NTFS
Health (Primary Partition)

So, now, I am going to switch off the DMS, install the HDD, and switch it on again. I hoped to see the new HDD when I went to Settings=>General=>System Maintenance=>Disk Manager on the DMS, and I got: "NO DISK DETECTED Please insert a SATA 3.5" disk drive to Movie Server first." So, I followed the "hard" rest instructions in the DMS manual: Turn off the DMS, insert paper clip into hole in back panel of DMS, keep inserted while turning on the DMS until the logo home screen appears. Got the little green Android man (standing up) whirring his antennae, and then the server home screen appeared. Went to Settings=>General=>System Maintenance=Disk Manager and got the same "NO DISK DETECTED... message. And when I insert a thumb drive into the USB slot in the DMS, it finds and reads it immediately. Now I have an "adapter" that holds my HDD and has a USB cable for attaching to my computer. I can try using thjis adapter and the USB port on the DMS to see if it will then see the HDD, but that is not a viable long term solution. I'm greatly appreciative of your truly impressive help, but I don;t know what else to try. Thanks!!

[Dead Eye]

CPUTO...another thing, the Windows Explorer is not what you need to use to deal with 'NEW' disk. GOTO Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Storage > Disk Management.
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[Dead Eye]

The steps are...Initialize Disk > Create a Simple Volume using the entire Disk(GPT) > then a quick format. There are different right mouse button menus available depending on where you click. If you right click on the box that says Disk 0 you get different options than if you right click on the hashed area that shows the drive label, letter and size.
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[CPUTO]

I think I follow. I also may have gotten better at my screen shots:-) Below is a screen shot taken before I did any reformatting. The drive label is G: Disk 3. The second shot is after formatting. I gave it a new volume name "Movies" so that we could see that it was not the same as in the first screen shot.



After Formatting:




I then inserted the formatted HDD per above into the DMS and got the same "DISK NOT DETECTED" message on the screen. Did I do it correctly? Thanks!

[october262]

I think I follow. I also may have gotten better at my screen shots:-) Below is a screen shot taken before I did any reformatting. The drive label is G: Disk 3. The second shot is after formatting. I gave it a new volume name "Movies" so that we could see that it was not the same as in the first screen shot.



After Formatting:




I then inserted the formatted HDD per above into the DMS and got the same "DISK NOT DETECTED" message on the screen. Did I do it correctly? Thanks!

download the PDF guide for the dvdfab movie server, in it there are detailed instructions
on how to properly format your HDD if the MS refuses to detect it.