Windows 10 >

Problem:

• On Windows 10
• While booted into Windows
• A hard drive is contained in an in-computer dock. (internal SATA)
• That hard drive is powered on.

• That hard drive is not seen by Windows, and does not appear as a new hard drive letter.

Notes:

• It is seen and works in Linux.

• This hard drive was "cloned" with dd.

Solution: The "disk signature" needs to (briefly) be made unique.

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Executive summary ∞

Elevated command prompt > diskpart

select disk 0
uniqueid disk
uniqueid disk ID=NEW
uniqueid disk ID=OLD

Overview ∞

Nothing bad will happen if you follow these instructions exactly. The change you are making is almost like turning your hard drive off and on again. It's just telling Windows to "try again".

Prove the hard drive "exists" ∞

1. Check the basics ∞

1. "Eject" your hard drive.

   • The bottom-right should have a "Safely Remove Hardware and Eject Media" icon. Right-click and eject your device.
2. Turn off the hard drive.
3. Un-plug or remove the hard drive (if you can).
4. Re-plug or insert the hard drive (if you can).

5. Turn on the hard drive.

If you have a light for it, make sure it's turned on the way you expect it to be. If it makes enough sound, listen for it.

2. Enter disk management ∞

Windows-x opens the alternative start menu. Choose Disk management

You should see your hard drive in the bottom list. You may need to scroll down to see it.

This example shows a second hard drive (labelled "Disk 1") after I fixed its problem.

If your hard drive appears in this list, but is flagged as "disk signature collision", then these instructions will probably work for you. Continue reading.

Correct a "disk signature collision" ∞

3. Enter into an administrative prompt. ∞

Windows-x opens the alternative start menu. Choose Command Prompt (Admin).

4. Run diskpart ∞

Type

diskpart

5. Learn your disk's ID ∞

Type

select disk 0

Type

uniqueid disk

NOTE - Your ID will probably be different!

You do not need to record this information. You can always scroll up to refer to it later.

• Click the top-left of the window
• Hover over Edit

• Select Mark

• Use your mouse to highlight your ID.

• Once you have highlighted it, press enter.

  • You will not see anything change. That's okay.

6. Change your disk's ID ∞

Type

uniqueid disk ID=

Do not press enter yet!

• Click the top-left of the window
• Hover over Edit

• Select Paste

Do not press enter yet!

What you will see is something like the following:

Do not press enter yet!

NOTE - Your ID will probably be different!

Once you have pasted your text, press backspace once to remove the last character. For this example, it would look like this:

uniqueid disk ID=3737335

Then type a new, different, number. So for this example I would type a number different from the letter C. I chose the number 4.

uniqueid disk ID=37373354

Now you can press enter

You will not see anything change. That's normal.

Press the cursor up key. You will see the previous line get "re-typed".

Press backspace and re-type your original character. My example uses the letter C.

Press enter. You will not see anything change. That's normal.

Exit ∞

Type exit and press enter.

You are done.

You may now close the administrator command prompt by either typing exit or clicking the top-right x.

Re-test ∞

1. "Eject" your hard drive.

   • The bottom-right should have a "Safely Remove Hardware and Eject Media" icon. Right-click and eject your device.
2. Turn off the hard drive.
3. Un-plug or remove the hard drive (if you can).
4. Re-plug or insert the hard drive (if you can).
5. Turn on the hard drive.

6. Open up explorer and see if the hard drive appears in your list.

If it does not, don't panic. Continue reading for troubleshooting.

Troubleshooting ∞

You can follow the above instructions a second time. However, instead of select disk 0 (step 5), you can try select disk 1. Continue the complete instructions as-is.

If you have many hard drives, you may need to select disk 2 3, 4, etc.

You should not need to reboot your computer. However, if the above instructions did not work for you, it doesn't hurt to reboot.

If none of this helped, sorry! It worked for me, so maybe you have a different problem than I had.

Last updated 2022-08-02 at 14:50:45