Windows 10: Hotswap drive displayed as Invalid in Disk Management, and remains inaccessible

I've just bought an Asus F650UD laptop, and have been trying to connect my currently in-use hard drive to it via a dock that hooks up with one of the SATA ports. The drive does get recognized and is displayed in the Safely Remove Hardware list, however it doesn't appear in This PC, and cannot be accessed from anywhere. Opening up Disk Management reveals the following screen:



As you can see, the hotswap drive I've been trying to connect is labeled Disk 1 here. While it was recognized by Safely Remove Hardware, here it's shown as Invalid and remains uninteractable. Opting to reactivate the disk would return an error message stating that invalid disks are not allowed that operation. So I took a step further and checked the status of the SATA ports in the system BIOS, and the only option shown with it was AHCI - the system default, with no alternatives whatsoever, nothing that says "Enable hotswap/hotplug". So what exactly must I do to make this drive accessible? I've tried out all the methods I know above, and none of them have worked.

:)

 

Disk Management

Hi Keith,

Thanks for providing the detail that was requested previously. Since the disk management screen that you saw is showing greyed out options, we suggest that you follow the steps below to change the partition type of your internal drive:

• Open Disk Management then right click the partition on the disk you want to covert and select Delete Volume.
• Once you complete the process you will see the whole disk shown as two separate unallocated spaces. Right-click the disk and select Convert to GPT disk.

After the conversion, you will be able to use the whole disk and then you can create new separate partitions.

We look forward to your response to our queries.

 

Disk management console view is not up-to-date

i dont know how to fix your disk management, but i can fix your partition problems...




open up Command Prompt with admin rights. (Right click, run as admin)


enter in
DISKPART
list disk

then find the Disk number for your Raid array... lets call it number 7 ( you can tell what disk is what by the total size)
type in

Select Disk 7
List Partition (will give you a list of all the partitions..)
Select Partition 1 (im assuming you only have 1 partition on Disk 7) repeat this step if you have more partitions.
ASSIGN


that should get the array up and running ready to use.


EDITED.

any problems, post back ^^


Still EDITING *Stick Out Tongue

side question, have you tried restarting the PC?

 

Invalid Disk

Hi Quinn,

It is possible that the external drive was assigned to a different drive letter. We suggest that you check the available drives in File Explorer and see if the external drive is listed under a different drive letter.

If the drive is still missing, we recommend that you check if the drive is visible in the
Disk Management screen. The Disk Management is a built-in tool which can be used to create, delete, format, extend and shrink partitions or drives.
Here's how:

• Right-click on the Start button and select Disk Management.
• Check if the external drive is visible.
• Right-click the volume (or drive) that you want to format, and then select
  Format.

Note: Formatting a volume will destroy any data on the drive. Be sure to back up any data you want to save before you begin.

Let us know how it goes so we can assist you further.