Technical Specs

Instruction manual

Prepare a hard drive for use

Windows OS

If you install a hard drive that has data on it, the hard drive appears under My

Computer or Computer with a drive letter assigned to it. If you install a brand-new

hard drive that doesn’t contain any data, you must prepare the hard drive for use.

Warning! When you complete the following steps, all of the data on your hard drive is

deleted. If your hard drive has data on it that you require, you should create a backup

le or use a dierent hard drive.

1. Depending on the version of Windows® OS that you’re running, do one of the

following:

• On your desktop, right-click My Computer and click Manage.

• On your desktop, right-click Computer and click Manage.

• Click the Start button or Windows icon. Enter compmgmt.msc and press

Enter.

2. On the Computer Management screen, click Disk Management.

3. A dialog window appears and asks you to initialize the hard drive. Depending on the

version of OS that you’re running, you have the option to create either an MBR or a

GPT disk.

Note: GPT (GUIDE partition) is required for hard drives that are larger than 2 TB, but

GPT isn’t compatible with earlier versions of operating systems. MBR is supported by

both earlier and later versions of operating systems.

4. Locate the disk that is labeled Unallocated. To conrm that the hard drive is the

correct one, check the drive capacity.

5. Right-click the section of the window that says Unallocated and click New

Partition.

6. Complete the on-screen instructions to initialize the hard drive in the format of your

choice.

When the hard drive is successfully installed, it appears under My Computer or

Computer with a drive letter assigned to it.