So you have purchased one of our docking stations and you are noting seeing you hard drive? There are many things to check to verify whether the docking station is working or even compatible to what you are attempting to to.
Let's start with compatibility.
In terms of compatibility there are a few things to be aware of. The first thing to be aware of is formatting. Windows 10 and Windows 11 only sees formats FAT, FAT32, exFAT, NTFS, or ReFS. If the hardware is from a Windows 8.1 or older machine there is a chance it is formatted in older formats that are not recognized such as GPT. In which case the only way to get it to be recognized is to reformat the drive in your disk management. Additionally, Windows operating systems will not see HDD's with Apple or Linux formatting.
The other thing to be aware of is capacity restrictions. While the box does not say sometimes, the largest hard drive you can see all at once on our docking stations is 4TB. Additionally, the drives should be standard consumer drives. If your hardware is a NAS, Security, or Server hard drive, it will not be seen.
If you hard drive is formatted correctly, but you still can't see the hard drive in your folder viewer, lets try the next steps.
First, plug in the hard drive and go to your disk management by right clicking over the Windows button and selecting Disk Management. If the volume is showing up in the program, it should look like below. Note that the volumes all have a blue header above them. You can also see which disk letter and partition is available on the drive under Volume.
If you do not see the drive unallocated or allocated try it on a different PC. If you still do not see the drive, it is likely that either the drive is bad or the docking station is bad.
If you see a disk volume with a black header, that volume is unallocated. In order to allocate the drive right click over the unallocated space on the drive and choose the New Simple Volume option and follow the prompts. See image below. If that option is not available, then there is an issue with the volume either in the formatting of the drive or in the hardware that is locking you out of that option. Note: If you cannot allocate the volume you will need to either change settings in your BIOS or contact your HDD manufacturer.
Once the volume is allocated, you should be able to see the drive in the file viewer and use the HDD. Our docking stations DO NOT use specific drivers and rely solely on what ever the operating system provides to it. Our docking station is a passthrough device and has no preloaded software built into the machine. If you still require help after all this is done, please contact our technical support department by following this link: https://help.thermaltakeusa.com/hc/en-us/requests/new