I recently purchased a new LaCie External Harddrive (1TB "hard disk by Neil Poulton") for computer backup and media storage.

Upon USB connection I heard the connection sound and saw the device driver searching/installing in the system tray. This particular device (according to the manual) should show up in My Computer for subsequent formatting/partitioning; however, it does not show up.

Therefore I have done neither formatting or partitioning (unless someone has bought this and returned it, I saw some fingerprints on it but I thought these might be from the factory)

It does, however, show up in Disk Management as "Disk 5 Basic 931.50GB Online" (image attached). I've read in several FORUMS that all ONE MUST do is assign the disk a drive letter for it to show up in My Computer, but this option doesn't seem to be available. RIGHT clicking on the Disk 5 area produces "properties" and "help", Right clicking on the green Free Space area (or on Disk Management in the right pane ->Tools) produces "New Simple Volume", "DELETE Partition" and "Help".

Out of frustration I tried clicking New Simple Volume but upon finishing the wizard it said that that there was not enough disk space available. Was too scared to Delete Partition as I didn't know the effects (although I never made one anyway).

I don't see the LaCie in the device manager (image attached).

I am running Windows Vista 32 bit with Service Pack 2, I attached an image of other system info.

Thank you for you time,
D.


[recovering disk space - old attachment deleted by admin]It shipped un-formatted...
Right clik it in Disk Management and select Format...choose NTFS.

Yes, I realize it shipped un-formatted.

In my post I mentioned that I have only "New Simple Volume", "Delete Partition" and "Help" when right-clicking, would "delete partition" allow other options to surface?

Thanks,
D. Select Delete Partition...then format it...Thank you sir! I now have a recognized Harddrive.
Regards,
D.