Long story short I “side graded” (at best) to Windows 11 and on start up it didn’t recognize my SSD (Sandisk Extreme 1 TB) storage.
I opened my Disk Manager and it showed it unallocated.
I rolled my OS back to Windows 100, but with the same results.
Checked for updated drivers and all is up to date.
Any ideas?
Jeff
@handsinmotion
Have you checked our knowledge base articles?
(Get Support for Your SSDs and Flash Products | Sandisk)
Try this one
Have you opened a Support Case?
If not, contact SanDisk Technical Support for assistance.
(Contact Support | Sandisk)
Show I gave up and plugged it UAB-C ro USB-C into my Pixel 9 and the phone said “Format?” 30 seconds later it’s loading files. I did you all the data, but hey life goes on right?
Jeff
Hello, any solutions for this?
Hey @handsinmotion
Glad at least your phone could read it, even though the data’s gone. Just for next time—if a drive shows up as unallocated on your PC, try using a Windows data recovery software before formatting.
Some tools have a free version where you can scan and see if your files are still there. Just make sure not to save anything new on the drive, or it might overwrite the old data.
Hopefully it won’t happen again, but just sharing in case it helps later!
As you say, there is an unallocated space of your 1TB disk in Disk Management. To avoid wasting storage space, you can create a new partition with the unallocated space.
However, in our daily life, we often choose to extend the C drive or D drive into the unallocated space.
Technically, you could just create a new volume in Disk Manager, but that would wipe out everything that was on the drive. If there’s anything you want to keep, you should recover the data first before creating a new volume. Once your files are safe, repartitioning and formatting is fine.
Your SanDisk external SSD can show as unallocated space due to power loss, malware, bad sectors, or partition table corruption. If you or someone else accidentally deleted the partition(s) on the SSD, it will become unallocated space in Disk Management, making it unusable for storing files. In rare cases, an unsuccessful operation during SSD repartitioning can also cause an unallocated space issue.
If you do not care about the old data on the external SSD, you only need to create a new partition on the unallocated space in Disk Management
1. Enter Disk Management in Windows (right-click the Start button and select “Disk Management”)
2. Right-click the gray unallocated space and select New Simple Volume, then follow the wizard to specify the size, assign a drive letter such as G:, and format the partition (usually as NTFS or exFAT).
If you want to recover the old data, you need to use data recovery programs that support partition recovery. Once you have recovered the lost files you need, it is safe to repair the SSD, update the driver and create a new partition on it. Your SSD should be usable again.
(Also read this how-to blog: Fix Disk Is Not Accessible in Windows 11/10/8/7)
