Bloody Hell -- new SSD just WON'T show up in Win7, even after formatting to NTFS.

[eppur_se_muova]

I bought a used SSD on eBay, and the dimwit seller shipped it to me with a Linux install already on it. Good way to spread malware ! Win7 can't see the USB disk at all, nor can Win8 installer CD. *Finally* got it formatted after trying both Linux Lite and OSX 10.9 -- used OSX to triple-zero out the data -- and I set the first partition to NTSF. Now, I would think that attaching the USB device to a working Win7/HP box would get me what I want, but NOOOOOOOO ... even launching the Disk Management Tools fails to show the attached device. I've tried two different external drive cases, and connected it internally (SATA) to the machine I booted with Win8 installer. Nothing works. Do I have to reboot with an old MS-DOS disk and format w/ fdisk, or what ??

(WTF is wrong w/Microsoft ? Linux and OSX can see this disk and reformat it, Windows OS and disktools are both useless !)

[sdfernando]

1. Have you checked your BIOS settings?

SSD needs to be enabled at the BIOS level

[canetoad]

2. Go into Administrative Tools

Then computer management, then disk management.

You may need to assign a drive letter before it shows.

[eppur_se_muova]

4. I can't see the drive in disk management. Only C: and the CD-ROM. nt

[canetoad]

5. OK, try this freebie

Partition Find and Mount.

http://findandmount.com/

[Ron Obvious]

3. I recommend AOMEI partition assistant (freeware) to look at it with.

It's an excellent free program that should be able to see the drive and allow you to reinitialise it.

[eppur_se_muova]

6. Aaaargh .... aargh ... argh ... Drive shows up in Win7 after reboot.

Two USB ports were in use -- one in front, one in back -- for mouse and keyboard, but when I tried adding another USB device Win7 couldn't see it. Rebooted and suddenly now it can see it just fine.

I'm still going to have to try the suggested shareware, because the Win8 install disc can't find a driver for the SSD. I've never run into this with Windows before. You'd think the install disk would have some disc formatting ability, but unless it's accessed through the CLI I just don't see it.