[MsfStl]

Hi,

I was swapping out the system drive with a larger hard drive and now the system doesn't read my SATA drive after the initial boot. When the computer boots up it tells me the drive is there and is functional, but once Windows is running and I click on My Computer the drive is not available.

I created backups of both my system and another drive prior to starting this and was hoping to use these backups as 'restore' to keep my original settings etc. Unfortunately, these backups are on the SATA drive All other drives are IDE.

It is a WD 200Gb drive. does anyone know how I can bring this drive online with the rest of my computer?

Thanks in advance for any assistance!

Scot

Edited by MsfStl, 10 July 2006 - 10:17 AM.

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I am assuming that it is a brand new hard drive and has never been formatted. In this case, you right click My Computer > Manage Then under Storage > Disk Management. In there you should see the drive but it should say Unpartitioned. Depending on how many disks you have in your drive it could say either Disk 0 or Disk 1. (Probably Disk 1 since you already have a primary C: ) Right click the drive that is unpartitioned and click Partition or Format (I forget which choice it gives at this point) (DO NOT DO THIS ACCIDENTALLY TO YOUR C: OR YOU WILL LOSE ALL OF YOUR DATA!) Then it brings you to a wizard that is easy to use and allows you to assign a certain amount of space for the partition (I usually use it all) It will take a while to format, but after it is formatted it will then be assigned a drive letter and appear in your My Computer screen and you will be able to use it as you wish.

If the disk doesnt show up in your Disk Management section, make sure the power is connected to the drive and it is connected to the motherboard as well.

I hope this is of some help.

Edited by Polydectus, 10 July 2006 - 10:37 AM.

[Polydectus]

I am assuming that it is a brand new hard drive and has never been formatted. In this case, you right click My Computer > Manage Then under Storage > Disk Management. In there you should see the drive but it should say Unpartitioned. Depending on how many disks you have in your drive it could say either Disk 0 or Disk 1. (Probably Disk 1 since you already have a primary C: ) Right click the drive that is unpartitioned and click Partition or Format (I forget which choice it gives at this point) (DO NOT DO THIS ACCIDENTALLY TO YOUR C: OR YOU WILL LOSE ALL OF YOUR DATA!) Then it brings you to a wizard that is easy to use and allows you to assign a certain amount of space for the partition (I usually use it all) It will take a while to format, but after it is formatted it will then be assigned a drive letter and appear in your My Computer screen and you will be able to use it as you wish.

If the disk doesnt show up in your Disk Management section, make sure the power is connected to the drive and it is connected to the motherboard as well.

I hope this is of some help.

Edited by Polydectus, 10 July 2006 - 10:37 AM.

[MsfStl]

If the disk doesnt show up in your Disk Management section, make sure the power is connected to the drive and it is connected to the motherboard as well.

The disk does not show up under Disk Management. Also, I do not want to reformat this disk, I have data that is important to me on there.

The quirky thing is the disk shows up when the computer is booting, but not in the BIOS screen or in windows once the 'puter is up and running.

This has confused me to no end as to how I am supposed to get the system to read this HD.

[Polydectus]

What motherboard do you have? Check that there are no unknown devices in your Device Manager. You can check this by right clicking My Computer > Properties > Hardware > Device Manager.

How is the SATA drive hooked up? Is it through an external PCI Card or does it hook directly to the motherboard? Also, double check that it is getting power. Are you using Legacy Power or an SATA Power connector?

[MsfStl]

How is the SATA drive hooked up? Is it through an external PCI Card or does it hook directly to the motherboard? Also, double check that it is getting power. Are you using Legacy Power or an SATA Power connector?

It is hooked up with an internal card. Also the power supply is legacy, but I never had issues with it prior to this. I'll have to play with it when I get home. And see if I can pull it up. Thanks.

[Polydectus]

Hmm.. that is strange that you are having problems now. You might want to make sure that you have the most updated drivers installed for the card. Thats about all that I can think of aside from missing drivers altogether for the card and that it is getting power.

Let me know what results you get and I will try to help you out further.

Edited by Polydectus, 10 July 2006 - 12:49 PM.

[MsfStl]

Thanks, I appreciate your help. I will keep you updated on the situation.

Edited by MsfStl, 10 July 2006 - 01:32 PM.

[MsfStl]

Ok, it turns out that when I swapped HDs I lost the driver for the SATA HD. I installed the driver and then was able to restore my backups. I still lost some of my original configuration, but nothing major that I can tell at this point.

Again thank s for all the help.

Scot

Edited by MsfStl, 11 July 2006 - 08:17 PM.

[Polydectus]

I thought it might be drivers. Glad I could be of help.