Vista - New 2nd Hard Disk -visible in Disk Management - but NOT in Explorer/Computer

Hi

I installed a secondary HDD in my wife's Vista Premium PC. It 'installed"
and drivers installed and Vista "says" your new HDD is ready to use.

However, in Computer/Explorer there is NO 2nd HDD and I couldnt "use it"....

I took it down to local computer shop. They investigated and told me that
the motherboard would only recognise 2 IDE devices (the first HDD and the
DVD Burner). They suggested that they replace the DVD Burner with an ATAPI
device (?) which I did OK and that then the 2nd IDE HDD would be
operational.

Now I DID rush them, and I didnt actually see it working, but paying for it,
I left the shop and came home with the PC.

Of course, the 2nd HDD is STILL not visible/usable in any way.

When I right click on My Computer and go "Manage" and go thru to Disk
Management, the 2nd HDD IS VISIBLE. I thought I may have to Format it. BUT
clicking on this brings up an error message that Disk Management has failed
and to restart your computer. I do, no help......

....and EVERY tiem I DO restart the computer the SYSTEM has changed screen
comes up 2 times:

1st.time ....Found a new HDD (the original, first HDD) hit F1 to accept
changes
2nd time... Found new HDD (NEW 250GB one) and LiteOn DVD Burner hit F1 to
accept changes

then correctly thru to normal Vista boot/login...

This is EVERY TIME I start PC....

Any thoughts/advice would be greatly GREATLY welcomed.

Rgds
Rod
Perth

Hi Rod,

You'll need to format it before you can use it, but before you do that you
first have to create a volume on it. Until you do, it will not appear in
Windows Explorer. To create a volume, right click the drive in Disk Manager,
you will see the option there.

By the way, you can have two IDE devices per cable, and two IDE connections
on the motherboard, or a total of 4 devices. Additional drives, whether
optical or hard drive, would require an add-on controller card or sata
connections.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

"LD" <ldavies@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:e0vo6zZYIHA.3696@xxxxxx

Hi Rick

thx for quick response, appreciate it. But when I right click on the new HDD
in Disk Managmennt the drop-down menu gives me the option to either:

Change Drive letter
Format or
DELETE VOLUME....

seems to me the volume is already created on it....?? Would I be right,
there? It is, however, sort of "greyed out" with black lines running at
45degees all over the "disc". It shows correctly as a 250gb disc, and it's
status is Online

It's bloody infuriating...my old XP boxes would take a new drive straight
away...!! ;-)) I love Vista, but it DOES seem 'tempermental" at times....

Rgds
Rod

"Rick Rogers" <rick@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:%239qnYCaYIHA.3696@xxxxxx

I deleted the volume, reformatted and went for a new volume...let's see...

Rgds
Rod

"Rick Rogers" <rick@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:%239qnYCaYIHA.3696@xxxxxx

Nup, continually tells me that Disk Managemnt has had an unexpected error,
refresh Disk Management Console and to restart Disk Management...I do all
this but to no avail...wont mount a new volume....

Rgds
Rod
"Rick Rogers" <rick@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:%239qnYCaYIHA.3696@xxxxxx

Please let us know the maker and model number of the mother board.

Tom
MSMVP 1998-2007

"LD" <ldavies@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:e0vo6zZYIHA.3696@xxxxxx

Check the jumpers on the drives. Make sure new drive is jumpered as "slave".
Original drive may have a jumper position marked "master with slave". Use
that. Don't use "cable select". "cable select"... in theory, should work but
for troubleshooting use the master / slave jumper positions. And just to be
anal make sure the original drive is connected to the "end" of the ribbon
cable and the new drive is not. Like Rick said you should be able to use 4
IDE drives. Two per ribbon cable. Leave the DVD/CD drive on its own cable
and use a single cable for your 2 hard drives.
In your bios... make sure the new drive is set up properly. Make sure it is
enabled. (turned on) Make sure you "exit and SAVE" as you leave bios.


"LD" <ldavies@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:e0vo6zZYIHA.3696@xxxxxx

Yes it must be partitioned and formatted before Explorer can 'see' it but I
have no idea why Drive Management is failing.

Are the jumpers set correctly at the rear of the drive?
--
Cari (MS-MVP) Printing & Imaging
www.coribright.com/windows

"LD" <ldavies@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:e0vo6zZYIHA.3696@xxxxxx