2 SATA hard drives - One not recognized in My Computer

[Guest]

I have just recently installed a second SATA hard drive in my Dell XPS. I
have been having issues with software conflict crashes so I decided to add a
new larger Western Digital WD3200AAJS, 320GB as a primary and keep the
smaller existing WD800JD, 80GB drive as a secondary drive. It was a bare
bone drive when I purchased it and I forgot to pick up a Serial ATA cable so
when I installed it, I simply unplugged the cable from my existing 80GB drive
and installed Windows XP2 on the new drive. Then I went out and purchased
the second cable, plugged the 80Gig into the second socket (there are 4 all
together, 0-3). When I turned on the system, I set up the second drive in
the system BIOS and continued to boot Windows XP. When I went to My
Computer/Windows Explorer, the second drive was not listed. Next I went into
the device manager and found it listed there. I tried uninstalling the drive
and then reinstalled it and it made no difference, the drive still doesn't
show up in My Computer.
I am wondering how I can get it to show up as a drive in My Computer.
Additionally, I tried an experiment and shut the system down, switched the
cables to reverse the drive order so the the 80Gig was primary and the 320Gig
was secondary and low-and-behold, both drives show up in My Computer.
Do I need to re-format the new drive and start over, or is there an easier
solution?
Any suggestions?

 

[Bill Blanton]

What does the disk list as in disk management? Dynamic or basic? If
dynamic, your best bet would probably be to copy all you files off and then
convert it to a basic type disk.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309044

If it is basic, then what does it list under file system and status?

 

[Anna]

I have just recently installed a second SATA hard drive in my Dell XPS. I
have been having issues with software conflict crashes so I decided to add
a
new larger Western Digital WD3200AAJS, 320GB as a primary and keep the
smaller existing WD800JD, 80GB drive as a secondary drive. It was a bare
bone drive when I purchased it and I forgot to pick up a Serial ATA cable
so
when I installed it, I simply unplugged the cable from my existing 80GB
drive
and installed Windows XP2 on the new drive. Then I went out and purchased
the second cable, plugged the 80Gig into the second socket (there are 4
all
together, 0-3). When I turned on the system, I set up the second drive in
the system BIOS and continued to boot Windows XP. When I went to My
Computer/Windows Explorer, the second drive was not listed. Next I went
into
the device manager and found it listed there. I tried uninstalling the
drive
and then reinstalled it and it made no difference, the drive still doesn't
show up in My Computer.
I am wondering how I can get it to show up as a drive in My Computer.
Additionally, I tried an experiment and shut the system down, switched the
cables to reverse the drive order so the the 80Gig was primary and the
320Gig
was secondary and low-and-behold, both drives show up in My Computer.
Do I need to re-format the new drive and start over, or is there an easier
solution?
Any suggestions?

Nickski:
From your description of events it would seem you did everything "right".
Just a few questions...

1. After you installed the XP OS onto your new 320 GB SATA HDD, and that HDD
was connected to your motherboard's 0 SATA connector (I assume that's what
you mean by "primary"), the drive booted without incident and functioned
just fine. That's right, isn't it? Similarly there are no problems with your
80 GB SATA HDD in that the drive boots & functions without any problems,
right?

2. When you subsequently re:connected your old 80 GB SATA HDD it was
connected to the motherboard's SATA 1 connector, right?

3. You then say that after you made that connection "I turned on the system,
I set up the second drive in the system BIOS and continued to boot Windows
XP." What exactly do you mean by "set(ting) up the second drive in the
system BIOS..."? What precisely did you modify in the BIOS? Are you
referring to the boot priority order? Or something else?

4. And when you "switched the cables" so that the 80 GB HDD is now connected
to SATA 0 and the 320 GB HDD is connected to SATA 1, and both drives are
recognized by the system, you're indicating that the system is booting to
the 80 GB HDD and not the 320 GB drive, right? You're sure of that, yes?

5. Anyway, check your boot priority order to ensure that the system will
boot to the SATA HDD connected to the motherboard's SATA 0 connector. (I'm
not familiar with that motherboard so I don't know if the BIOS will permit a
boot from any other SATA connector).

I see Bill Blanton asked you to check in Disk Management re a possible
basic/dynamic disk situation. I wouldn't think that's at the root of your
problem but you should certainly check the DM utility to determine if the
secondary HDD is listed there and no drive letter assignment has been made.
Should that be so, see if you can assign a drive letter.
Anna

 

[Guest]

Dell XPS...Are we suppose to have specs on this pc.....Does the board use
intel or silicon image SATA controller....Or Both.....If intel is
present,install the
chipset installation utility from thier download site,if silicon image is
also present
windows update should install the drivers/software for it or go to thier
site..Also,
in diskmgmt.msc L.click the unpresent drive go to actions,all,select make
active...

 

[Guest]

Thank you for your input Anna.
To save space I will only copy and paste the beginning of your questions.

<1. After you installed the XP OS onto your new 320 GB SATA HDD>
<2. When you subsequently re:connected your old 80 GB SATA HDD it was
connected to the motherboard's SATA 1 connector, right?>
Yes to both questions.
<3. You then say that after you made that connection "I turned on the system,
I set up the second drive in the system BIOS>
In the system BIOS, you can turn the SATA drive sockets ON or OFF. I simply
turned the SATA socket 1 "ON". The boot order can be set for the floppy,
CDROM or HDD, however you cannot specifiy which HDD...it defaults to SATA
socket 0.
<4. And when you "switched the cables" so that the 80 GB HDD is now connected
to SATA 0 and the 320 GB HDD is connected to SATA 1>
Since the system defaults to SATA socket 0. that is correct. Confirming to
your question #5 too.
Since I am not where the computer is located, I will check the Disk Mgt when
I return to the office.
Thank you again.
I will post my findings.

 

[Anna]

Nickski responds...

Yes to both questions.

Nickski responds...

In the system BIOS, you can turn the SATA drive sockets ON or OFF. I
simply
turned the SATA socket 1 "ON". The boot order can be set for the floppy,
CDROM or HDD, however you cannot specifiy which HDD...it defaults to SATA
socket 0.

Nickski responds...

Since the system defaults to SATA socket 0. that is correct.

Nickski responds...

Confirming (yes) to your question #5 too.

Nickski responds...

Since I am not where the computer is located, I will check the Disk Mgt
when
I return to the office.
Thank you again.
I will post my findings.

Nickski:
Also, (if you haven't already tried this) you might try connecting the
secondary HDD to the SATA 2 or SATA 3 connector to see what happens there.
Anna

 

[Guest]

To all that responded, the problem was resolved by simply assigning the drive
a letter in Disk Management.
Thank you for your help.