I need help with Hard Drive

[Stumped]

I just installed a new Hard Drive and my computer can see it. I cannot
manipulate it in any way. Can someone please help me assign it a name
through DOS so that Ill be able to access it through windows?

 

[Bruce Chambers]

I just installed a new Hard Drive and my computer can see it. I cannot
manipulate it in any way. Can someone please help me assign it a name
through DOS so that Ill be able to access it through windows?

The new hard drive cannot appear in Windows Explorer or My
Computer, nor can disk management assign it a drive letter, until it has
been partitioned and formatted. Right-click My Computer > Manage > Disk
Management. Create and format partition(s) on the external hard drive
as desired.

(Oh, by the way, there is no "DOS" in WinXP.)


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:


http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/555375

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safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. ~Bertrand Russell

The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has
killed a great many philosophers.
~ Denis Diderot

 

[Stumped]

Well I attempted that and nothing can be done with the drive. The right
click options pop up as grey. it says its a primary partition its healthy
and its GPT protective partition. Still cant access it though. Any
workarounds?

 

[Pegasus [MVP]]

Well I attempted that and nothing can be done with the drive. The right
click options pop up as grey. it says its a primary partition its healthy
and its GPT protective partition. Still cant access it though. Any
workarounds?

You could use diskpart.exe from a Command Prompt, e.g. like so:

diskpart{Enter}
list disk{Enter}
select disk 2{Enter}
list partition{Enter}
select partition 3{Enter}
detail partition{Enter}
delete partition{Enter}
(this is the only command that will modify the disk)
exit{Enter}

Note that diskpart is a very sharp knife. Use it with care!

 

[LVTravel]

Well I attempted that and nothing can be done with the drive. The right
click options pop up as grey. it says its a primary partition its healthy
and its GPT protective partition. Still cant access it though. Any
workarounds?

Apparently not an out of the box new drive if it is formatted as a GPT
drive. A lot of information about GPT disks here:
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/storage/GPT_FAQ.mspx

Pegasus has the apparent fix for you to access the drive and be able to
partition and format per Bruce's post.

 

[John John - MVP]

Well I attempted that and nothing can be done with the drive. The right
click options pop up as grey. it says its a primary partition its healthy
and its GPT protective partition. Still cant access it though. Any
workarounds?

You're not clicking at the right place. Instead of clicking on the
partition click on the Disk # button at the left. You didn't give us
your Windows version, I suspect that you are using XP 32-bit. Windows
XP 32-bit cannot read or write to GPT disks, you will have to change the
disk to a basic MBR disk.

John

 

[D. Kirkpatrick]

I just installed a new Hard Drive and my computer can see it. I cannot
manipulate it in any way. Can someone please help me assign it a name
through DOS so that Ill be able to access it through windows?

The broader question is how it is wired.

In most computers (broad statement here) there is a concept of a
master drive and a slave (second) drive.

On some systems you need to hard code this by changing a small jumper
located on the rear of the hard drive chassis at the time it is
installed. The manufacturer has documentation that shows where to
place this jumper for master and slave.

Then on other systems, you can place that jumper in a slot called
"cable select" and the software can then determine which is the master
and which is the slave.

This may also be followed by a need to get the system BIOS to
recognize that it is there. When you cold boot (power up from being
shut off) you usually get a screen offering to enter the Set up screen
before Windows loads. You may need to check in those screens to see
if the second drive is being seen or not.

 

[D. Kirkpatrick]

Well I attempted that and nothing can be done with the drive. The right
click options pop up as grey. it says its a primary partition its healthy
and its GPT protective partition. Still cant access it though. Any
workarounds?

If the drive can be seen but not accessed you may be able to format it
with a program called Western Digital Data Lifeguard Tools.

It is manufactured specifically for Western Digital dries but is a
freeware and can be used to access other drives.

I have an external Firewire drive that was originally on a Mac and
Windows refused to deal with it. I used the above to access it and
format it and it works like a charm.

Careful however... this is a sharp can opener and could destroy your
main hard drive if you do not choose wisely.

 

[Patrick Keenan]

I just installed a new Hard Drive and my computer can see it. I cannot
manipulate it in any way. Can someone please help me assign it a name
through DOS so that Ill be able to access it through windows?

You can't do that through DOS, because DOS does not exist on XP. What
you see as a command window, or "dos box", is XP without the window
dressing.

The problem is that you haven't prepared the disk, which means initializing
it, creating at least one partition, formatting, and assigning a drive
letter.

The easiest approach is to right-click on My Computer and choose Manage.
Choose Disk Management, then right-click on the drive. You should be asked
to initialise it, and after that, you can create the partition, format it,
and assign a drive letter.

If you really have to use a command prompt, launch diskpart. It will do
exactly the same thing as Disk Management, without the UI.

HTH
-pk