Second Hard Drive

[Guest]

Hi:

I've installed a second Hard Drive. When I open "My Computer" the second
Hard drive doesn't show up, indicating Windows XP isn't assigning it a drive
letter. So i can't actually read or write to it.

If I click "Properties" of Local Disk C, and click the "Hardware" tab, i can
see both hard drives listed. However the size of the drive listed for Drive
C hasn't changed, so i know it's not considering the capacity of the second
drive.

If I try using the New Hardware wizard, it says both drives are working
fine, and the drivers are installed.
How can I get Windows XP to assign this new hard drive a drive letter, and
let me start working with it?

 

[Rock]

Hi:

I've installed a second Hard Drive. When I open "My Computer" the second
Hard drive doesn't show up, indicating Windows XP isn't assigning it a
drive
letter. So i can't actually read or write to it.

If I click "Properties" of Local Disk C, and click the "Hardware" tab, i
can
see both hard drives listed. However the size of the drive listed for
Drive
C hasn't changed, so i know it's not considering the capacity of the
second
drive.

If I try using the New Hardware wizard, it says both drives are working
fine, and the drivers are installed.
How can I get Windows XP to assign this new hard drive a drive letter, and
let me start working with it?

Open Disk Management, format the drive if needed and assign it a drive
letter. There are a variety of ways to get to disk management. From Start
| Help and Support search on disk management for info.

One way is from Start | run type in diskmgmt.msc, click ok.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Hi:

I've installed a second Hard Drive. When I open "My Computer" the second
Hard drive doesn't show up, indicating Windows XP isn't assigning it a drive
letter. So i can't actually read or write to it.

If I click "Properties" of Local Disk C, and click the "Hardware" tab, i can
see both hard drives listed. However the size of the drive listed for Drive
C hasn't changed, so i know it's not considering the capacity of the second
drive.

If I try using the New Hardware wizard, it says both drives are working
fine, and the drivers are installed.
How can I get Windows XP to assign this new hard drive a drive letter, and
let me start working with it?

You must run diskmgmt.msc so that you can partition and format
the new disk.

 

[Terry]

On 3/29/2007 5:24 PM On a whim, Gretchen pounded out on the keyboard

Hi:

I've installed a second Hard Drive. When I open "My Computer" the second
Hard drive doesn't show up, indicating Windows XP isn't assigning it a drive
letter. So i can't actually read or write to it.

If I click "Properties" of Local Disk C, and click the "Hardware" tab, i can
see both hard drives listed. However the size of the drive listed for Drive
C hasn't changed, so i know it's not considering the capacity of the second
drive.

If I try using the New Hardware wizard, it says both drives are working
fine, and the drivers are installed.
How can I get Windows XP to assign this new hard drive a drive letter, and
let me start working with it?

Hi Gretchen,

Did you format the drive using the utility that came with the drive
(unless it was a bare drive)? If not, right click on My Computer and
select Manage. From there click on Disk Management and you should see
the disk show up (most likely Disk 1 as your first drive is Disk 0).
From there you can right click on the drive (might say Unallocated),
select New Partition and a wizard will lead you through the process.
After that is done I believe Windows will assign it a drive (or you may
have to do it yourself) and then you will be able to see it. Might
require a restart.

I use a partitioning program so I may miss a couple things but you
should be able to get it working from what I've explained.


--
Terry

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[Tim Slattery]

Hi:

I've installed a second Hard Drive. When I open "My Computer" the second
Hard drive doesn't show up, indicating Windows XP isn't assigning it a drive
letter. So i can't actually read or write to it.

"Drive letters" are assigned to partitions, not actual hard drives. So
open Disk Management, and install a partition on the new drive. Once
that's in place a "drive letter" will be assigned. (In older systems
you had to reboot after creating a partition, I'm not sure whether
this is still the case). Once you have a drive letter you can format
your new partition. Then it's ready to be used.

 

[Guest]

Thanks to Rock, Pegasus (MVP), Terry, and Tim Slattery. The hard drive is
working! Couldn't a dunnit without ya!

Gretchen

 

[Rock]

You're welcome. Glad it's resolved and thanks for posting back.