1 of 3 hard drives disappears after Microsoft update!

[RDave]

I purchased a refubished Sony desktop that had 3 hard drives C, X and Z
(probably 1 hard drive with 2 partitions). Immediatly after a Microsoft
update, the Z drive disappeared. Earlier in the day, I had copied 5 GB worth
of photos from my old computer to this drive, and it was working fine (yes,
the original photos are still on the old computer). Is there a way I can
reactivate this drive, or am I just stuck doing a system restore (I created a
restore point yesterday morning) and moving the photos from the old computer
to the X drive?

 

[Joe]

I purchased a refubished Sony desktop that had 3 hard drives C, X and Z
(probably 1 hard drive with 2 partitions). Immediatly after a Microsoft
update, the Z drive disappeared. Earlier in the day, I had copied 5 GB worth
of photos from my old computer to this drive, and it was working fine (yes,
the original photos are still on the old computer). Is there a way I can
reactivate this drive, or am I just stuck doing a system restore (I created a
restore point yesterday morning) and moving the photos from the old computer
to the X drive?

First thing you need to do is determine what the drive situation is. If
it is one drive with 3 partitions then the drive should not have
disappeared. I there are three drives, then there is something wrong
with that drive. Go to control panal and look at the drive management
section to see about the drives.

 

[RDave]

Joe,

would that be under system or administrative tools in control panel?

 

[DL]

Adminastrative Tools

Joe,

would that be under system or administrative tools in control panel?

 

[RDave]

Under device manager I found:

Local disk C ST3200822AS 185,650 MB

Local disk X Maxtor 66160MO 131,069 MB

Does this mean that I have 2 separate hard drives?

(the Z drive that disappeared originally had 149,000 MB) but it does not
show up under drives in device manager.

 

[Joe]

By the way, that is not a factory Sony configuration.

You might want to open the case and see if there is a third drive.

 

[RDave]

I got a pop-up from Trend Micro stating that the last update that they sent
(which came a few minutes before I downloaded the Microsoft update) was
flawed and "may make your computer unstable". I went with System Restore
point that I made yesterday morning and the Z: drive is back (including the
photos that I transferred to it this morning!).