assigning new drive letter to new harddisk

[Eli Aran]

hello there!
I just got a new WD 250 GB hard disk.
I have windows XP pro and P IV 2.4 GHz with 1250 MB RAM.
before I installed the new HD in my computer,
I configured it to be the slave disk with the plastic jumper.
then I took out the second 20 GB HD that was inside my computer,
and put the new 250 GB HD in its place.
my first hard disk of 40 GB was left as is.
now I turned on the computer and went to my computer -> manage.
I assigned the next vacant drive letter (I to the new hard disk.
I selected to format it as primary partition to NTFS.
the format went well and the drive is healthy.
then I started to move data to the new 250 GB drive
which I have cut from several places in my first hard disk.
once again everything went ok and I have eventually moved
around 7 GB of files successfully.
now comes my problem:
I moved up from drive I: to "My Computer" and the drive letter does not
show!
I can see C: and A: and GCD burner) and HDVD drive)
I also see several other windows elements but not the new I: drive.
mind you, if I type I:\ and hit enter I get all the files in the new HD
but I cannot double click the (non-existing) drive icon.
(the reason I chose the letter I and not D is because the 20 GB HD I took
out
had the letters D,E and F already assigned and I wanted to avoid a conflict
of
drive letters)
what did I do wrong and how do I get to see the drive letter in My Computer?
thank you

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

hello there!
I just got a new WD 250 GB hard disk.
I have windows XP pro and P IV 2.4 GHz with 1250 MB RAM.
before I installed the new HD in my computer,
I configured it to be the slave disk with the plastic jumper.
then I took out the second 20 GB HD that was inside my computer,
and put the new 250 GB HD in its place.
my first hard disk of 40 GB was left as is.
now I turned on the computer and went to my computer -> manage.
I assigned the next vacant drive letter (I to the new hard disk.
I selected to format it as primary partition to NTFS.
the format went well and the drive is healthy.
then I started to move data to the new 250 GB drive
which I have cut from several places in my first hard disk.
once again everything went ok and I have eventually moved
around 7 GB of files successfully.
now comes my problem:
I moved up from drive I: to "My Computer" and the drive letter does not
show!
I can see C: and A: and GCD burner) and HDVD drive)
I also see several other windows elements but not the new I: drive.
mind you, if I type I:\ and hit enter I get all the files in the new HD
but I cannot double click the (non-existing) drive icon.
(the reason I chose the letter I and not D is because the 20 GB HD I took
out
had the letters D,E and F already assigned and I wanted to avoid a conflict
of
drive letters)
what did I do wrong and how do I get to see the drive letter in My Computer?
thank you

Click Start / Run / diskmgmt.msc, then assign a drive
letter to the invisible partition.

 

[Rock]

hello there!
I just got a new WD 250 GB hard disk.
I have windows XP pro and P IV 2.4 GHz with 1250 MB RAM.
before I installed the new HD in my computer,
I configured it to be the slave disk with the plastic jumper.
then I took out the second 20 GB HD that was inside my computer,
and put the new 250 GB HD in its place.
my first hard disk of 40 GB was left as is.
now I turned on the computer and went to my computer -> manage.
I assigned the next vacant drive letter (I to the new hard disk.
I selected to format it as primary partition to NTFS.
the format went well and the drive is healthy.
then I started to move data to the new 250 GB drive
which I have cut from several places in my first hard disk.
once again everything went ok and I have eventually moved
around 7 GB of files successfully.
now comes my problem:
I moved up from drive I: to "My Computer" and the drive letter does not
show!
I can see C: and A: and GCD burner) and HDVD drive)
I also see several other windows elements but not the new I: drive.
mind you, if I type I:\ and hit enter I get all the files in the new HD
but I cannot double click the (non-existing) drive icon.
(the reason I chose the letter I and not D is because the 20 GB HD I took
out
had the letters D,E and F already assigned and I wanted to avoid a
conflict of
drive letters)
what did I do wrong and how do I get to see the drive letter in My
Computer?

Download, install and run TweakUI, one of the MS powertoys:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/powertoys.asp

I think it's under the My Computer section make sure the I drive is not
unchecked for display.

 

[Eli Aran]

thank you for your replies.
the solution for my problem was the folowing:
I assigned the letter d: to my new 250 GB HD and was able to see it in my
computer and in disk management.
I suppose that somewhere in the O/S, the letter I: was already "taken" -
probably when I was already using it with my USB memory stick and it was
somehow "not released" for other purposes...
Eli