New Disk - Initialize, Partition, and Format

[baumgrenze]

I've encountered a confusing set of messages when I boot my machine
with a new SATA HDD installed. I find that XP Pro wants to send it
through a wizard to initialize it and set it up as a dynamic disk.

Here is some relevant basic info on my machine from a Belarc Advisor
Audit

System Model
Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. EP35-DS3P

Main Circuit Board
Board: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. EP35-DS3P
Bus Clock: 266 megahertz
BIOS: Award Software International, Inc. F2 01/02/2008

I snapped some digital photos during the boot sequence. I find that I
am told that at:

Port-04: Hard Disk, WBC WD5000AAKS 00A7B0
(Drive is controlled by the RAID BIOS)

As the screen scrolls, I find the following report:

4 WD5000AAKS-0 WD-WMASY0568494 465.8GB Non-RAID Disk

I find this mixed message very confusing.

When I open Computer Management (Local)>Storage>Disk Management, I
find that XP Pro opens the "Initialize and Convert Disk Wizard to help
me set up this disk as a dynamic disk. I gather that the "Drive is
controlled by the RAID BIOS" message is driving this behavior.

Ports 0 and 1 are a pair of 70 GB disks configured in a RAID 1 array.
These contain my OS, programs, and documents.

I do not want to mess this up. I do want to format the disk on Port 4
as a simple data storage disk (no RAID.)

Can anyone explain? I am stymied.

baumgrenze

 

[Andy]

I've encountered a confusing set of messages when I boot my machine
with a new SATA HDD installed. I find that XP Pro wants to send it
through a wizard to initialize it and set it up as a dynamic disk.

Here is some relevant basic info on my machine from a Belarc Advisor
Audit

System Model
Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. EP35-DS3P

Main Circuit Board
Board: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. EP35-DS3P
Bus Clock: 266 megahertz
BIOS: Award Software International, Inc. F2 01/02/2008

I snapped some digital photos during the boot sequence. I find that I
am told that at:

Port-04: Hard Disk, WBC WD5000AAKS 00A7B0
(Drive is controlled by the RAID BIOS)

As the screen scrolls, I find the following report:

4 WD5000AAKS-0 WD-WMASY0568494 465.8GB Non-RAID Disk

I find this mixed message very confusing.

Non-RAID means that the disk is not configured as part of a disk
array.

When I open Computer Management (Local)>Storage>Disk Management, I
find that XP Pro opens the "Initialize and Convert Disk Wizard to help
me set up this disk as a dynamic disk. I gather that the "Drive is
controlled by the RAID BIOS" message is driving this behavior.

Ports 0 and 1 are a pair of 70 GB disks configured in a RAID 1 array.
These contain my OS, programs, and documents.

I do not want to mess this up. I do want to format the disk on Port 4
as a simple data storage disk (no RAID.)

Can anyone explain? I am stymied.

You want the new disk to be initialized, but not converted to dynamic.

 

[baumgrenze]

Andy,

I heartily agree!

Unfortunately, XP Pro SE2 (newly installed only a month ago by the
builder of my machine) offers me only the "Initialize and Convert Disk
Wizard" which insists on taking the dynamic path. I've tried aborting
the wizard. When I right click on the appropriate disk (the
unallocated one) the options are 'Properties' and 'Help' (which is
most unhelpful.) The 3rd option, "New Partition" is greyed out,
probably because the disk has not yet been initialized. The wizard
that, in its wisdom opens automatically, does not seem to want to
allow me to initialize and close the wizard. It tells me "You must
initialize a disk before Logical Disk Manager can access it." When I
click "Next" I am informed "The disks you select will be converted to
dynamic disks." I understand that I do not want to do this. Damn, it
is frustrating when Redmond automates things to the extent that you
lose all control over the process.

John

I guess I need to do some research about how to do this from a command
line interface.

 

[baumgrenze]

Oh, this was simple, once I had the right instructions.

I was right clicking the "right hand cross hatched rectangle" and not
the space to its left. Once I did that, everything was
straightforward.

How nice it would be to have unambiguous help/instructions from MS.

baumgrenze

 

[Brett I. Holcomb]

Normally when a new disk is detected you get the initialize wizard and
then the dynamic option - you can uncheck that option and continue.

 

[baumgrenze]

Thanks for the observation, Brett.

I do not recall seeing a place to uncheck the dynamic option. I did
not record enough screen shots to revisit the menu.

What I found in the MSKB was the following statement:

"3. Right-click an unallocated region of a basic disk"

Perhaps I should have launched a new search for a definition of a
"basic disk."

I saw the text "unallocated" in the "long cross-hatched box" to the
right of where I needed to right click to be able to initialize the
disk. Right clicking where it said "unallocated" did not work.

I see now that it was my inability to clearly read Redmond jargon.

baumgrenze

 

[Brett I. Holcomb]

You're welcome.

Thanks for the observation, Brett.

I do not recall seeing a place to uncheck the dynamic option. I did
not record enough screen shots to revisit the menu.

What I found in the MSKB was the following statement:

"3. Right-click an unallocated region of a basic disk"

Perhaps I should have launched a new search for a definition of a
"basic disk."

I saw the text "unallocated" in the "long cross-hatched box" to the
right of where I needed to right click to be able to initialize the
disk. Right clicking where it said "unallocated" did not work.

I see now that it was my inability to clearly read Redmond jargon.

baumgrenze

 

[GHalleck]

Oh, this was simple, once I had the right instructions.

I was right clicking the "right hand cross hatched rectangle" and not
the space to its left. Once I did that, everything was
straightforward.

How nice it would be to have unambiguous help/instructions from MS.

baumgrenze

Just an observation...MS being unambiguous and helpful? Sure. That
is one facet of MS's philosophy of "dumbing down" systems so that
the gospel is always according to Bill Gates, Jim Ballmer, and their
cohorts. They must believe the hard drive can only be or should only
be Drive C and setting up dynamic disks perpetuates this action. Thank
you but no thanks...for the dumbing down. The corollary to all this is
that computer users should be computer savvy.