Second hard drive problem

[Bobcat]

I have a 40gb main hard drive (C installed in my computer, and a
secondary 80gb one (F, also installed. I use the latter for storing
backup files and programs and retaining little-used files I transfer
from C: because it has relatively little storage space. My problem is
that when I start up the computer in the morning, often the secondary
hard drive doesn't appear, so it's inaccessible. I've tried restarting
my computer, but often that doesn't work.
Can you help me, please, to restore both drives appearing on startup,
or at least do something else besides rebooting? Thanks.

 

[R. McCarty]

Based the original drive size, your Mass Storage is probably PATA
(Parallel ATA) that uses a 80-pin cable. When you installed the 2nd
drive how did you configure both drive's jumper. If your PC is OEM
(Dell, Gateway...) the original drive may be set to CS (Cable Select).
If that's true then did you set the 80-Gigabyte drive also to CS ?
You can reconfigure both drives using the Master/Slave arrangement
on the jumpers. The cable itself may be loose on the newer drive &
not be secure enough for the drive to initialize when you power on.
One other diagnostic step might be to replace the existing cable with
a new one. You should also test the drives by entering BIOS setup
and verifying from the Drive detection page that both drives are on
and being automatically detected.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I have a 40gb main hard drive (C installed in my computer, and a
secondary 80gb one (F, also installed. I use the latter for storing
backup files and programs and retaining little-used files I transfer
from C: because it has relatively little storage space. My problem is
that when I start up the computer in the morning, often the secondary
hard drive doesn't appear, so it's inaccessible. I've tried restarting
my computer, but often that doesn't work.
Can you help me, please, to restore both drives appearing on startup,
or at least do something else besides rebooting? Thanks.

Read R. McCarty's response to your question. I wanted to make a
different point. If you care about your data, you should reconsider
the idea of putting backups on a second internal drive. Such a scheme
is better than no backup at all, but just barely. It is always
possible that a user error, sever power glitch, nearby lightning
strike, virus attack, even theft of the computer, can cause the loss
of everything at once.