HDD not showing up at all.

[Hellfire]

Hi,

So I have two HDD installed on my computer, However under my computer only my primary is displayed,

If I go to Device manager my secondry HDD is displayed as working correctly but I do not know how to get access to it.

Help please?

 

[Beertintedgoggles]

You need to go into the Disk Management and format your drive before you can access it.

Edit: This is assuming it's a new drive that you just installed.

 

[Hellfire]

Right, I've found the drive and it's been partitioned with Linux installed (the PC I bought was "tested" with Linux by the company I bought from.

I can see one partition of 930gb out of 1000, but can't see the Linux partition to format it.

 

[twilyth]

disk managment is different that device manager.

In win7, click the start button, find the item marked "computer" on the right side, right click, select manage.

Under storage, there will be one item - disk managment. Click on that.

Look for the drive and let us know what it says under layout, file sys, type and status.

you won't see the drive/partition in windows explorer if it is not formatted or partitioned, if it is hidden, if it is a boot partition and probably a few other reasons.

if you don't have W7, go to control panel -> administrative tools -> double click 'computer management' -> disk management.

 

[RejZoR]

You can check if that HDD was really just tested or was used for longer periods. Run CrystalDiskInfo program and check the "Power on Hours" number. If the number is larger than ~6 hours (especially in the 100's of hours), they sold you an used HDD. Just a tip if the drive was not sealed in anti-electrostatic bag and you want to be sure.

 

[xBruce88x]

actually that 930gb is the whole drive... it has to do with how windows and hard drive manufacturers count storage... of you do 1000 * 1000 * 1000 * 1000 then /1024 /1024 /1024 you get ~930gb. The multiplication is to get to the drive size in bytes. then divide by how windows counts (1024bytes = 1kb) and so on. thus the 930GB. So just re-format that 930GB partition you see to NTFS and your good to go!

Edit, if its truly a new tested drive, then you can get away with a quick format... a full format will take all day lol

 

[Hellfire]

Working! for some reason it wasn't allocated a drive letter, weird lol

 

[xBruce88x]

good to hear you got it working. yea it usually doesn't get a drive letter until you format it to a format that windows can access.

 

[Hellfire]

good to hear you got it working. yea it usually doesn't get a drive letter until you format it to a format that windows can access.

However if I do try to format it I get the error

"Windows cannot format the system partition on this disk

It says it is "Healthy (Active, System, Primary Partition)
but my other drive (with windows installed also says
"Healthy (Boot, page file, active, crash dump, primary partition)

So how can I have two primary partitions?

 

[twilyth]

I may have gotten lost along the way, but isn't the other partition the one with Linux on it? Windows no habla Linux so that's probably why.

If you want to blow away the linux partition, you'll might need some partitioning software like Acronis. I think W7 will let you delete a partition too, but I don't remember.

Once the space is free, then you can resize the main partition to occupy the space that had been allocated to Linux. Hope that helps.

 

[Hellfire]

I may have gotten lost along the way, but isn't the other partition the one with Linux on it? Windows no habla Linux so that's probably why.

If you want to blow away the linux partition, you'll might need some partitioning software like Acronis. I think W7 will let you delete a partition too, but I don't remember.

Once the space is free, then you can resize the main partition to occupy the space that had been allocated to Linux. Hope that helps.

Aye but I am not so sure there is a linux partition (I may have been mistaken)

 

[twilyth]

If you're absolutely sure the other partition isn't accessible or it doesn't have anything on it you need, you can try deleting it in disk management.

I think you right click on the partition and select delete volume.

Then you can either create a new partition in the same space or leave it as unallocated and expand the neighboring partition.

Acronis makes you apply your changes before it actually does anything. I'm not sure if W7 disk management works the same way but it should prompt you through the process.

 

[twilyth]

Oh, and always quadruple check that you are performing the operation on the partition that you THINK you are.

Nothing sucks quite like blowing away your boot partition.

BTW, you can have multiple active primary partitions.

 

[Suijin]

Couple points of information when looking at disk management:

The partition it has listed as "system" is the first "active" drive that the computer sees and starts to load from. The main file used here is bcd (it is a hidden file). This file determines where to load the operating system from, and can also be set up for choosing between different operating systems at the computer's startup.

The partition it has listed as "boot" is the one it is using for your operating system.

Both of these will be in use as you are using your computer and you will not be able to format those partitions while loaded in your operating system.

If you want more information on the bcd file then look up "easybcd 2.0" and or go to http://www.multibooters.co.uk

Another way to edit the bcd is with a widows program called bcdedit. Look it up and understand what you are doing first though.

Messing with the bcd file can prevent your computer from being able to boot. Make sure you are technically saavy and have a repair disk ready to be used. You will mess it up if you are learning about these files.

 

[Suijin]

Also, I believe you can only have one "active" partition per drive. You can have many "active" drives installed on the computer though. The only bcd it will load from though will be the first "active" partition it sees. You can check if it is using a particular bcd by trying to open it with notepad, it will not open due to being in use if it is currently the one being used. In windows 7 at least the file path is X:\boot\bcd

 

[i43]

If you are not sure it is Linux volume or unsure what partition it is? ( just as Suijin wrote above ) or what influence that extra HDD have to your current system ?...

You can simply clear up things for yourself by going a little harder way, but more foolproof and safer IMHO ...

First disconnect that (secondary drive ) from system and start up Your PC,
just give it a try without that (secondary) hdd
if U can now boot up normally on current primary HDD without (secondary) HDD present, and everything run properly -
- then there's no issues.. if you kill that secondary HDD (volume) partition, reformat and do whatever you want to

To kill the Linux volumes, i have used Linux LIVE CD (for example Ubuntu 9.04) what have included GParted program
(Sorry i haven't lately used other partitioning tools (Acronis, or similar.. so can't comment that)

If i recall it right ... that gParted prog. built-in into Ubuntu 9.04 was capable even to format volumes to native NTFS
aka prepare the drive for use in windows, (may be this will speed up things a lil'bit with large volumes)

so, anyway before to launch Linux LIVE CD or any partitioning tools from it
! just double check ! what drive you gone wipe ! be extra careful !
Even for extra safety - just (temporary) pull out (primary) HDD and leave connected only that HDD what needs to be wiped!

if you are familiar with Linux, you know what I try to tell,
but if not - then it could be a lil' confusing because Linux does not name its hard drives like windows do .. C: D: E:.. X: "sorry about this side note"

anyway going with this scenario - You do not need primary HDD to be present,
as You booting from live CD (cd/dvd drive as first boot device)

probably that's all
let gParted finish its job, shut down, (re)connect drives back in right order,
start up PC, go to bios, check the boot order, remove Live cd, reboot, log into windows
if still not shown new drive , go to storage manager and crate a partition and choose drive letter ..

ok just for inf - that's my "quad boot" 4 OpSystem on 4 separate (physical) HDD's
http://img.techpowerup.org/100527/capture2_1storage.png
current screen was created when running W7 ult.32bit / just trying to explain
as i have 1 (200gb )drive for Linux and also i cannot see this drive when booted from any of these (3) windows versions thoug i can see(mount) all windows drives when booted from Linux HDD

 

[Hellfire]

Thanks guys,

All Solved I believe, I've got a lappy with ubuntu running on it hooked my secondary drive up onto it with a USB-SATA Caddy. The 930GB is correct and there was no "hidden" partition which I thought there was. Cheers for all your help