Is new HDD being recognised.

techdunce · Joined: Mar 29, 2007 Posts: 145

Hello all, its quite a while since I posted a problem here, so I suppose Ive been doing something right Very Happy

Have just installed a second HDD in my system (home build). BIOS sees it, and I see a new disk in Disk Management, with the correct amount of "Unallocated" space, but I dont have a new drive letter in My Computer or Disk Management. Both drives are sata, and identical in size. Running XP SP3. My question is, does this seem right to you all. I installed the new drive with the intention of installing Windows7 on it, but when booting from the W7 ISO, it wasnt giving me the opportunity to choose a drive to install on, and that made me a little wary

So, before making a huge mistake, thought I'd get a second opinion. Techdunce Smile

EDIT: Ok, done a little googling and found I stopped the install process before the option to choose drive, so that clears that up. So, am now wondering whats the deal with no drive letter being assigned, as I thought the new drive would be assigned a letter, or would that have to wait til its formatted/partitioned. Techdunce Smile

EDIT: Another edit, and it seems after a bit of re-learning I seem to have answered my own question in the last edit Embarassed

. Nothing is gonna show in "my computer" til its formatted. What threw me off was, my first drive is partitioned as C:\ and E:\. I thought the new drive would automatically become E: and the partition (E:\) become F: (cd/dvd is D:\) If anyone sees anything wrong with my thinking then feel free to shout, and people wonder why I still call myself "Techdunce Embarassed

" hee hee

goretsky · Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2009 2:14 am Post subject:

Hello,

It sounds like you have figured things out. If you wish to change the drive letters to different ones when you are firnished formatting, use the Disk Management (filename: DISKMGMT.MSC) program to do so by right-clicking on a disk volume and selecting Change Drive Letter and Paths from the popup context menu.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

Baby_Tux · Joined: Mar 06, 2007 Posts: 916

As you may have already found out;
A & B are assigned to floppies (reserved - or can be a RAM DRIVE, usually B)
C starts the HD's
D "usually" starts the optical drives (E would be the next one if 2 optical drives were installed)
so E would be the next partition (if not used as above)
If YOU add any more it will start with the next available drive letter, in this case, F.
(note: If you assign a drive & skip some letters, it starts at the next available. Say you assign H instead of F, "I" would be your next drive)

But as noted, you CAN reassign them.

Is this as clear as mud??? Laughing

techdunce · Joined: Mar 29, 2007 Posts: 145

Hello to Baby Tux and Goretsky, and thanks for your replies. As you probably guessed, and in Goretsky's case, noted, this is definitely one of those problems I wish I'd thought about before I posted. I learned all this stuff when I decided to build, but "Retaining" the knowledge is a different story Embarassed

But its always nice to be reassured your on the right track, so thanks again to you both. Hope to bother you with something more substantial next time Very Happy

Techdunce