Can't access additional internal hard drive

[SevenStars]

Hi All

So heres my problem. Previously I had my computer running with two 200 gig sata hard drives in raid 0. I have since replaced the motherboard with a different one, but since it only has two sata inputs, I chose to just use one of the hard drives and my sata dvd burner and performed a fresh os install. Recently my burner has been acting up, so I wanted to use my extra hdd since my original one is starting to get full.

I disconnected the burner and plugged in the extra hdd and when I booted up into windows it did the found new hardware balloon and installed the drivers. I could then see it in my computer as drive d. However another balloon popped up and said that my new hardware might not function properly until I rebooted, so I restarted my computer.

When windows loaded again, the d drive wasn't showing up in my computer. In the device manager it just shows one hdd with a yellow ! by it. In disk management none of my hdds show up. If I disconnect the extra hdd, the device manager shows no yellow !s, and my c drive shows up in disk management.

With both hdds hooked up, post shows two hdds, and I can also see them both in the bios but I don't know how to access the extra hard drive. I don't care about the data on the extra hard drive, I just want to format it and have an extra storage drive on my computer.

Thanks

 

[kimsland]

Either Gparted (bootable CD) will help you remove (and re-install) the 2nd HardDrive's partition
Remember to not hurt the main HardDrive's partition in the process

Or use your Windows CD to partition it

 

[SevenStars]

kimsland

I tried what you suggested. First I used Gparted and deleted the partition on the 2nd hard drive, then formated a new partition using ntfs. However when I booted back into windows, I still couldn't access the hard drive, it was the same as before.

I also used my windows cd to try. During setup it showed my c: drive and my d: drive. I deleted the partition on the d: drive, and then created a new one. It said "Partition 1 [new(raw)]" I then exited, then booted into windows but I still couldn't access the 2nd drive.

I also tried removing my main hdd, then using the windows cd to reformat the 2nd hdd. After the computer rebooted to configure the windows installation, I exited and then ran windows off of my main hdd and I still couldn't access the 2nd hdd.

I also tried removing my main hdd and using Darik's Boot and Nuke. However after running for a few seconds it stopped with the message that Dban finished with non-fatal errors usually caused by disks with bad sectors.

Thanks for your help kimsland, maybe I'm not using Gparted properly as it took me a little while to figure it out. I will keep playing with it though.


I forgot to mention in my first post that in the Device Manager the error it gives is "Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware because there is a duplicate device already running in the system. (Code 42)"

Is it because the two hard drives are exactly the same and windows can't tell them apart?

Thanks for the help so far

 

[kimsland]

duplicate device already running

Each device that Windows identifies through Plug and Play are originally found by vendor code and a product code information (actually Interrupt Request Packet) sent from the Plug and Play Manager. These devices are then given their own IRQ connection setting, with the exception of some predefined devices loaded in Registry (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE>SYSTEM>CurrentControlSet>Services, any device with a Start type of 0)

Or basically: Your HardDrive will be automatically found and installed

But...

If you then decide to manually install a new hardware device, it is possible to have two devices installed on only one Hardware item.
One way to help view this would be to use Device Manager -> Devices by connection (under PCI Bus

But...

An easier option, would be to uninstall all conflicting (and original copies) of a particular device (namely all your allocated HardDrives) from Device Manager.
And to then allow Windows to re-install them through PnP only.

By the way are these Sata or ATA HardDrives ?
If ATA (connected to IDE ports on the M/b) Are they on seperate cables ? And are they set to CS ?(Cable Select)

 

[SevenStars]

They are both sata drives.

I uninstalled the driver for the hdd (only one shows up in the device manager) and then the computer had to reboot to complete the process. Upon restarting, windows detected new hardware and installed the driver for the hdd. In My Computer I could see both my C: drive and my D: drive.

However after restarting my computer, the D: drive disappeared again, and the device manager had a yellow ! with a code 42, like before.

So my extra hdd only shows up after I uninstall the drivers for it and reboot. If I reboot again, the drive disappears. I also noticed that while I can see both C: and D: drives in My Computer, the device manager only shows one hdd, and disk management only shows my D: drive (the empty extra one).

It works but it is kinda a pain to reboot every time I want to access my extra hdd. I guess its good if I want to hide a hdd on my system though,

Thanks for the help so far

 

[kimsland]

Wow it's definately a hardware issue.

I would suggest that you swap the Sata cables (the actual red cables) around from 1 Sata to the other. If this gives the same response, try different Sata ports on the MotherBoard.
Again the same: This may be a faulty HardDrive itself. You may wish to download a Drive Diagnostic test on it

Last option woul be MotherBoard fault. But re-confirming your BIOS revision is up to date, is the first option. But your next would be to do a full Clean and BenchTest of your entire computer. (who knows there may be something touching under the board)

Although frustrating to you, it is an interesting fault (now that's geeky!)