Windows XP and 2 hard drives

I'm hoping someone can give me a cluelight on running more than 1 hard drive with Win XP. I just built a new system from the ground up and had two Western Digital drives in the machine during Windows installation. Windows recognized both no problem and installed to my master, but I can't get the slave to be more than listed in the device manager.

Bottom line: Second drive is properly configured as slave off the first, motherboard BIOS recognizes both, Windows shows both in device manager, but when I go to My Computer or Windows Explorer all I see is my master drive (C:\). Had the same results when I went through the process of trying to add a second drive to another machine after Win XP was already installed on the master drive. Obviously I am missing something simple, but can't figure it out via any of the help files. Can anyone point me in the right direction? Thanks!

 

Silly question: are you sure the slave has been properly partitioned and formated?...

 

Well, your question is valid, and something I should have mentioned up front. When Windows installed it asked me which drive I wanted to install the OS on and partition/format. I chose my master drive, but it never gave me the opportunity to go back and do the second drive. I guess that is at the heart of all this. How do I go back and do that when I can't access it via the windows interface? There must be a spot to do it that I just can't remember. Appreciat the help!

 

Well,
I know where it is if you have the admin tools installed.
http://www.windows-help.net/WindowsXP/adminpack-b3.html
With the admin tools installed go to Start, Programs, Administration Tools, Computer Management, Storage, Disk Management.
You will have the option there to add Primary Partitions or Logical Drives.
Same as in win2k.
If your running XP home you may have to boot from the CD and format that other drive.

 

I had exactly the same symptoms. Ultimately I had to reformat the slave drive. I used the installation disk that came with the slave drive rather than trying to boot from the XP CD.

 

Thanks to both of you. I have the installation disk for the drive, so will give it a shot. Seems like I tried that on my other system and the program couldn't deal with the NTFS setup that Windows had apparently already put on there, even though it didn't format it. What's up with that?

The admin tools lead sounds like a good possibility. I might try that, too! Thanks!

 

Right Track

Never fully trust that windows is doing what it should be doing.

Sounds like the drive is not partitioned and formatted. Thats why device manager sees it but you dont see a letter assigned to it.

If the drive is brand new then it is very likely its not partitioned and formatted.

Good luck.

While the subject is current, anyone know if XP supports drive mirroring without having a raid controller in a system?

 

If you are still having problems, Right-Click on My Computer and click on Manage, then click on Disk Management. You should be able to see all your physical drives in the lower right pane. If there's a drive there without a drive letter, right click on it and go from there!

 

Ahaaaa

Still getting used to XP, I was wondering where that had gone

 

MJG1973,

Your method worked! So simple I could slap myself. Had not explored that far into XP yet. The manager showed the drive and that it had not been fully partitioned and formatted with the NTFS format. I right-clicked it and did that (it's formatting as I type). Can't believe (yes I can) that I couldn't find that simple answer in the help online or on Microsoft's site, but of course didn't know the exact verbiage to use. Thanks again!

Darth

 

I didn't know it was there without Admin tools installed, but.......I didn't look!

 

No problem!! Glad it helped!!

You should have noticed quite a few handy things in Computer Management! Also, for some quick and dirty info, when you right-click on My Computer, take a peek at System Information!

Take care