Invisible Drive

I have added an old 30 GB HD to my existing setup, giving me two HDs each of 30GB. The previous incumbent with WinME OS is switched as master, the newie as slave. BIOS sees two HDs with 30 GB storage. Device Manager sees two HD with 30 GB stoarage. However, the OS has not given the new HD a drive ID -- it seems invisible. Elsewhere I've been advised to FDisk the newie -- but how can I do this if I cannot direct the action? Previously the newie hold WinME and many folders, but only one partition. Any ideas?

 

You start the FDisk utility by starting the computer with a bootdisk. In your case, with two drives of the same size, it could be risky to use FDisk with both drives attached. It's hard to tell them apart, unless your old drive (master) happens to be partitioned, as they will both be shown only as 30GB partitions. To do it safely and without fear of wiping out your current OS partition, I would recommend disconnecting your master (and leave it unhooked until done) and put the slave (reset the jumpers) in it's place and power up with a bootdisk in. Here's how MS says to Fdisk and Format.

 

Thanks. Will try that.