Topic: HARD DRIVE

[WhyMe?]

Hi, I have just installed a new 80Gb HDD as Primary Slave.
Unfortunately it is not recognised in 'My Computer' window; although it shows OK in both 'Setup' and 'Device Manager'.   
Can anyone explain how to get this drive to show when I click on 'My Computer'? 

[Simon]

Right click My Computer and select Manage, then select Disk Management.

Is the drive listed there and if so does it have a drive letter?

[Sandra]

I assume that you are running XP ?

If so go into Control Panel/Admin tools/Computer Management/Disk Management.

That should show your existing hard drive as C and presumably your Floppy and CD/DVD drives as B and D and E.

It will also show your new slave drive as no drive letter and unallocated, I think it wil be called Disk 1.
If you right click in the part where it shows Unallocated you will get the option to initialise the drive.
Just select the options that you want as they come up, ie basic drive, primary partition, quick format etc.
If the drive letters are as I assumed earlier it will assign it as F, you can change it at the stage where it says it will be F if you wish.
I have been changing slave drives to S for most people lately so they know to use it as storage so that C can be wiped if necessary without losing saved data.

Hope this helps, if it doesnt sort it get back to us  

[WhyMe?]

Hi Simon & Sandra. Thanks for answering so promptly.
Followed Sandra's suggestion but when I right click on Disk 1 (Unallocated) I only get options to 'New Partition' 'Properties' & 'Help'.
Which option do I choose Sandra? 

[Simon]

Sandra is more of an expert on this, but I think you need to right click in the empty white part next to where it says Disk 1, then you should get more options, such as 'Change drive letter and path'.  Hopefully one of those options will be to Initialise the disk, as Sandra suggested, or perhaps you just need to allocate a drive letter?  Sandra does this all the time, whereas I'm working from memory, having done it about 3 years ago.   

[WhyMe?]

Done that Simon + format. I now have a 'Primary Drive' Disk 1 (J:).
However, I am unable to save files to this drive. Error message (disk is full or write protected).
What am I doing wrong? 
Do I need to make Drive J: a 'Logical Drive' and/or make the drive 'Active'?

[Sandra]

The option you needed was New Partition then select the options from there as I mentioned earlier.

If you can go int Disk Management again and right click in where it said Unallocaaed space before, should now show as white space with a dark blue line below it, right click and select delete partition.
It wil give a warning that it wil lose al data on it.
Say Yes.

You should be back to the Unallocated Space, right click and select New Partition.

See if it lets you do it as basic drive, primary partition and format as NTFS quick.

Let me know if that sorts it.

[WhyMe?]

Still saying access denied? 

[WhyMe?]

Disk Manager indicates Disk 1 Basic 74.53GB Online.
In the white space: New Volume (J:) Healthy

[Sandra]

Ok what make of drive is it and where did you get it from and is it brand new ?

I have heard of this before but cant remember what caused it and why it happens, at the moment.

[WhyMe?]

HDD is a brand new MAXTOR STM3802110A purchased locally.
Perhaps I will ask to have a replacement.
Thanks for all you help. Will let you know how I get on.

[Sandra]

I am away from the pc this evening but hopefully I, or someone else will find the solution later tonight or tomorrow.

We dont give up that easily, watch this space 

[Simon]

I found this, which might help to some degree.  I think it's basically what should have happened, but you might be able to pick out bits that may be useful.  There are some more bits, and some screenshots on the original page, which I have linked to below.  The other place you might find some help is on Maxtor's website, assuming they have some support documentation.

Preparing an Additional Hard Disk with Windows XP

The process of installing a hard disk varies according to whether the drive is being added to your computer or is being installed as a replacement. The process described in this section assumes that you are adding an additional hard disk to your existing computer.

It?s All About the Gigabytes!

There?s no such thing as too much hard disk space. I love the Western Digital "Filling Up!" animation that shows how quickly a 40GB hard disk (a common size in systems just a couple of years old) can become stuffed with data thanks to huge office suites, digital music downloads, and digital photographs. Try it yourself at http://www.wdc.com/en/products/fillrup/fillingup.asp.

If you need a new hard disk to store more data and downloads, adding an additional hard disk is the way to go. Buy the biggest one your system can handle. Keep in mind that internal hard disks are cheaper per gigabyte, but external hard disks can be shuttled from system to system.

If Windows has run out of space (you can tell this is happening if the Disk Cleanup utility keeps running and asking you to get rid of files), you need to replace your system hard disk instead. See "Preparing a Bootable Hard Disk with Windows XP," this chapter.

Before you start this process, follow these steps:

   1. You need to make sure your hard disk is recognized by your computer.

   2. You should decide whether you want to prepare the new drive as a single drive letter or subdivide it into two or more logical drives.

   3. You should decide which file system you want to use for your new drive.

Choosing the Right File System in Windows XP

If all you use is Windows XP, you should use the NTFS (New Technology File System) option to format your disk. NTFS lets you use advanced features such as encryption (which can be used to "hide" files on your system from other users) and compression (which uses less disk space). However, if you installed Windows XP to work in a dual-boot configuration with Windows 98 or Windows Me (you select the Windows version you want to work with when you boot), you might prefer to choose FAT32 for your new drive. Both NTFS and FAT32 can work with large drives, but FAT32 drives can be read by Windows 98 and Windows Me.

What if you want to share your files over a network? Use NTFS, no matter what version of Windows other users have. The network software will take care of recognizing the drive?s contents, and NTFS lets you apply better security to each shared folder.

Here?s how to prepare an additional hard drive for use with Windows XP (these directions also work with Windows 2000, by the way):

   1. Open the Start menu, right-click My Computer, and select Manage.

   2. Click the Storage icon in the left window of the Computer Management screen.

   3. Double-click Disk Management (local) in the right window. The new drive will appear as "Unallocated" in the display window if the drive is brand new. If the drive has already been partitioned, the display will indicate what type of a partition is on the drive. You can right-click the additional drive?s partition to remove it, but this will delete its contents. You should use My Computer to view the drive?s contents first and copy any files you want to keep to another drive before you continue.

The drive?s listed capacity should be similar to the capacity listed on the drive?s faceplate or box. If not, see "Troubleshooting Problems with Recognizing Full Drive Capacity," this chapter.
   
   4. Right-click the "Unallocated" drive and select New Partition to start the New Partition Wizard.

   5. Click Next after reading the introduction to the wizard.

   6. Select Extended partition and click Next to create an extended partition (which will be divided into one or more logical, nonbootable drive letters).

   7. If you want to use the entire hard disk for one or more logical drives, click Next. To leave some empty space on the drive for use by another operating system, adjust the partition size and click Next.
     
   8. The wizard displays the settings you have selected; click Finish to perform the listed operations and convert the drive to an extended partition containing free space.

   9. Right-click the free space and select New Logical Drive to set up drive letter(s) to use the free space inside the extended partition. Click Next.
     
  10. Click Next to create a logical drive.

  11. Specify the size of the logical drive if you want to create more than one logical drive; if you click Next without specifying a size, the entire free space will be converted into a single drive letter.

  12. By default, Windows assigns the next available drive letter; click Next to accept it, or use the pull-down menu to choose a different drive letter and then click Next. Other options listed (Mount in Empty NTFS Folder and Do Not Assign a Drive Letter) are for advanced users.

  13. Select a format option. We recommend you use the defaults (NTFS and default allocation unit size) unless you need to access the drive by booting the computer with Windows 98 or Me. Change New Volume to a descriptive name you prefer. Select Enable File and Folder Compression if you want the option to try it later. Click Next.
     
  14. The wizard displays the settings you have selected. Click Finish to perform the listed operations and convert the free space into a drive letter, or click Back to make changes. The format operation takes a few minutes to complete.
     
  15. When the format process is completed, the drive is identified with a drive letter and its status should be displayed as Healthy (contact the drive vendor if the drive is not identified as Healthy). Click File, Exit to close Computer Management. You can use the newly prepared drive immediately.

http://www.samspublishing.com/articles/article.asp?p=418013&seqNum=9&rl=1

[Sandra]

Apparently its caused by XP enabling "Simple File Sharing" by default.

Go here to see instructions and illustrations on how to disable it :

http://whoozoo.co.uk/winxpFilePerms.htm#2

Then you can go to Properties on your new hard drive and set the permisions in the Security tab to allow you to access the new drive.

The main article explains how to do it in XP Pro, if you are using XP Home then you wil have to look at the links farther down the page that explains how to do it.
Probably the Safe Mode option is the best way.

Once you can access the new drive you can re enable "Simple File Sharing"

[WhyMe?]

Sandra & Simon, completed as per your last instructions.
NOW! On Disk 0 I have 4 partitions each of approx. 5GB. Primary Partition 1 (System) + 3 Logical Drives.
My OS is on Logical Drive - Partition 3 (Boot).
QUESTION: I want to delete 3 of the Partitions, leaving just the OS on Disk 0.
How do I go about doing this please?