Second Hard Drive Problem

jg_v7n · 11-10-2006, 09:53 AM

I have installed a second hard drive. Its a 120Gb drive that I want to use for archives. I don't want the two drives RAID'ed together or anything, I just want to use it as additional secondary storage.

I have physically installed it correctly as I understand, and I have set the jumper to slave.

When I boot my machine, everything works fine, however the second drive does not show in "My Computer" and I can't access it from anywhere. There is obviously a problem.

If i click on my primary (C:/) drive select "Properties" and then "Hardware" I can see the two drives, along with the floppy (can't remember what this is for) and my DVD drives.

One is listed as Local(0) and the other is listed as Local(1) which makes me think that the Master/ Slave settings are correct. The information also states for both drives that everything is functioning correctly.

When I reboot the machine, I no longer get the standard BIOS I get a Via Tech VT8237 RAID BIOS (ver. 2.01) that doesn't seem to do anything except let me quit. I cannot reach the original standard BIOS.

My mother board is a ASUS P4V8X-X. I have attached an image of the drive details. (Its in Portugese, I can deal with the translation, so don't worry about that!).

Thank you very much in advance of any help.

jg_v7n · 11-10-2006, 10:23 AM

Hmmm, of course, forgetting to format your NEW hard drive would just be embarrassing wouldn't it!!!!!??????????

*hides head in shame*

StupidScript · 11-10-2006, 10:45 AM

Here's the whitepaper for the Via Tech VT8237 RAID BIOS.

It looks like there is no Master/Slave jumper configuration required. My guess is that the way you have the drives plugged into the motherboard (2 ribbon cables? Same SATA cluster, or one in SATA and one in PATA? Not daisy-chained?) triggered the activity of the more advanced Via BIOS. As a result, you may need to use the software utility to set up (add) the second HDD (unless setting both drives to Master or NULL fixes it). Even though they claim "Instant recognition" by the OS, the Master/Slave settings may have inhibited that behavior.

I dunno ... jumper settings followed by cabling are my guess for the most important factors affecting your current dilemma.

<edit>
Is that what it was??? That was my first guess, however I figured Windows would have listed the drive in My Computer but given an access error if you tried to use it. LOL! It's always sumthin' ...
</edit>

jg_v7n · 11-10-2006, 10:52 AM

Yup, bit confusing because you have to go into "My Computer" - "Manage" - "Storage", and tell it to format from there.

Works now - thanks for taking the time to help though...

kristeejo · 11-10-2006, 01:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jg_v7n

Hmmm, of course, forgetting to format your NEW hard drive would just be embarrassing wouldn't it!!!!!??????????

*hides head in shame*

*points and laughs*

; )

<not mentioning that I send emails with subject line ATTACHED and don't include an attachment>

jg_v7n · 11-10-2006, 01:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kristeejo

*points and laughs*

; )

<not mentioning that I send emails with subject line ATTACHED and don't include an attachment>

Yes I want a feature that scans emails and if it finds the word "Attached" anywhere it checks that you have an attachment.