Why doesn't one of my drives show up in My Computer?

[JustPlaneCrazy]

New to Windows 7 and just built new computer with a 180gb SDD drive and a 500gb standard HD.

The SSD shows up as drive c:/ in My Computer, but the 500gb does not.

The 500gb appears in the bios, shows when I look at Local Disc Properties, all my drives show, the SSD, the 500gb and my Blu-ray drive.

I'm confused......

Shouldn't my second 500gb drive show up as drive E or F or something?

I would like to install less needed programs on that drive and keep the SSD for the operating system and FSX.

I'm sure I haven't set something right here......

Todd

[JustPlaneCrazy]

Here's a screen capture, the drive shows in the 'Computer Management' window but not in the list of drives as a drive letter and it will not give me the choice of that drive when installing programs.

I have 'unchecked' the folder that says 'Hide empty drives' but it still won't show.

Any ideas?

Todd

[BoromirX]

Have you tried changing the Sata port your HDD is connected to? (assuming it's SATA) Rechecking connections?

[JustPlaneCrazy]

Have you tried changing the Sata port your HDD is connected to? (assuming it's SATA) Rechecking connections?

Haven't yet but thought about that, however, the computer BIOS and part of Windows has it listed, if it wasn't connected properly, it wouldn't show anywhere I would think.

That is my next check though, I was seeing if someone would pop up here and say " Oh, that's simply, push this button "

[BoromirX]

Windows should just see it, probably install drivers for it and then inform you a reboot is needed. Was the HDD formatted before booting into Windows?
cheers,

[JustPlaneCrazy]

Was the HDD formatted before booting into Windows?
cheers,

I assume, it is this one I got from Newegg. Part of Windows see's it, it just doesn't show up as a drive letter or allow my to use it.
It states it's a bare drive but I assume it's formatted. Windows and everything else I've loaded is on the other SDD drive.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822236155

Todd

[BoromirX]

Ah ha, you will need to format it! WD has software on their site to format drives. You will need to burn the media on a CD, boot to the CD and format the drive. I would disconnect your SSD when doing this so not to mistakenly erase the data.
cheers,

[JustPlaneCrazy]

Ah ha, you will need to format it! WD has software on their site to format drives. You will need to burn the media on a CD, boot to the CD and format the drive. I would disconnect your SSD when doing this so not to mistakenly erase the data.
cheers,

Well, that sucks, you'd think they would format it before selling it

Thanks for your help

[JustPlaneCrazy]

Ah ha, you will need to format it! WD has software on their site to format drives. You will need to burn the media on a CD, boot to the CD and format the drive. I would disconnect your SSD when doing this so not to mistakenly erase the data.
cheers,

Thank you very much, I followed the instructions on WD site (no download needed) they had instruction how to have Windows format the drive, took about 4 seconds, now the drive is active or 'Healthy' as Windows says.

Todd

[Jim Robinson]

Well there's a setting in Folder Options something like "Hide empty drives"... Might be worth a try. (I'm not sure what sense a setting like that makes though because if you can't see an empty drive howinahell are you supposed to make it "un-empty"?) I installed a 1Tb WD bare drive from newegg in this machine last summer (new build) and I don't remember having to format it first. Maybe Win7 did it automatically during installation though as I did have the drive installed and connected when I put the Win7 disk in to install.

I don't pretend to know what I'm doing, I just happened to notice that setting recently because I was in there fighting with my own computer issues.

EDIT: I see you have it taken care of already, glad you got it working

Jim