Second hard drive not recognised...

Deliverance XXV

Hey guys,
I just put in my new hard drive there a couple hours ago and Vista wont recognise it:mad:
It is a WDC sata2 500gb.
Bios can see it and so can computer managment but still it does not show up in 'my computer' nor can I access it??
(In computer management it comes up as unallocated??)
Anyone know what's going on??
Cheers guys

PS. Not sure if this qualifies to be in 'Building & Upgrading' or 'Computers & Technology' so tried the former:D

extra-ordinary_

If you can see it in Disk Manager as unallocated then alt+click on it and partition it. You can then format it and away you go.

Deliverance XXV

Hey extra,
alt=click is unresponsive...

Right click just brings about the options of 'properties and help'
.....

leeroybrown

As pointed out by extra-ordinary_ you just need to partition and format it. As I don't use Vista I don't know what extra restrictions they have put in place to make it awkward for you to do this. There should be a partition/format option somewhere in the Disk Manager in Vista.

extra-ordinary_

If your in Disk Management has the drive been given a number - Disk 1, 2 etc?

Deliverance XXV

Thanks!
yup my primary disk is 0 and my new hdd is 1
Partition style is gpt?? GUID Partition table?
EDIT: No option to partition and/or format jumping out at me

8T8

GPT is a partition format used by Windows on Itanium systems or systems that use EFI instead of the bios.

This drive was obviously in such a system at one point which is why you cannot format it as it uses a version of Windows which is well alien to the one you know.

If the option is present select Convert to MBR Disk which will turn it into the file format compatible with x86 Windows.

If the option isn't there open a command prompt and type "diskpart"

select the hard drive you want to work on by typing "select disk 1"

now type "convert mbr" & press enter and it should convert the drive into a regular partition type which you can then format assign driver letter etc.

{ignore the quotes just for highlighting}

Deliverance XXV

Hi 8t8
hmmm I have a distinct feeling I may have rushed an option for that?
Not sure tho......
Okay just went through all options and didn't come across any conversion...

Deliverance XXV

Okay I got the HDD formatted etc but never converted to MBR..
Will this matter or can I use away without any hassle??
Thanks guys

8T8

If Windows can read the drive in disk management and format it as NTFS then it should be okay.

Deliverance XXV

In that case thanks for your help!:D