Harddrive recognised... but not.

[ThinkTank]

Hello everyone.

I have a Dell XPS 420. It comes with two 500GB harddrives. It should have been 1GB in RAID configuration, but I disconnected the second drive after multiple problems.
So, now I've reconnected it. I figured I would go into Windows, format it and use it as a back-up drive for all my stuff before I upgrade from Vista to XP.

Now, when I reconnected it, it booted into Windows. It installed the drivers and told me to restart the PC. Which I did.
Now my PC is back on and the second drive is recognised in device manager, but isn't there in My Computer.

Does anyone have any idea where it could be?

If you need further info please let me know.

 

[networkgeek]

right click "My Computer" click " manage".

check disk management in that control panel. See if the drive isnt using a letter that is already taken by something else. If it is then change it.

Or you can see if it isnt formatted maybe there.

 

[wicked23]

What problems caused you to disconnect it? Just curious but it may be relevant.

 

[ThinkTank]

Thank you for your suggestion. This is what happens:

In computer management > Disk management it brings up the C:, the "Unknown" and "Unallocated" drive (second 500GB) and all the other drives aswell.

If I right click this one and go to Properties then Volumes I can see:

Disk: Disk 1
Type: Unknown
Status: Not Initilized
Partition style: Not applicable
Capacity: 476940MB
Unallocated Space: 476940MB
Reserved Space: 0MB

If I right click the drive again, but instead go to the only other option which is not greyed out "New Simple Volume..." I get a wizard.

I specify volume size and hit next, assign the following drive letter (J) and hit next, format the drive with the following configuration:

File System: NTFS
Allocation Unit Size: Default
Volume Name: Samsung

Both checkboxes are unchecked. I hit next.

"The operation can not be completed because the disk in not initialized."

I'm not sure how to initilize it.

 

[networkgeek]

Does this link help?

Upgrading Your PC: Partition and Format Your New Hard Drive by McGraw-Hill: Yahoo! Tech

 

[ThinkTank]

The button to the left of the drive I didn't realise was a button. I used this to initilize the disk. Now I have formatted and can begin transferring stuff over.

Thank you very much for your help. It's been invaluable.

 

[networkgeek]

glad we could help ya out.