How Do I Get My Computer To Recognize A Second Hard Drive That Already Has Data On It?
My computer lost some reg files and we had to have Windows XP reinstalled. Now that it is working right again it doesn’t recognize the second hard drive I used for storage. That drive has data on it that I do not want to lose. How can I get the computer to recognize the storage drive without losing the data on it?
Start up your computer
Press
or F8 depending on your computer to log into the BIOSDo you see both hard drives listed?
If not, open up your case and make sure your connections are correct.
Just don’t format the drive or break it. No data will be erased.
Start your computer and press Del to enter BIOS setup. In there you will see Standard CMOS setup, the installed drives will be listed. Your primary disk drive will be the master, then secondary master the CD/DVD-rw drive and primary slave should be your storage drive. If nothing appears in the Primary Slave location, use the arrow key on your keyboard to scroll down to Primary Slave (IDE Primary Slave or SATA Primary Slave) and press the enter button twice and it should appear. If it does not, repeat the process with other Secondary Slave. If still it does not show, then check the cables, IDE or SATA and power is properly connected to the drives and try again.
If you see the drive listed there in the BIOS, but still don’t see it in Windows … then try this …
After you’ve installed the drive, make sure all the internal connections look secure; one loose wire or connection could cause the PC to overlook the drive.
Once you are confident that all the physical settings for your new drive are correct, it’s time to tweak a few settings in WinXP. WinXP has two tools that you should use to make sure the operating system is recognising your new drive: the Device Manager and Disk Management.
The Device Manager lists all of the hardware components incorporated into your system and helps you alter their settings, if necessary. To access the Device Manager, click Start, open the Control Panel, and double-click the System icon. This opens the System Properties dialog box. Now, select the Hardware tab and click the Device Manager button. You can also open the Device Manager by right-clicking the My Computer icon on your Desktop, choosing Properties, clicking the Hardware tab, and then clicking Device Manager.
The devices listed in the Device Manager are represented in a hierarchical fashion. From the View menu, make sure that Devices By Type is selected. Next, click the plus sign (+) next to Disk Drives to view the hard drive(s) installed in your system. Find the name of your new drive and right-click it. Choose Scan For Hardware Changes from the context menu. This forces WinXP to look for devices that you have added to the system.
he next step in verifying that WinXP is recognising your new drive is to use the Disk Management tool. In the Control Panel, choose Administrative Tools and then double-click Computer Management. (Alternatively, you can right-click the My Computer icon on your Desktop and choose Manage from the context menu.) Next, click Storage and then double-click Disk Management. This opens a pane to the right that shows your drives.
If your new drive is listed here, try initialising it, if you didn’t already do that with the Initialise Disk Wizard when you installed the new drive. Right-click the name of the new drive and choose Initialise Disk. This opens the Initialise Disk dialog box. Select the new drive, and the system will initialise the new drive as a basic drive. Restart your system if you are prompted to do so.
Another action you can take in the Computer Management dialog box is to rescan the new disk. You don’t need to click the name of any disk; just choose Rescan Disks from the Action menu. The process could take several minutes.
When this process is complete, restart your system and see if your new drive appears under My Computer.