Windows 7: Master harddrive not showing up in my computer

Spacetech · 09 Jan 2009

I installed the windows 7 and my secondary internal harddrive. The first hard drive has windows xp sp3 on it. The harddirve is detected in the device manager but it's not in my computer under hard disk drives. Windows 7 harddrive is on an ide while windows xp is on an sata. Pictures show the problem

I put this post under the drivers section since it might be a driver problem, but I don't really know
(The snipping tool is great)

Mark · 09 Jan 2009

You need to go to your disk manager and assign a drive letter for it and then you will be able to see it.

Spacetech · 09 Jan 2009

Quote: Originally Posted by Mr GRiM

You need to go to your disk manager and assign a drive letter for it and then you will be able to see it.

Thanks that worked perfectly

KRONie · 09 Jan 2009

i had same issue.
problem is, win 7 for some reason haven't assigned a letter for your hard drive.
here's how to add letter manually:
Open start menu, and in search bar type compmgmt.msc and hit enter.
This will open computer management tool.
Then in new window on the left side expand menu Storage, and click on Disk Management.
You should see all your disks in the center part of the screen
Find the 'missing' drive(the one that doesnt have name\letter), right click it and click on "Change Drive Letter and Paths"
Then click on "Add...", tick on "Assign the following Drive Letter", choose the letter you want, press OK, and close the manager.
Now You should be able to find your missing drive in "My Computer"

Aw man, i'm late, ain't I? D:

Mark · 09 Jan 2009

Your welcome Spacetech and welcome to the forums.

johngalt · 10 Jan 2009

It is not "for some reason" - this is by design, because sometimes when Vista was installed, as a dual boot and *particularly* if it was started from inside the previous OS, it would *not* restructure the partition naming, and thus you'd get your original OS *still* on C, and Vista on something stupid like E or K, whatever letter was next available.

Windows 7 by default hides access to all other system drives so as to not confuse the end user since this is a Beta OS - last thing you want to do is to try to delete a file in Windows 7 only to delete it out of your normal everyday OS - and all of a sudden have a dead computer.

KRONie · 10 Jan 2009

Quote: Originally Posted by johngalt

It is not "for some reason" - this is by design, because sometimes when Vista was installed, as a dual boot and *particularly* if it was started from inside the previous OS, it would *not* restructure the partition naming, and thus you'd get your original OS *still* on C, and Vista on something stupid like E or K, whatever letter was next available.

Windows 7 by default hides access to all other system drives so as to not confuse the end user since this is a Beta OS - last thing you want to do is to try to delete a file in Windows 7 only to delete it out of your normal everyday OS - and all of a sudden have a dead computer.

when i had this problem, the drive that got dissapeared was partition with bunch of files. no OS was previously installed on it, and when i had vista, that partition was mapped as D: (< Not a smiley

)

johngalt · 11 Jan 2009

It might have *thought* it was a system drive / partition for whatever reason.

I am not saying it is doing it correctly, or even necessarily - just saying what it is doing.

davehc · 11 Jan 2009

No disrespect, John. I have discussed this on a couple of other forums and have not got a very good answer.
Have you read anything to support your post, on a Microsoft page. I acoont find anything.
I have to doubt it, as, if you install from within your existing OS, it seems to set up the other Partitions/disks without problem.

johngalt · 11 Jan 2009

None taken - and no, form personal experience only - but I have had it hide old OS partitions and not hide them, only thing *I* saw in common was install method.

I could easily be wrong. I am all the time (ask my g/f)

Windows 7: Master harddrive not showing up in my computer

Master harddrive not showing up in my computer problems?