Unable to assign drive letter to newly installed SATA drive.

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azbiker

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• Feb 9, 2012

• #1

I'm playing with a recently retired server running 32bit Windows 7 Professional. Originally it was configured as RAID 0 with 5 SATA drives. Those drives are gone but I want to install a spare 2TB SATA drive that I have. Using the RAID Management software I have created the drive and it shows the correct configured capacity. I initialized the disk with Disk Management and it lists the disk as online but it doesn't show up in the volume list with a drive letter. My intention is to use the 2TB drive as media storage. Other than combing RAID and Windows 7, what am I doing wrong? Am I better off reformatting everything and reloading Windows?

 

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nckfrtg28

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• Feb 9, 2012

• #2

I had the same problem this week with a drive like that. Have you tried to reformat it? Also make sure your system can handle a 2TB drive.

 

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seavixen32

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• Feb 9, 2012

• #3

Welcome to Windows Seven Forums.

Have a look at this tutorial by Brink, which offers advice on drive mapping both through disk management and the system registry.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/82994-drive-letter-add-change-remove-windows-7-a.html

 

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azbiker

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• Feb 9, 2012

• #4

Here are some screenshots. Disk Management shows it as Disk 3: Online, but it doesn't show up on the volume list. Also, no blue line across the top of a white box next to it. I must be a newbie as I don't know what that signifies. I'm also attaching a screenshot from the RAID management software. I deleted all the old drive letters in the registry that were associated with the drives that were removed from this server and installed in the one that replaced it. If it makes a difference, the drive in question was brand new, still factory sealed. Another odd thing that I just noticed: MegaRAID thinks my OS is Vista....

 

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gregrocker

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• Feb 9, 2012

• #5

Try rightclicking on the panel where it says DISK3 to initialize the HD.

Why are your System Active boot files for C on the preceding E? Is this a Dual Boot?

 

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azbiker

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• Feb 9, 2012

• #6

I'm not sure why things are set up the way that they are. This is about a 1.5 year old server that has had several people working on it before it was retired. There was an OS drive failure amongst other problems. I'm just going to reload Windows.

 

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gregrocker

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• Feb 9, 2012

• #7

I would unplug all other HD's during install to the target HD plugged into first SATA port or Disk0.

Clean Install Windows 7

 

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azbiker

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• Feb 9, 2012

• #8

Read through that link a bit ago. Thoughts on deleting the drives first instead of just formatting during the install?

 

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azbiker

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• Feb 10, 2012

• #9

Fun continues. I did a clean install of Windows. I deleted all the drives in the process and then formatted them (Step 8 of the clean install instructions). I partition the 2TB SATA drive into 2 equal drives. Once Windows was loaded I all but the C drive were listed as Raw format in Disk Management. I was able to properly format them into NTFS except for the 2nd partition of the 2TB drive. It errors out and remains Raw.

 

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gregrocker

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• Feb 10, 2012

• #10

Try using free Partition Wizard bootable CD which will do most things Disk Mgmt won't.

 

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• Feb 10, 2012

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Screenshot if it helps. I'll look into Partition Wizard.

 

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gregrocker

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• Feb 10, 2012

• #12

When you delete all partitions on multiple HD's but install on DISK2 it places the System boot files into a System Reserved Partition on the first HD. This is why I suggested you unplug all other HD's.

I would move the target HD to Disk0 slot, unplug all others and clean reinstall.

 

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• Feb 10, 2012

• #13

And then do a secure erase on all those other disks because he has a real mess on his hands as it is.

 

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azbiker

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• Feb 11, 2012

• #14

Partition Wizard did the trick. Thanks for the advice.

 

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