Traditionally A:/B: are reserved for floppies (though they can be reassigned) and C: is reserved for the Windows partition. However, D: and all subsequent letters aren't specifically reserved and are used for any drives/card slots accessible to the OS and may be automatically or manually configured.
In my case my D: drive is a partition on my second internal HDD and my first optical drive is F:.
Did this laptop always have 2 hard drives? If yes, did it always have an SSD?
Here is what I am thinking: the 2 hard drives are not being recognized in the BIOS at the same time. Or the HDD is not being recognized by Windows in time. The drive letter doesn't stick because the system thinks it doesn't exist at the time of startup. This could be due to a connection problem (try re-seating the drives) or it could be due to the fact that the system was not designed for 2 Hard drives.
Let us know the setup.
@bug67ICit2lol,
Wow! I'm not getting "worked up and stressed out". Where did that come from?
I tried your suggestion with the 3rd party drive utility. The verdict on weather it worked or not is still out.
What I'd like to know is, why it's not working like it has in the past? I've changed drives on this machine and others many, many times. I have always been able to re-label the various drives to my satisfaction without issue. That's my question. What's different this time? Nothing as far as I can tell. Do you know? Any suggestions? How you got that I'm "worked up and stressed out" by asking questions is beyond me.
As to weather you care to continue trying to help or not, that's entirely up to you. I appreciate you trying.
None of this is making sense. I've don't my hard drive's this way since the dawn of time and never had any problems. Downloading Partition Wizard as ICit2lol suggests but, really, I'm not understanding why the way it's worked for me since the dawn of time isn't working this time.
Well mate it certainly sounded like it.
If you cannot take any criticism or advice as much as I meant it to be constructive then I apologise for saying what I did I sincerely hope you get it sorted because I know I would be frustrated too but that is nothing for me to be concerned about now.
Good luck:)
This computer came from Toshiba with two 500 GB, 7200 RPM HDDs installed. The day I got it, I replaced the boot drive with an Intel, 120 GB SSD and did a factory re-install on that drive. I re-labeled the drives and pointed all my data from the remaining spinny drive and all has been well. Recently the ssd got full and I replaced it with a Samsung 256 GB ssd as well as a 1 TB spinner and here we are.
Funny you should mention the BIOS not recognizing the hdd. On a whim I checked and it wasn't "recognized." However, as soon as I re-booted, there it was. I then re-booted again and it was gone!
So, this appears to be an intermittent issue (wonderful!) I have since pulled the drive, cleaned off the contacts and plugged it back in. Everything booted as it should and all drives were labeled correctly.
I'm not going to mark this as solved yet because, I need to keep a really close eye on what's going on here. Luckily, I still have the other drives if I need to swap stuff around to get work done.
Please stand by...
Hey, no problems! I appreciate the help. I know the meanings of what is said in type can easily be misinterpreted over the vastness of the ether.
Also: when you switched the old SSD/HDD setup for the new, did you clone the drives?
Or did you use the factory recovery partition to reinstall?
I did a factory, out of the box install from recovery DVDs had made when I got the computer.
Well at least we got that sorted and it is a shame that I didn't know it was a Toshiba before as I have a fair bit of experience with them fixing and such and after what has been said made some sense but the others can help out now as I feel that they are doing what is needed to be done.
Thanks for the info. It is helpful.
This is a recurring issue that has a bit of mystery to it: "how does W7 identify and catalog hard disk drives?". We have seen similar problems to yours in the case of cloning drives, and I believe that a factory restore is basically the same thing.
Hopefully your problem is solved and it was just a connectivity issue. But if not, I can link you to a past thread with a more 'involved' solution.
Not in Toshiba's TV the factory "default" is housed in a separate partition it might not have been copied exactly and anyway it will be full of Toshiba crapware. I always replaced the HDD with an SSD and stuck an OEM in - end of a lot of Toshiba problems and issues and the old drive just use for data.
Still I said I would not interfere so I had better go.
[QUOTE=ICit2lol;2359274]Well, I just booted up (after a good night's sleep) and all is as it should be. I'm thinking it may very well be a connectivity issue. Jury's still out...
I have a full Windows 7 license that I used at first for a bare bones install. However, Windows could not, nor could I, find all the drivers necessary to make this machine 100%. That's why I did a factory install from the recovery discs. As for Toshiba's crap ware, I will uninstall it just like I always do.
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