Can't See HD Sometimes

[bigmck]

My partitions are setup as follows. On one HD I have my C: and D: drives. My DVD is drive E: On my other HD are partitions F: and G:. Sometimes when I boot, F: and G: do not show in Computer. If I reboot, they show and things are fine. I am wondering if having my DVD as E: makes any difference. Should it be the last drive? Thanks,

 

[Britton30]

Do the F and G show in disk managment even when not in Computer?

Also in Folder Options make sure you have the item in the red box below selected (ticked).

 

[bigmck]

Thanks for the tip. Next time they don't show, I will check Disk Management. I will also make sure the referenced place is checked.

 

[bassfisher6522]

Did you install 2nd drive with out doing a reinstall of OS. Hard drives are always properly sequenced and are always first in order then any secondary drives...ie floppy, cd/dvd rom. Using disk management as Britton30 suggested to re-add your drives should reactivate them and should properly show them but they will still be out of order. Only a re-install of the OS will correct that. You can reassign drive letters to put them in proper sequence but sometimes this can cause some data corruption or lost data.

 

[Corazon]

Reassigning drive letters on data partitions is perfectly safe and quite mundane...sorry, where did you get the idea that doing so can cause data loss or corruption? :huh:

 

[bigmck]

When I installed Win 7, I had OS and Docs on C: drive. I later got a second HD and added it. I made two partitions on my first drive C: for the OS and D: for my Docs. I made E: the DVD and then the new HD had F: for my OS backup and G: for my Doc backup. == I did not install the OS a second time. I just moved my Docs to D: partition.

 

[Zepher]

Did you install 2nd drive with out doing a reinstall of OS. Hard drives are always properly sequenced and are always first in order then any secondary drives...ie floppy, cd/dvd rom. Using disk management as Britton30 suggested to re-add your drives should reactivate them and should properly show them but they will still be out of order. Only a re-install of the OS will correct that. You can reassign drive letters to put them in proper sequence but sometimes this can cause some data corruption or lost data.

Not sure where you got that info but the only time you can run into problems is when you add a drive and the order is changed in BIOS and the boot drive gets removed from the Boot List.
I remove and swap drives quite a bit, probably more often than an average person. I just recently removed 4 drives and swapped them with 2TB drives.
Most recent swap was last night, pulled out a 400GB and installed a 2TB in it's place.
Also, I am still on my original Win7 Ultimate x64 install from August of 2009 and have had no real issues with my setup.
Did a mobo/cpu/ram swap as well as a GPU swap too.

 

[bigmck]

Did a mobo/cpu/ram swap as well as a GPU swap too.

Zepher -- I have been thinking about upgrading my CPU. You are saying I would not have to reinstall Windows? Just do the switch and I would be good to go?

 

[Britton30]

Did a mobo/cpu/ram swap as well as a GPU swap too.

Zepher -- I have been thinking about upgrading my CPU. You are saying I would not have to reinstall Windows? Just do the switch and I would be good to go?

You should be able to swap your CPU without a reinstall. If however you'd also add/change, say, RAM or GFX card at the same time, you might have to go to MS's robo call re-activation. But not a reinstall.

 

[Zepher]

Did a mobo/cpu/ram swap as well as a GPU swap too.

Zepher -- I have been thinking about upgrading my CPU. You are saying I would not have to reinstall Windows? Just do the switch and I would be good to go?

I've done 4 mobo/cpu/ram swaps so far with Win 7 and all them re-started, found the drivers, rebooted, and then ran fine.
All the swaps I did were Intel to Intel and AMD to AMD. I didn't do any cross-swaps, but a few members on another forum I am on have done AMD to Intel with no issues either.
Just needs to be re-activated after the swap is done. All were retail Windows and the activate button was all that was required to re-activate.

If you are just doing a CPU swap then it should be pretty simple, drop it in and turn it on.

 

[bigmck]

Thanks very much to Britton and Zepher.

 

[Britton30]

You're very welcome!
Be careful when removing the CPU cooler so as not to pull the CPU out of its socket before you release it. I've done that but fortunately no damage to the socket.

 

[lehnerus2000]

HDD Brand

You might want to check the Internet to see if there are any reported problems with your brand of HDD.

My WD Green drives (1.5 TB & 2 TB) had "8 second head parking" turned on.

Using the WD utility, I was able to turn the parking off, on my 1.5 TB HDD.
The 2 TB HDD still parks every 40 minutes or so.
I sometimes experience a delay when I try to read that drive.

 

[bigmck]

My HD disappeared again last night. It did not show in Disk Management.
After I rebooted, it was there again. I have u/l this view also. This isn't a big problem, but just annoying. I thought one of you might have a suggestion to solve this. == I just noticed that my C: drive is listed as Disk 1. Should it be Disk 0 and could this be the problem? Thanks,

 

[Corazon]

Are you in the habit of starting your PC with the external drive already connected? What if Windows doesn't see F: and G: after startup, do you unplug the external drive and then plug it back in to see if it's seen then?
Your screenshot showing the internal drive (with Windows on it) as Disk 1 makes me suspect you're leaving the other drive plugged in during a restart...maybe that's not the best way to do it (just my personal opinion though).

 

[bigmck]

I don't have an external drive. Both of them are internal.

 

[Britton30]

I formerly thought the boot drive had to be Disk 0, but was corrected. As long as the boot volume or partition is the only one marked as Active, it should be fine. Windows is annoying at fiddling with drive assignments.
You can try swapping the cables on the mobo.

 

[bigmck]

I formerly thought the boot drive had to be Disk 0, but was corrected. As long as the boot volume or partition is the only one marked as Active, it should be fine. Windows is annoying at fiddling with drive assignments.
You can try swapping the cables on the mobo.

With my luck if I switched cables, the OS drive would be the one that disappeared then.

 

[bigmck]

Thanks for the help and the Avatar.

 

[Zepher]

Does the drive not showing up only happen on a cold boot?
It could be the mobo not waiting for the drive to ID itself before proceeding to POST and going into Windows.