Win7 32-bit not recognizing 2nd HDD

[Msek59]

I am running Win7/32-bit on a Dell XPS. It came with a 300 Gb ST Drive (Seagate? Toshiba? Can't Recall). I installed a WD Caviar 2Tb HDD in a second drive bay. I had problems initially, setting up the drive, but it was mostly ignorance on my part and was eventually able to initialize and partition the drive. I now use this WD drive exclusively for my Media.

Today, I plugged in my WD Book Drive, in order to find some old files. The WD SmartWare GUI showed both the OS C: AND the F: drive, as potentials for backup. However, there was no WD Unlocker window, prompting me for my password. Not sure why, tried several times.

Finally, I unplugged the WD Book Drive, intent on trying it out on my Laptop, instead. After I unplugged the Book Drive, I noticed that my F: (the WD Caviar HDD) was no longer showing in Explorer!

I looked in Device Mangler and, yep, both the ST and the WD are showing as Disk Drive Devices. I went to Disk Management, and it shows Disk 0 (the ST) is active, but Disk 1 is unknown.

I'm afraid to do anything more, as I have approx. 30% of the F: full with .FLAC, .APE and both Windows and i-Tunes movies.

Any useful suggestions?

Mark

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Were you able to access the WD Book Drive when you connected it to the laptop? Maybe you didn't actually connect it to the laptop?

Never used an external drive. I assume "SmartWare" is something that came with it. Do you have to use that crap to be able to use the drive for ordinary purposes? I'm generally wary of applications provided by hard drive manufacturers.

A good heavy duty tool for partitioning issues is Partition Wizard, but I'd wait for more guidance.

Might help if you can post a screen shot of Windows Disk Management.

 

[Msek59]

Thanks for the feedback.

The external WD Essentials Book Drive is not the drive I'm having the problem with; it's the WD Caviar HDD that I installed as the 2nd HDD. I only brought up the External HDD (book drive) because it was only after my unsuccessful attempt to mount that drive to my PC (has a USB3.0 interface),that I noticed my 2nd HDD (F: was no longer recognized by Win7.

Another thing to note: when my attempt to mount the external drive failed (couldn't get the 'WD Unlocker' login program to come up, for some reason), I tried shutting down the PC before disconnecting the external drive. However, the power-down process stalled at the blue 'shutting down' screen. After about 10 minutes of waiting, I did a hard shut-down (pressed/held in the power button on the front of PC). I disconnected the external drive, powered up the PC and discovered that the F: (WD Caviar HDD) was not being recognized. I then tried to do a system restore, back to a point about 24 hr. earlier, and had no success.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Regarding the System Restore: did it fail to complete as expected? Or did it succeed, but just didn't help to resolve your problem?

Post a screen shot of Windows Disk Management without the external connected.

Is the Caviar drive seen in the BIOS as expected?

Run sfc /scannow at a command prompt and see if you get any errors. If you do, run it again.

You may have to run a system repair or something like that. I have no experience with external drives and don't know what kind of issues they might cause.

Look to get more comments.

 

[Msek59]

Good suggestions. The system restore did restore back to the prior settings, but didn't resolve the missing HDD issue. I know it did restore, because software that I downloaded from the WD website (the 'SmartWare' I previously referred to) was removed.

I will post the screenshot at next reply, as well as results of BIOS review (I didn't think to check that).

Thanks for your help, thus far. I had problems when I did the initial installation of this 2nd HDD, mostly just because I'd never done it before and didn't know about the 'Disk Management' utility, the need to initialize and format, etc. Once I'd done those things, though, the drive still didn't show up until I'd completely powered down and rebooted a couple of times. I was surprised when suddenly it was there.

And now it's gone... sort of.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

I'd also probably go to WD site and download their drive diagnosis tools.

If it fails those tests, you may have a warranty claim.