Can't get access to use second WD HD under Vista

[pegazuz]

I have done the following procedure Western Digital posted on how to install a a second hard drive. I can see the second hard drive as 239 GB as disk J under device manager properties or under disk management tools. Disk C: (160 GB WD HD) has Vista OS and shows up fine under "my computer" and works to add programs and data. I want to use the second disk for storing data such as pix, documents, music etc but can't access it. Both show up in BIOS as regular SATA or IDE hard drives. Mother board is a Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H and drive C is in SATA port 0 and drive J is port 1.

Quote from WD web site.

Adding a Second Drive:

1. Make sure your hard drive is detected by your Serial ATA controller.
2. Start Windows Vista and allow the Operating System to boot to the desktop.
3. Once Windows has fully booted up, access Disk Management by first left-clicking on the Start button.
4. Right-click on Computer.
5. Left-click on Manage.
6. When Computer Management opens, left-click on Disk Management.

1. Locate the newly installed hard drive and right-click on the long Unallocated banner device listing.
2. Click on New Simple Volume from the menu.
3. A new wizard will appear: New Simple Volume Wizard. Click Next to continue.
4. Select the capacity of the first partition you want on this hard drive. If you want a single partition (single drive letter), leave the capacity the default value and click Next.
5. You may assign a drive letter that is not in use by other devices if you wish, then click Next to continue.
6. Select the type of format (NTFS, or FAT32 for hard drives under 32 GB). Leave the allocation unit size at default and label the drive as desired. Select Perform a quick format and then click on Next to continue.
7. Click Finish when done.

I have done this procedure a couple times. I looked for alternative utilities on WD site but their DATA Lifeguard 11.2 program does not run under Vista and they seem to recommend the above procedure but I can't get a working access using the above.

What step am I missing?

[Lsdmeasap]

Assign a drive letter if you did not. Then reboot, if still no luck right click the drive in My Computer and choose properties then tools, then check now and scan the disk for errors.

Also when you formatted did you make it a primary drive? If not format it again and make it NTFS and Primary

You may just need to get into DOS and use a DOS utility to set the drive active, without a drive being active you can see it but not use it properly. You can also do this within windows using Paragon Partition manager.

Or get a A Ultimate bootcd, which has many partition tools all of which can do this option.

Or you can see if the vista feature that does this will work, I have never used it and always do in DOS or a goof partition app >>>>
Right-mouse on My Computer->Manage->Disk Management. Select another drive
(not C....So select the drive in question here) and rightclick and select "mark partition as active".

[pegazuz]

Assign a drive letter if you did not. Then reboot, if still no luck right click the drive in My Computer and choose properties then tools, then check now and scan the disk for errors.

Also when you formatted did you make it a primary drive? If not format it again and make it NTFS and Primary

You may just need to get into DOS and use a DOS utility to set the drive active, without a drive being active you can see it but not use it properly. You can also do this within windows using Paragon Partition manager.

Or get a A Ultimate bootcd, which has many partition tools all of which can do this option.

Or you can see if the vista feature that does this will work, I have never used it and always do in DOS or a goof partition app >>>>
Right-mouse on My Computer->Manage->Disk Management. Select another drive
(not C....So select the drive in question here) and rightclick and select "mark partition as active".

Under disk management window it says Healthy , active, Primary partition, but no letter. It had the volume Vista HD Data which I had assigned to it when formatting it. I found a setting to change this and added the letter J and now it finally shows up so I can use it.

This really had me puzzled for a long time trying to figure out how to use the second drive. I never had such trouble before with XP.

How can one set up programs so most data is stored on this hard drive? I had tried moving whole folders to my back up drive before but then programs like windows media couldn't find the music.

Is it also possible to change and reorder all the drive letters since my card reader saves several letters but they are always blank unless there is a card in the slot. I can work with it the way it is but wonder if it can be changed to be little easier.

I would also like to be able to add or switch hard drives in order to make back up copies of data. I wish to clone the c: drive with OS to another identical hard drive for a back up and have a program called Perfect Image which claims the ability to do this. I would also like to clone the other hard drives where I store data like pictures and music from time to time as back up.

I have an e SATA port on back and wonder if that would work. Other wise I have several empty bays where I can insert spare HDs since I have empty SATA ports and power plugs I can use.

Do I need to change the BIOS to ACHI to switch HDs around or use the eSATA port?

Thanks for you help and encouragement in fixing this problem.

[Lsdmeasap]

Yeah you need AHCI installed WITH the OS to use hot swapping, as for changing drive letters or asigning permanent ones you can just pick a higher letter then is ever used and it will stay at that letter, such asy drive M or something along those lines

As for moving around install folder and such, that is pretty complicated and usually causes more trouble then it is worth