Having trouble with SATA drive

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bigjp

New Member
So I recently built my first computer and I'm trying to figure everything out. I have two Maxtor 300GB SATA drives and they loaded into the system. However, I can only view one in My Computer and it is labeled "C". In Computer Management in Windows XP I can view both drives, but they both say drive "C". I can't do anything that would allow that second drive into the system for use in Computer Management. They both say they are in "Location 0" if that helps at all. I know I'm missing something basic here, but I can't figure it out. Do I need to load Windows onto the second drive to be able to view it....even if I reformat it after that so I can use it as data storage only.

Also, I need to partition my drives. Can I do this without reformatting the drive and having to reinstall Windows? And I'd like to partition it so Windows has it's own space.....how big should I make this partition for Windows to operate in?
 
Did you enable both drives in the bios? Make sure it says hd1 is location 0 and hd 2 is location 1... The ports for your master hd is sata port 0, and the backup slave drives is plugged into sata port 1... Good luck, let us know if you need more info.

I assume you already loaded the raid drivers?
 
How can I tell if they are enabled in the bios? When I bring them up in bios there are 3 options I can mess with:

IDE auto-detection
Extended IDE Drive
Access Mode

In bios it shows them as being plugged into SATA 1 and SATA 4. I had the second drive plugged into SATA 2, but I tried plugging it into SATA 4 to see if it would make a difference....it didn't.

When I look at the drive properties in Windows, it shows them both as "C" drive. One has 4.77GB's on it and the other has nothing. They are recognized as drive 0 and drive 1 though.

I haven't installed any drivers and just used what Windows offered. The drives were OEM, so they didn't come with any disks. Should I go to Maxtor's website and download some drivers?....going to check out the site now.
 
Just the two SATA....nothing else in there.

I downloaded from the Maxtor website Maxblast 4 and the bootable CD rom thing they had. Since I've already loaded Windows, they recommend the first one, but if that doesn't work I can try the second. They have drivers and partition aids in these programs. The website didn't say anything about them being compatable with XP64, so not sure if they'll work.
 
I just realized something. The drive labeled "C" in device manager is "Drive 1". The other drive labeled "Drive 0" does not have a drive letter designation on it. I made a mistake in my first post and said they were both labeled "C", but that is wrong.

So it looks like Windows in on my backup drive and nothing is on the main drive. It is not giving me an option to assign a letter to "Drive 0". Any suggestions on how I can fix this? Should I just reinstall windows and unplug the drive that already has it installed when I do it? Then I can just delete everything from the backup drive.
 
Yes, it is strange, but that's what it looks like from here.

In Computer Management it shows 2 drives listed. The bottom one is in location one and it is labeled "C". The top one is in location zero and doesn't have a letter.

However, in My Computer under Local Disk Properties it lists both drives in location 0. But the bottom one is listed as "C" and the top nothing.

Do you think I should just unplug the "C" drive and load Windows again on the main drive.....or should I just switch the plugs on the mobo, so "C" is in the first SATA slot? If I plug the one with nothing on it to SATA slot 2, will I be able to assign a name to it? OR should I just try this crap out and stop asking so many questions? :P
 
In the disk manager right click on the drive that is not assigned a letter and partion and format it. Try that and see if it switches on its own.. If you then try to boot and nothing boots (no OS) switch the sata ports they are plugged into.
 
I'm looking at the Computer Management window and both drives are listed. When I right click on either drive it doesn't give me an option to assign a drive name or partition. Am I not looking in the right place. I've searched through Windows help feature and I can't find another place to work with the drives.

Thanks for all the help Trizoy. Much appreciated!
 
You should be under start, settings, administrative tools, computer management, storage disk manager.. Is that where you are looking?
 
Okay, now I see.....getting used to XP is going to be a long haul me believes.

I'm formatting the drive now with partitions. I'm going to stick all the Windows files in one partition and then name it "C". I'll rename the current C drive another letter and then partition that one up. Does that sound like a good plan?
 
Dont copy the OS onto another Partition leave it where it is at... You cant really copy the od when it is running.. file restrictions as the such. Just partition and format the one the way you want it... Then see if it works.. You can go and fix with parititon magic later.. :)
 
I dont think you can change the system drive letter. The last time i formatted, somehow i installed windows on my E: drive and when i tried to change it to C:, it would not let me.
 
My data disk is now formatted, partitioned, and ready to use. However, I now want to make some partitions on my boot drive. How can I do this with Windows already installed on it? Windows doesn't give me an option to do it, and the utility I downloaded from maxtor.com won't do it either. Is it possible without having to reformat the whole disk?
 
randruff said:
I think partition magic can do that.
Click to expand...

Okay. That was recommended before and I just saw the version that must be purchased. Just did a little more checking and found the free trial version. Downloading now and will give it a try. Thanks!
 
I'm using Partition Magic and can't get the primary drive to partition. I've tried a variety of different approaches to getting something to take on it, but after I "apply changes" it just goes back to "C" taking up the entire drive space. Any suggestions on how to make this software do what I'd like it to do?
 
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