secondary HD does not work

**Darksend** · #1 10-26-2009, 09:46 PM

So, my second hard drive will not show up no matter what I do. This was the main reason that i sent my computer back in the first time.

I have been slacking because I really do not want to be without my computer again but even from the first time I got it back, I have not been able to see it. Oddly enough, the problems with my computer did not start until I started recording fraps directly onto that HD. They thought it was the video card, so they gave me a new one (which I was already pissed off about because they gave me a different card) BUT YOU WOULD THINK ONCE THE COMPUTER WAS WORKING WITH A NEW CARD THEY WOULD STILL CHECK THE HDD. so Now that my main drive is full again and I need my secondary for movie making, what do I do, take it into best buy to see if it works before sending it away, send just the HD in and get them to replace it?

I just spent the last hour or so moving the wires around they all work as do all the slots so its not that.

Really upset they did not catch this the first time I sent it in.

**squats** · #2 10-26-2009, 09:54 PM

right click on "my computer"
go to manage
Disk management
select the disk that wont show, and format it (right click, format)

**Darksend** · #3 10-26-2009, 09:56 PM

Source: squats
right click on "my computer"
go to manage
Disk management
select the disk that wont show, and format it (right click, format)

a) nvm found manage was in the wrong thing

b) the problem is it wont show, so how do I click it

just to confirm, all I see under manage is my c drive and my 2 dvd drives. the broken hard drive is not there.

**squats** · #4 10-26-2009, 09:59 PM

Source: Darksend
a) nvm found manage was in the wrong thing

b) the problem is it wont show, so how do I click it

just to confirm, all I see under manage is my c drive and my 2 dvd drives. the broken hard drive is not there.

then its either not getting power, the SATA port its connected to is broke, or the HDD is garbage.

**Darksend** · #5 10-26-2009, 10:01 PM

As I said I opened the case took the 2 connections off the broken one and switched them with the 2 connections on the main one. Main one worked fine. does that disqualify both power and port or just port?

so you are saying my computer may no longer have the power to run 2 HDs at once?

**Niian** · #6 10-26-2009, 10:11 PM

It may not be starting up.
When the PC boots it goes through a quick self test, before thats over hit DEL and go into the bios.
Generally the bios will show hard drives and their current locations on the main screen, if it's not on the very first screen have a look around.

If it's not detecting the drive at start up it could be either jumper settings, bad ports on the motherboard, dead hard drive or something else.

Best bet is to make sure it's being detected before trying anything else.

-e
If you've swapped cables for both power and data, and they worked on your main drive then they are both OK.
Also, is this IDE or SATA?

**squats** · #7 10-26-2009, 10:14 PM

If your computer is over 500 wats it has the power for 2 hard drives (even under 500 should be fine really).

confirming that all power/SATA slots and cables work means your HDD is just junk. i would send only the HDD in and have them replace it.

**Darksend** · #8 10-26-2009, 10:15 PM

Source: Niian
-e
If you've swapped cables for both power and data, and they worked on your main drive then they are both OK.
Also, is this IDE or SATA?

no idea

**Niian** · #9 10-26-2009, 10:17 PM

Do the cables look like this

Or like this

**Darksend** · #10 10-26-2009, 10:22 PM

**Niian** · #11 10-26-2009, 10:24 PM

You have a SATA drive.

Reboot your PC and go into the BIOS, see if it's picking up the hard drive at boot.
If it's not, and you know the power/data cables work then your drive is buggered.

**Toushiro** · #12 10-26-2009, 10:30 PM

if you can't see it in BIOS I can upload pictures tomorrow on how I get my second HDD setup.

**Darksend** · #13 11-09-2009, 02:03 PM

ok, this is very weird.

I was wondering why my main hard drive is full and there are 2 things that bother me.

1) it is a 300 gig hard drive but when i go start-> computer it says 20 GB free of 279 GB. What is taking up that other 21 gigs?

2) When I go into computer and right click on all the folders and add together the total space used, it comes out to only about 210 gigs. Now here is where things get odd. The "phantom space" is just about exactly the amount of footage I had on the second hard drive before it exploded. Is that even possible? that it is telling me I have less space than I actually do because it is somehow reading those files but not the physical drive containing it? Mind you I have not had that hard drive in my computer in almost a week and a half.

Fusik · #14 11-09-2009, 04:23 PM

1) What's taking up the other 21GB's is whatever program you have installed (IE: Vista, XP, Linux, ect, ect). Any new computer you buy will be like this. You have a 300gb HD built in right? Well when you are finished installing Xp or whatever it takes up that 21GB's (different depending on computer and program) to install.

2) This could be a mix of hidden folders not being counted in, and the various of that.

**ttocs** · #15 11-10-2009, 05:34 PM

What Fusik said about the "missing" 21GB is incorrect.

When you shop for a hard drive, the manufacturers quote it in base 10. Computers (and windows) report hard drive space in base 2. So, to put it into context:

Your hard drive manufacturers report 1GB as 1,000,000,000 bytes, or 10^9 bytes.

Windows reports 1GB as 2^30 bytes, or 1,073,741,824 bytes. This is actually 1GiB, or one Gigabinary Byte (Gibibyte). Kibibytes are 1024 (2^10) bytes, rather than 1000 bytes. Mibibytes are 1,048,576 (2^20) bytes rather than 1,000,000 bytes. The terminology is pretty new, so they're often used interchangeably.

Since your hard drive has about 300,000,000,000 bytes, Windows gets 279GB by dividing that by the above number, which is ~279.39GB. There's some extra loss when Windows reserves a small amount of space on the drive (~8MB), and when you format it, but it's relatively insignificant. It's a somewhat misleading problem that's been in existence for a very long time.

Your Operating System is figured into the normal hard drive space usage.

Regarding the mismatch in your quick-and-dirty "actual" vs "occupied" space - that's a combination of things. Fusik was partially right in that there are a variety of hidden folders that are likely not included in that total. Some of that is also fragmentation. Without going into whitepaper material, you have some space marked as "used" that is actually available. Defragmenting the hard drive will alleviate some of it.

Your secondary hard drive issue sounds like it's a hardware issue. You may have a dead hard drive, based on what I've read so far in the thread.