Second HDD no longer recognised by Windows?

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Tiago P

Tiago P

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Jan 9, 2015
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My BIOS was accidentally reset.

I have a Seagate drive with Windows 8, and an old Western Digital HDD I had been using for extra storage.

When Windows boots it no longer recognises my extra HDD. I tried taking the WD drive out of boot options and it still was not recognised by Windows. Any ideas?
 
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D_Know_WD

D_Know_WD

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Jul 30, 2014
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Hi there Tiago P,

I am sorry for the issues that your WD drive is causing you. :(
After you've tried to take the drive out of the boot options it should be recognized by BIOS right? If so, you need to go to Disk Management as see how is the drive recognized over there. In case it has no letter assigned, you can assign one: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=7tnMxL
In case the drive has damaged partitions/file system, you can use some data recovery tools in order to get your data back.
After that, you can test the drive with WD's Data Lifeguard Diagnostic tool: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=qWJiTk

In case the drive is not recognized by BIOS or Disk Management, I would advise you to change both SATA and power cables and connect the drive to another SATA port. Trying it on another system will not hurt as well.

Hope this will help,
D_Know_WD :)
 
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Tiago P

Tiago P

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Jan 9, 2015
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The thing that confused me is that, yes, the WD HDD is recognised in the BIOS, much like the working recognised Seagate, however the WD does not show up on Disk Management.

I tested a few different options. If I set the WD HDD as the first boot drive then the computer tells me there is no OS on the drive and to use one with an OS. I also tried setting it as second drive and disabling it from boot all together and in the end, it is still not showing up on Windows.

I will try another SATA port and let you guys know, but for now if anyone has any other ideas please share.
 
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Tiago P

Tiago P

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Jan 9, 2015
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OK, out of nowhere it randomly started working... I switched SATA cable and port hours ago, and it still didn't work, but now it randomly appeared in My Computer.

Still have no clue why it wasn't showing up before. Oh well.
 
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D_Know_WD

D_Know_WD

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Jul 30, 2014
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It's great that you have sorted this out. :D
Most probably there was something wrong with the connection.(cables/ports)
After the drive is properly recognized, you can test it with WD's DLG tool. If the results show that there is something wrong with the drive, it may be a good idea to back up the data that is stored on it. :)

Cheers,
D_Know_WD
 
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