Can't Find Second Hard Drive

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IceMan2520

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Apr 4, 2017
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Hi guys. I hope you are able to help me here.

I just put in a SSD and loaded Windows 8 to it from my disk that came with my computer. I plan to update it to 10 later. My old hard drive (mechanical) has windows 10 on it as well. (and possibly 8 as something weird happened during install of 8 onto SSD) When I boot from the SSD I am not able to see the mechanical hard drive anywhere. Not in Disk Part or Disk Management. Not anywhere to be found. If I boot from the mechanical hard drive, I'm not able to see the SSD anywhere at all.

I have files I would like to transfer from the mechanical drive to the SSD before formatting it. Any idea why I'm not able to see the other when I launch?

Is it because Windows 8 and 10 can't interact? Or do I need to uninstall my OS from my old hard drive before I can take files from it? Or upgrade my SSD to 10 and then see if I can view the other drive?

Any thoughts on this? Thank you in advance.
 
Solution
A
The problem appears to be caused by a BIOS setting.
You've indicated that the problems re non-recognition of the secondary drives occur AFTER YOU'VE BOOTED THE SYSTEM AND THEN YOU "PLUG IN" THE HDD OR SSD. Presumably you mean you're connecting those secondary drives following a boot to the OS rather than those secondary drives being connected AT THE TIME YOU BOOT THE SYSTEM. At least that's what I'm interpreting from your comments.

If that is the case, access your BIOS settings for "hot plug" or "hot swap" pertaining to the SATA controller or some such setting, and ensure that the setting is ENABLED. That may resolve the problem.
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hang-the-9

hang-the-9

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Mar 25, 2010
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Not seeing the drive in Disk Manager would not have anything to do with having any sort of Windows on it. If you are not booting from the drive, the fact that it has Windows on it does not matter, even the file system does not matter, it should still show up in Disk Manager even if it shows up as not formatted. Try a different SATA cable and maybe a different SATA port. It's odd that you can boot from either drive but can't see them. Sounds like you may not be plugging them in properly.
 
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RolandJS

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Mar 10, 2017
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This is a wild guess on my part, were the drives both "hard-wired", assigned the drive letter C? Reason for asking: I "hard-wired" a couple of drives, and when two tried to claim their letter (which was the same letter), one drive was "forced" out of the picture.
 
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IceMan2520

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Apr 4, 2017
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That is very very possible. Would you know how I could check this or resolve it??
 
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IceMan2520

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I will try that thank you. I am not using the same cable for each as I test one vs. the other though. I simply unplug the other drive. So both work with their respective cables and respective ports. Unless there is some logic in the motherboard that says not to use 2 specific ports together.
 
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IceMan2520

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You wouldn't know of a way I could change the letter of my mechanical drive to something other than C? Optimistically I would boot from my SSD, pull the files I need from the mechanical drive, then reformat it. That is the end goal (so it won't have the OS eventually).

I'm not sure if it is even possible, but could I boot from my mechanical drive and delete the OS from it while I am booted from it? Then wouldn't I be able to boot from my SSD and since the mechanical doesn't have any OS it shouldn't be "dropped".
 
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ArtPog

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Sep 17, 2014
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Just to ensure we have the precise picture...

1. After you installed Win 8 onto the SSD, presumably the system boots to the OS when the SSD is the ONLY drive installed in the PC, right? And no problems with a dysfunctional OS, right?

2. However, when you install the HDD that contains a Win 10 OS as a SECONDARY drive, the Win 8 system boots to the Win 8 OS, however, the HDD is not detected in the system, right? Not in Device Manager - not in Disk Management, right? But there's no problem using the Win 8 OS under those circumstances.

(BTW, as an aside...Win 8 is a dog. If you're going to use that OS you MUST upgrade to 8.1, capiche?)

3. Now when you install the SSD as the ONLY drive in the system, can we assume the system boots & functions without any problems to its Win 10 OS?

4. And what happens if you connect the HDD in the system at that time and you boot to the Win 10 OS? Any problem detecting the HDD as a secondary drive?
 
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IceMan2520

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1) Correct. For both cases it works like that. If only the SSD is in the computer, it boots no problem to the OS (btw I have a Windows 10 code ready and waiting for this disk, I just wasn't going to waste my time upgrading just yet in case I have to format it). If the HDD is the only drive installed it also boots no problem, BUT it now gives me an option on my HDD to boot as either Windows 10 or Windows 8. I believe this is because I left it installed while I downloaded Windows 8 to my SSD. After installation onto the SSD it went into a repair mode and then suddenly had Windows 8 as well. Long story short, I can boot either drive just fine if it is the only one installed, they just cannot see each other.

2) I cannot remember what happens if I boot with both SSD and HDD installed. I believe it default boots to HDD and then doesn't see the SSD

3) If only the SSD is installed I can boot to it's Windows 8 no problem. I plug in the HDD after the fact and it isn't recognized/see it.

4) If only the HDD is installed I can boot to Windows 10 no problem. I plug the SSD in after it's booted and it doesn't recognize/see it.
 
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IceMan2520

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I wouldn't rule it out just yet. I do believe they might both be assigned "C". I just don't know if I can change one to "D" so that they may recognize each other at the same time.
 
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ArtPog

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The problem appears to be caused by a BIOS setting.
You've indicated that the problems re non-recognition of the secondary drives occur AFTER YOU'VE BOOTED THE SYSTEM AND THEN YOU "PLUG IN" THE HDD OR SSD. Presumably you mean you're connecting those secondary drives following a boot to the OS rather than those secondary drives being connected AT THE TIME YOU BOOT THE SYSTEM. At least that's what I'm interpreting from your comments.

If that is the case, access your BIOS settings for "hot plug" or "hot swap" pertaining to the SATA controller or some such setting, and ensure that the setting is ENABLED. That may resolve the problem.
 
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Solution
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IceMan2520

Prominent
Apr 4, 2017
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Hi everyone. First of all, I would like to say thank you so much for the assistance. I love this forum because of the fact that people are so quick and so helpful. ArtPog may have had a piece of the right answer saying "enabling hot swap". I just wanted to let all of you know I did solve this. I had one hard drive plugged into SATA 2 and the other plugged into SATA 3. This ended up being the issue. I plugged the HDD into SATA 2, my SSD was also plugged into a SATA 2 port. This resolved this issue.

I may have been able to plug both into SATA 3 ports as well to resolve the issue. I did not attempt to. Again, thank you so much to all of you.
 
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ArtPog

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I got a great idea Roland. Do a Google search on "sata 2 sata 3". You'll be directed to websites that contain detailed info on this subject.
 
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hang-the-9

hang-the-9

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Mar 25, 2010
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What motherboard do you have? It's a bit odd for a motherboard to have both a SATA 2.0 and a SATA 3.0 controllers instead of using the same revision for both.
 
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