Newb needs HDD help. Can't access additional HD.

[digitalzephyr]

OK here is the deal. Just finished a build. I have 3 HD hooked up WD SATA 75gb raptor, a SATA 250gb 7500rpm Seagate, and a WD IDE 250gb caviar. BIOS recognizes them. But I can't use them in windows. Device manager kinda sees them but list them as "disk drive" except for the raptor which was in my last computer. For the other 2 if I go under properties under details you can recognize which is which from devise ID. Now I read a lil bout partitioning on the forums but Im lost on this subject. I never used it. What should I do? I may need you to break it down a lil. Im not too experienced.

My board doesn't support RAID.

 

[rexter]

To open Computer Management

Click Start then Right click my Computer then click Manage. click Disk Management, There you will see your Hard Drives.

Right-click an unallocated region of a basic disk, and then click New Partition.
In the New Partition Wizard, click Next, click Primary partition, Extended partition, or Logical drive, If not sure what to do just click help tab and then follow the instructions on your screen.

You can format the hard drive at the same place.

 

[digitalzephyr]

Thanks for the answer, but that much I do know. What I don't know is "How I should do it?". I see people partitioning so and so for OS, games, music. What does partitioning actually do? Just seperates it into a seperate "drive"? Is there rules I should follow? Will partitioning a segment for OS make it faster? Whats cons and pros?

*Additional note* Under computer management it only reads about 232gb unallocated. Shouldn't it be closer to 500gb, since I have the two additional drives?

 

[rexter]

From computer management right click on one of the disc.

Example:

Disc 1
Basic
74.52 GB

or

Disc 1
Dynamic
74.52 GB

If all added hard drives say Dynamic, right click on that tab and click Convert to Basic Disc.

Now right click on unallocated drive and select New Partition.

New Window will appear, click next.

Select Primary partition then click next.

System Partition size in MB: 76309MB , change the partition size if needed. if not click next.

Assign the following the letter ? , just click next.

Format this partition: chose NTFS change to FAT or FAT32 if needed.
Change volume label name if needed, then Click next.

Click Finish.

System will format new allocated hard drive. Follow the same procedure for other hard drives.