XP Won't see both my 1TB hard drives

[dragon300zx]

I have two computers both have:

2 1tb hard drives
2 250gb hard drives
1 random sized drive for the os to run on

My first computer see's all of my hard drives just fine

My second computer won't see both of my 1tb hard drives at the same time. The bios see's them both, but windows won't.

Windows XP Pro w/sp2

This is starting to make me very unhappy

And I run two systems with identical hard drive setups so I can sync the files in case I loose a hard drive on one system I'll have the files on the other system. (most economical way I can find to backup 2tb's worth of information at home)

 

[wuzy]

What motherboard? (I'm assuming you're using IDE mode)
Can you both 1TB drives present in Computer Management->Storage->Disk Management?

 

[dragon300zx]

No only one drive will show in disk management and device manager.

Both drive are attached to a sil pci sata raid card and work and show up in the other computer together.

The motherboard that is hosting the system right now is a MSI MS-7061
http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p_spec.asp?model=KM4M-V

It has the latest bios version and i am not using any of the onboard sata ports

I have 2 of the sil pci sata raid cards holding the 4 sata drives and the one drive is a IDE on the motherboard.

 

[wuzy]

I have 2 of the sil pci sata raid cards holding the 4 sata drives and the one drive is a IDE on the motherboard.

So you're saying during POST you can see the two 1TB drives being detected when the BIOS of the PCI SATA card comes up is that correct?
Then the next BIOS for the 2nd PCI SATA card comes up to detect the two 250GB drives appears is the correct?
(Or whichever card is detected first)

Go into the BIOS menu of the card where the two 1TB drives are attached to and make sure something similar to 'IDE' is selected and not 'AHCI'. And check other settings in there as well.

 

[JPunisher]

Ok try this:

My Computer shortcut>
Right click>
Scroll down to Manage>
In Manage go to Storage Tab>
Open and to Disk Management Tab>
You should see your drives now, select the drive(s) and format>

This will allow you to use them in the My Computer window

Hope this helps =D

 

[JPunisher]

BTW, in my experience if I ever put a new drive I had to format it before I could use it... The magic of Windows =D

 

[dragon300zx]

Wuzy, I'll Double check that again but this card works just fine with two sata drives in other computers.

JPunisher, it doesn't show up in device manager or disk manager, tried that already.

 

[JPunisher]

O.K, I know the solution...

Stop downloading illegal software, so that you don't require 2 TB of storage... Lolz, just kidding =D

Try a reformat and install XP SP3/Vista SP1, personally Vista is really good with SP1 & updates. It seems you have a good PC, so try investing in some quality software =D

 

[dragon300zx]

OI Vey, First off the 2 tb's is photographs and anime fansubs

Second I'm a network engineer with over 10 years exp handling hardware, etc. Windows XP pro, legal, and I just upgraded to sp3.......

 

[wuzy]

Second I'm a network engineer with over 10 years exp handling hardware, etc. Windows XP pro, legal, and I just upgraded to sp3.......

Keep your work and home stuff separate, for your own sake.
At work as one of the system admin I follow what's the safest and most compatible for their software requirement. That means testing out every patch, updates...etc. extensively before deploying as you would do.

At home it's totally different for me. I have a for need speed with latest hardware and software to go with it. I keep one XP SP3 laptop for compatibility sake while the rest of the machines runs Server2K8 SP2 and VistaSP2. It for home use and I just want whatever is the latest which I do a small test on one of the machines first before deploying them to all (3 others) around the house. While it's not almost fail-proof as in a business environment, the advantage from using newer software (&hardware) far outweighs it for what home usage needs.

Lastly, experience only accounts for half in the field of IT. The other half comes from the constant motivation to improve and perform at peak under various conditions.


Now back to topic. Does your 2nd machine also have two PCI SATA cards like this machine as well? Unlike servers, some desktop motherboards can be a real pain when

 

[dragon300zx]

I'm convinced at this point the whole system just hates me. I have reloaded, bought new sata cards, etc. I even tried a different amd board and processor combo. I'm conviced at this point it is the older motherboards. The other system is a newer motherboard and a dual core processor. Guess I just need to bite the bullet and get another new mobo processor combo.

 

[JPunisher]

Woot! I7 =D

 

[dragon300zx]

I wish, I'm broke so a Dual Core Celery it is.....