2 5 SATA HDD Enclosure not recognized

[mrcntngcy]

Hello,
I have a new 25o Gig HDD which I have placed in an external case that I want to use as a new HDD to UPGRADE THE EXISTING 160 hdd. Major problem is Vista shows recognizing mass storage only on task bar not on computer window. How do I get Vista to recognize external new SATA so it can be cloned?

 

[sminlal]

Have you partitioned and formatted the drive? If not, Windows won't assign a drive letter to it and you won't see it in the "computer" window. Do this:

Start -> Right-click "Computer" and select "Manage"

Click "Disk Management" in the left pane

Scroll down to the BOTTOM of the MIDDLE pane. You should see your new disk there with a label of "Disk 1" or "Disk 2", etc. Right-click on it to create a new volume (this partitions the drive) and then format it.

Once it's been formatted Windows will assign the next available drive letter and it will appear in the "Computer" window.

 

[brianbuys]

Yea go into 'Disk Management' and you should see your external hard drive as 'Disk 1' since i think you are working with a laptop. On the right-side of the screen you should be a large white box next to 'Disk 1' with a capacity size of about 230GB or so. However it may say unallocated or not initialized. Go ahead and initialze/partition/ and format it. Once that is done, Vista will assign it a new drive letter and it will then show up in your 'computer' window.