After installing a second hard drive, why can't I see it in My Computer?

I installed a second hard drive set as a slave to my first hard drive. My first hard drive is a Western Digital and my second is a Maxtor. Everythign boots fine, except that when i go into My Computer it doesnt recognize the 2nd harddrive at all. What am i doing wrong!?

This question was answered on September 10, 2002. Much of the information contained herein may have changed since posting.

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After installing a hard drive you must partition and format the drive for it to be able to hold data Partitioning is done in Windows 98 by using a program called FDISK Type FDISK at the A: prompt to start the program First, you should see a text screen asking if you wish to enable large disk support It's asking if you want to use FAT16 or FAT32 Enter "Y" for Yes to enable FAT32 There are 5 options when you get to the main menu Use option #5 to move to the second drive To make the second drive one large extended partition, press #1-Create DOS Partition, then press #2 - Create Extended DOS Partition You should see the entire drive listed Press ENTER to accept and at the next screen press ESC FDISK will then prompt you to make a logical drive If you only want one big logical partition, just press ENTER to make the entire extended partition one logical drive Return to the main menu and select option #5 to verify what you have created Then press ESC to exit FDISK and reboot for the changes to take effect

You should be able to continue with the formatting process from an A: prompt using the FORMAT command Type FORMAT D: (if "D" is the drive letter of the logical drive you just created) In Windows 98 there is an easier method Just open My Computer or Windows Explorer, right-click on the icon of the drive you wish to format and select format Let it format and your done.

Please be careful using FDISK and FORMAT as you can easily erase all data on a partition if you accidentally enter the wrong information.

Good Luck

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Posted by Lois of Mesa Community College on September 10, 2002

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