Adding a second SATA hard drive (Not RAID)

[travlen]

I recently purchased a Dell with a 40GB SATA in it.
I just bought a 120GB Samsung SATA drive and hooked it up.
The hard drive is recognized and the drivers are correctly installed.
the drive does not show up in windows explorer.
Do I need to format the drive or something?
Thanks in advance for any help.

-Travis

 

[ribbon13]

It's not formatted

Start->Run->compmgmt.msc

Storage->Disk Management
Right click on it, Format
max size NTFS


Enjoy.

 

[travlen]

I appreciate the reply.

I went to that location and it says the space is "Unallocated"
Do I need to create a partition?

The primary HD says "Disk 0 : Basic : 37.24GB : Online"
The new HD says "Disk 1 : Unknown : 111.81GB : Not Initialized"

FYI: OS is WinXP Home.

Thanks again.

-Travis

 

[MDE]

Yep, create a new partition then format it.

 

[travlen]

Wow I must be a serious newb.

How do you create a partition?

I right click on the unallocated section and the "New Partition..." option is grayed out.

Any ideas anyone?

 

[WiseOldDude]

Up near the top of the computer management you have open is a four letter word. The word "help" means just that, here is where you click for 'help'
Then click the "+" in front of the "disk management" option, and there are all the steps to add a new hard drive, under the novel heading of "Checklist: Adding a New Disk"


So what did you buy the SC420?

 

[ribbon13]

Is format greyed out?

 

[Pr0d1gy]

Originally posted by: ribbon13
It's not formatted

Start->Run->compmgmt.msc

Storage->Disk Management
Right click on it, Format
max size NTFS


Enjoy.

be no mislead for ribbon is the man, no doubt about it.

 

[travlen]

Originally posted by: ribbon13
Is format greyed out?

When I select my primary disk 0, "Format..." is grayed out.

When I select my HD I added, it doesn't show "Format..." I am assuming because you must partition before you can format. What is shows is "New Partition..." but it is grayed out.

I am starting to think maybe the user settings are not allowing me access to add a disk...
Strange though, because I am logged in as the administrator and the only other user is guest.

 

[travlen]

Originally posted by: WiseOldDude
Up near the top of the computer management you have open is a four letter word. The word "help" means just that, here is where you click for 'help'
Then click the "+" in front of the "disk management" option, and there are all the steps to add a new hard drive, under the novel heading of "Checklist: Adding a New Disk"


So what did you buy the SC420?

Thanks WiseOldDude. Looks like I am making some progress with the command line procedures.

FYI: It's a Dell 4700

 

[ribbon13]

edit...

 

[ribbon13]

Ok, if nothing else... you could boot with the windows setup disk, and use that to partition and format that drive.

 

[travlen]

Ok, the drive is partitioned and NTFS formatted.

There are 3 types of partition: primary, extended, and logical.

Any ideas of which to do?

I tried the primary and now it looks like I need to assign a drive letter.

 

[travlen]

Wow, help menus are great.

Everything is working now, thanks everyone.