Laptop no longer Sees 2nd Sata Drive!

[pclaptop23hour]

My primary internal Sata HD (C:/ 500gb) was almost full and I wanted to backup Movies/TV/Music/Videos and Data to another supplemental drive.

I purchased a Sata HD caddy and a second Sata HD drive (E:/ 750gb) SEE PICS 1, 2, 3, that fits my DVD/CD slot on my IBM/Lenovo optical drive slot and xferred everything listed above over.

I then deleted the stored Movies/TV/Music and Videos from my primary drive (C:/ 500gb). I had been accessing this second sata drive(E:/ 750gb) in the optical drive caddy with no problems up until yesterday. Now the second drive in the DVD/CD caddy no longer appears under windows explorer (E:/)! It is as if there is nothing in the caddy. If I replace the caddy with the CD/DVD optical drive SEE PIC 4, it appears in the Device Manager ok, SEE PIC 7, but no longer appears in windows explorer as a device with a drive letter i.e. E:\CD/DVD Ram. SEE PIC 6

How is it that whatever device is in the optical slot (CD/DVD or the 2nd Sata HD) is no longer recognized by Windows 7 Ultimate?

If I start Paragon Partition Manager, under "Volume Explorer" it SEES the 750gb (698.6gb actual) and all of the sub-folders as well! SEE PIC 5

Why/How is it that Windows7/LenovoR500 stopped seeing/recognizing/displaying ANY device in the optical slot?

Thanks in advance for any input, advice or suggestions!

pcplaptop23hour

just realized I cant attach pics

 

[mfenn]

We don't allow attaching images to posts due to the storage requirements that implies. You can upload pictures on any image host (imgur.com works well) and then link them.

 

[pcgeek11]

Open disk management and assign a drive letter.

 

[pclaptop23hour]

BINGO, pcgeek . . . I tried googling first with no solid replies. after posting here i googled again with different terminology and got this hit which worked. . .

"Right-click My Computer
Click on Manage
On the left side click on Disk Management
On the right side, find your optical drive and make sure that the drive letter it wants to use is not being used by another drive or maybe your card reader.

If there is a conflict, right click on the optical drive and select change drive letter. Pick a letter, OK and if there is a disc in the drive the AutoPlay should immediately come up."

thanks again pcgeek11 and for the heads up mfenn

 

[pclaptop23hour]

I just don't understand what changed removed the drive letter to start with!

 

[pcgeek11]

I just don't understand what changed removed the drive letter to start with!

Sometimes things get stupid with drive swapping.

 

[pclaptop23hour]

Well just to make sure I assigned M: as drive letter for the secondary sata drive when in the optical port. I get the feeling that DOS likes to have CD\DVD drives be something close to C: like D or E:, so if/when the DVD Multi goes back in it won't be assigned M: for a drive letter!