2 Hard drives being seen as 1

[EternalDB]

So, i am brand new to the toms hardware community, and i am looking for help with my laptop. So after my system was practically full, I decided to completely uninstall and reinstall windows 10. After doing so, i went into my devices and drives tab in my computer, and both of my hard drives (a single ssd [250gb] and a hard drive [500gb]) are being recognised as one single drive, a C drive measuring 698GB. i would like to have my 2 drives separate again, anything i can do?

(intel pentium 2117U 1.8Ghz 1.8Ghz, 8GB ram, Intel hd 2500, The exact model of my laptop is the asus x551cap)

 

[gbb0330]

most likely explanation is that you have a RAID 0 configured, go into the bios, or raid controller utility and break the RAID array.

 

[EternalDB]

most likely explanation is that you have a RAID 0 configured, go into the bios, or raid controller utility and break the RAID array.

Ok so i checked my bios... and there is absolutely no options anything related for a raid setup. What is this raid controller utility you speak of?

 

[gbb0330]

https://rog.asus.com/9422013/maximus-motherboards/guide-building-raid-with-uefi/

 

[EternalDB]

https://rog.asus.com/9422013/maximus-motherboards/guide-building-raid-with-uefi/

what if my bios/uefi looks like this? then what?

 

[gbb0330]

post a screenshot of the advanced menu

 

[EternalDB]

post a screenshot of the advanced menu

alright, here you go

 

[USAFRet]

most likely explanation is that you have a RAID 0 configured, go into the bios, or raid controller utility and break the RAID array.

A RAID 0 would not show those drives as 698GB.
2 x the size of the smallest, so it would be ~500GB.

I'm thinking this is Windows Storage Spaces instead.

 

[EternalDB]

most likely explanation is that you have a RAID 0 configured, go into the bios, or raid controller utility and break the RAID array.

A RAID 0 would not show those drives as 698GB.
2 x the size of the smallest, so it would be ~500GB.

I'm thinking this is Windows Storage Spaces instead.

So that would mean what for me?
As you can tell i am new to harddrive stuff

 

[USAFRet]

most likely explanation is that you have a RAID 0 configured, go into the bios, or raid controller utility and break the RAID array.

A RAID 0 would not show those drives as 698GB.
2 x the size of the smallest, so it would be ~500GB.

I'm thinking this is Windows Storage Spaces instead.

So that would mean what for me?
As you can tell i am new to harddrive stuff

Control Panel
System and Security
Storage Spaces

Is it turned on?

 

[EternalDB]

most likely explanation is that you have a RAID 0 configured, go into the bios, or raid controller utility and break the RAID array.

A RAID 0 would not show those drives as 698GB.
2 x the size of the smallest, so it would be ~500GB.

I'm thinking this is Windows Storage Spaces instead.

So that would mean what for me?
As you can tell i am new to harddrive stuff

Control Panel
System and Security
Storage Spaces

Is it turned on?

I will let you know tomorrow, as i am calling it a night for now. If it isnt turned on, what would be my next step?

 

[USAFRet]

most likely explanation is that you have a RAID 0 configured, go into the bios, or raid controller utility and break the RAID array.

A RAID 0 would not show those drives as 698GB.
2 x the size of the smallest, so it would be ~500GB.

I'm thinking this is Windows Storage Spaces instead.

So that would mean what for me?
As you can tell i am new to harddrive stuff

Control Panel
System and Security
Storage Spaces

Is it turned on?

I will let you know tomorrow, as i am calling it a night for now. If it isnt turned on, what would be my next step?

We'll have to investigate the least destructive options.

 

[EternalDB]

most likely explanation is that you have a RAID 0 configured, go into the bios, or raid controller utility and break the RAID array.

A RAID 0 would not show those drives as 698GB.
2 x the size of the smallest, so it would be ~500GB.

I'm thinking this is Windows Storage Spaces instead.

So that would mean what for me?
As you can tell i am new to harddrive stuff

Control Panel
System and Security
Storage Spaces

Is it turned on?

ok so this is what i see.. dont think it looks good.

 

[USAFRet]

OK, that indicates Storage Spaces is NOT enabled.

So there is a different issue.
Screenshot of your Disk Management window, please.

 

[EternalDB]

OK, that indicates Storage Spaces is NOT enabled.

So there is a different issue.
Screenshot of your Disk Management window, please.

hey sorry for the late reply, been extremely busy with work lately, havent had time to do anything but eat sleep and work. this is what i see in the disk management window

 

[USAFRet]

That shows a single physical drive.

Are you sure you actually have 2 in there? Have you opened the case and actually eyeballed 2 physical drives?

 

[EternalDB]

That shows a single physical drive.

Are you sure you actually have 2 in there? Have you opened the case and actually eyeballed 2 physical drives?

yes, that was the very first thing i did. but like i said, i have a ssd that measures out to 250GB and a hhd that is 500gb. also i dont understand how uninstalling and reinstalling windows would remove one of my hard drives from my computer lol

 

[USAFRet]

That shows a single physical drive.

Are you sure you actually have 2 in there? Have you opened the case and actually eyeballed 2 physical drives?

yes, that was the very first thing i did. but like i said, i have a ssd that measures out to 250GB and a hhd that is 500gb. also i dont understand how uninstalling and reinstalling windows would remove one of my hard drives from my computer lol

OK, then.
Device Manager.
Does THAT show 2 physical drives?

 

[EternalDB]

That shows a single physical drive.

Are you sure you actually have 2 in there? Have you opened the case and actually eyeballed 2 physical drives?

yes, that was the very first thing i did. but like i said, i have a ssd that measures out to 250GB and a hhd that is 500gb. also i dont understand how uninstalling and reinstalling windows would remove one of my hard drives from my computer lol

OK, then.
Device Manager.
Does THAT show 2 physical drives?

this is what i see.

 

[USAFRet]

googling that specific part number shows a 750GB HGST drive. "HGST HTS541075A9680"

https://www.hgst.com/products/hard-drives/travelstar-5k1000
https://www.amazon.com/HGST-Travelstar-2-5-Inch-Internal-Bare-OEM/dp/B007HYIW2K
https://www.cdw.com/shop/products/HGST-Travelstar-5K1000-HTS541075A9E680-hard-drive-750-GB-SATA-6Gb-s/2643672.aspx

A 750GB drive would report as 698GB. Which is what you see.
So...

Either the SSD is somehow physically disconnected. Or you do indeed have a single physical drive, HDD of 750GB.

 

[EternalDB]

googling that specific part number shows a 750GB HGST drive. "HGST HTS541075A9680"

https://www.hgst.com/products/hard-drives/travelstar-5k1000
https://www.amazon.com/HGST-Travelstar-2-5-Inch-Internal-Bare-OEM/dp/B007HYIW2K
https://www.cdw.com/shop/products/HGST-Travelstar-5K1000-HTS541075A9E680-hard-drive-750-GB-SATA-6Gb-s/2643672.aspx

A 750GB drive would report as 698GB. Which is what you see.
So...

Either the SSD is somehow physically disconnected. Or you do indeed have a single physical drive, HDD of 750GB.

but this still doesnt explain how my laptop had a designated slot in the my files section, D drive for the 500GB HDD and E for 250GB SSD before i uninstalled windows... maybe there is something with the partitions?

 

[USAFRet]

googling that specific part number shows a 750GB HGST drive. "HGST HTS541075A9680"

https://www.hgst.com/products/hard-drives/travelstar-5k1000
https://www.amazon.com/HGST-Travelstar-2-5-Inch-Internal-Bare-OEM/dp/B007HYIW2K
https://www.cdw.com/shop/products/HGST-Travelstar-5K1000-HTS541075A9E680-hard-drive-750-GB-SATA-6Gb-s/2643672.aspx

A 750GB drive would report as 698GB. Which is what you see.
So...

Either the SSD is somehow physically disconnected. Or you do indeed have a single physical drive, HDD of 750GB.

but this still doesnt explain how my laptop had a designated slot in the my files section, D drive for the 500GB HDD and E for 250GB SSD before i uninstalled windows... maybe there is something with the partitions?

That was almost certainly 2 partitions on one physical drive.
1 x 250GB and 1 x 500GB

Why it may have said 1 was SSD and 1 was HDD - Completely unknown. But that part number in your Device Manager leads to a single HGST HDD of 750GB.

I see no SSD in there.

As always, physical verification trumps whatever software reports. If you are still worried...open the thing up.
How many actual physical drives are in there?

 

[EternalDB]

googling that specific part number shows a 750GB HGST drive. "HGST HTS541075A9680"

https://www.hgst.com/products/hard-drives/travelstar-5k1000
https://www.amazon.com/HGST-Travelstar-2-5-Inch-Internal-Bare-OEM/dp/B007HYIW2K
https://www.cdw.com/shop/products/HGST-Travelstar-5K1000-HTS541075A9E680-hard-drive-750-GB-SATA-6Gb-s/2643672.aspx

A 750GB drive would report as 698GB. Which is what you see.
So...

Either the SSD is somehow physically disconnected. Or you do indeed have a single physical drive, HDD of 750GB.

but this still doesnt explain how my laptop had a designated slot in the my files section, D drive for the 500GB HDD and E for 250GB SSD before i uninstalled windows... maybe there is something with the partitions?

That was almost certainly 2 partitions on one physical drive.
1 x 250GB and 1 x 500GB

Why it may have said 1 was SSD and 1 was HDD - Completely unknown. But that part number in your Device Manager leads to a single HGST HDD of 750GB.

I see no SSD in there.

As always, physical verification trumps whatever software reports. If you are still worried...open the thing up.
How many actual physical drives are in there?

Ok, so if it were 2 partitions, would i be able to be able to partition my drive right now or would i have to reinstall windows again. i am currently building a new pc, and i am hoping not to have this problem with my 2 1TB HDDs, but then again its probably very rare for this to happen. (in case you were curious, my new rig has an amd fx 8320E, gigabyte gtx 1060 oc, and 2 western digital terabyte harddrives, the rest is to be determined)

 

[USAFRet]

Ok, so if it were 2 partitions, would i be able to be able to partition my drive right now or would i have to reinstall windows again. i am currently building a new pc, and i am hoping not to have this problem with my 2 1TB HDDs, but then again its probably very rare for this to happen. (in case you were curious, my new rig has an amd fx 8320E, gigabyte gtx 1060 oc, and 2 western digital terabyte harddrives, the rest is to be determined)

I'm not sure what you mean by that statement.

For the new system, there should be no issues.
Just install the OS with 1 drive in it. Connect the other one after.

 

[EternalDB]

Ok, so if it were 2 partitions, would i be able to be able to partition my drive right now or would i have to reinstall windows again. i am currently building a new pc, and i am hoping not to have this problem with my 2 1TB HDDs, but then again its probably very rare for this to happen. (in case you were curious, my new rig has an amd fx 8320E, gigabyte gtx 1060 oc, and 2 western digital terabyte harddrives, the rest is to be determined)

I'm not sure what you mean by that statement.

For the new system, there should be no issues.
Just install the OS with 1 drive in it. Connect the other one after.

what i mean is, is there any way to partition my drive currently on my laptop?