2 hard drives show in bios only 1 in windows

[ihatepcs]

A friend has had a problem with his Windows PC. It gets a BSOD that disappears too fast to read and then restarts the PC, you have to choose how to restart it - from last known configuration etc - and then this situation continues looping around each time.

When looking in the bios to check on some settings I've noticed that the Bios has recognised 2 hard drives - one as primary master, one as primary slave, a DVD player and a separate CDRW drive.

With luck we managed to get a windows screen up, I then went checking in the My Computer screen and only 1 drive C: shows - no other hard drive. The 2 CD and DVD drives do show.

I did manage to check if the settings for the view were showing hidden drives and folders etc and managed to change that to show all - but the 2nd HDD still does not show in windows.

Could it be that it's some sort of Windows Recovery Partition that the manufacturer has put on it as opposed to supplying a CD with Windows on it?

Does anyone know why it may show up in the BIOS as being detected but not in Windows?

****Oops update while typing this 🙁 dammit ****
Unfortunately windows has again died with a BSOD and now refuses point blank to go any further.

The only thing I can think of doing now is to reinstall Windows from a CD that I have, and use his Windows Registration number from the top of his PC case - but I'm still concerned about that 2nd drive showing up in the Bios but not in Windows lol.

Could it be some sort of a drive fault on that 2nd HDD? If it is it's odd that it's still showing in the Bios.

Many thanks in advance for any suggestions on why the drive is showing/not showing

 

[WyomingKnott]

Did the drive ever have data on it? The simplest explanation is that it hasn't been partitioned and formatted yet. If it did have data, and you ever want to see it again, more work is required.

 

[ihatepcs]

Did the drive ever have data on it? The simplest explanation is that it hasn't been partitioned and formatted yet. If it did have data, and you ever want to see it again, more work is required.

Hi and thanks for the quick response

I'm afraid that I don't know if it was ever used for data etc.

I'm not with my friend atm (I'm heading back down in the morning with CD in one hand - screwdriver in the other 😀 - by the way, have you ever heard of anyone not having a screwdriver in the house!!!! 😗 ) - but from what I can remember I checked in the Device Manager section of Windows which showed the 2 drives and I can remember that I selected properties for each drive.

If I remember correctly the manufacturers serial number showed on the General tab window and each drives volume window showed the capacity and how much space was unallocated and reserved which was 0MB. I believe both drive letters showed up in the bottom of the volume windows and that the write caching was enabled on both of them.

Would that detail show if the 2nd drive wasn't formatted?

 

[WyomingKnott]

If you have drive letters, then its formatted. The reason I asked if it was used is that the simple solution is to reinitialize, partition, and format it, but that will wipe out any data.

Don't know about a house without screwdrivers, but my wife has been hiding my hammers for years. She takes one, uses it, and puts it back anywhere but on my workbench. I found a mallet in the linen closet this weekend. I'm sure that I do things that seem equally odd to her.

 

[ihatepcs]

If you have drive letters, then its formatted. The reason I asked if it was used is that the simple solution is to reinitialize, partition, and format it, but that will wipe out any data.

Don't know about a house without screwdrivers, but my wife has been hiding my hammers for years. She takes one, uses it, and puts it back anywhere but on my workbench. I found a mallet in the linen closet this weekend. I'm sure that I do things that seem equally odd to her.

Thx for the reply

I've managed to reinstall his Windows by using an old CD of mine for Windows XP Home and his number from his PC case but it wouldn't just repair it - I had to quick reformat the C: drive to get it to install.

After we'd got it up and running and I was installing the various service packs we suddenly had a BSOD again - the PC rebooted and started doing the original thing of looping and windows not starting. We both hung our heads down and just stared at each other 🙁

While there was a quiet pause while we were both thinking about what to say to each other, we suddenly could hear a knocking sound coming from the case. Aha- right I said and promptly opened the case with MY screwdriver - he still hadn't been able to find one lol.

The knocking was coming from the other drive so after powering down I removed the drive, checked all cables while I was in there and hit the power button again.

It's now starting with no problems and I've decided that some mechanical fault with the drive was just knocking the PC down. I don't know that much about electronics etc but that's all I can think of that caused his problems in the first place.

I suspect that the 2nd drive was used by the manufacturer as the Windows installation and repair whenever the user had to restore etc.

This is why I like having a CD or DVD with the OS on just in case something goes drastically wrong with the PC you can fix things. It's all very well them putting it on a separate partition or drive but when that drive fails your up the creek without a paddle

Thx for your suggestions - and as far as your wife hiding your hammers, did she remember what she used the mallet for in the linen closet - had she used too much starch

Well, just remember women are totally different to men and be prepared to keep finding the tools in strange places

 

[WyomingKnott]

I'm glad that you got the system working. Your problem is fairly new to me - I've seen it in some threads but never had it happen myself.

Well, just remember women are totally different to men and be prepared to keep finding the tools in strange places

We used to have a forum where I could do some wordplay on that, but this one has to be kept family-friendly!

 

[ihatepcs]

Hi and thx for the reply.

I'll have to be more carefull about how I say things lol.

With regard to the old drive I'll be having a look at it when I get the time, but atm time and inclination is something that I don't have for doing it.

My mates happy that he's up and running again and says that the pc is running a lot faster now than it ever did before

I've told him that it's probably because of the fresh install of WindowsXP - but I have warned him that if one drive has gone then the other may fail too - or just keep on going fine - you just don't know.

Have fun in the forums