After windows 7 install I cannot access my slave drive files

[Jwiseman114]

Hello,

I just installed Windows 7 on my primary drive and although I can see used storage space on the slave drive, I cannot see any of the files. It is completely empty when I click on it.

Any help will be appreciated.

JSW

 

[WyomingKnott]

There are quite a few possibilities.

First question: Are these SATA drives (less-wide, thicker data cables with seven pins) or IDE drives (wider, very flat data cables with forty pins)? Only IDE has master / slave.

Second question: Was there data on that second drive before, and was it your boot drive?

The most likely possibilities are
1) Due to file protections keyed to the previous install, you don't have access rights to the root directory on the data drive.
2) The data drive was formatted during the install and has to be restored carefully. This is not likely if it shows space used.
3) The files on the data drive became hidden.

Does the data drive show up with a drive letter or not?
Can you show us the information in Disk Manager for that drive?
What do you see if you use Windows Explorer to see the root of that drive (assuming that there is a drive letter)?
In Windows Explorer, what properties are shown for the root directory? Especially protection?
Simplest case: the files are hidden and/or system. Make sure that you configure Windows Explorer in your new installation to show hidden and system files.

We will try to distinguish between the cases, based on further information. You will need to be logged into an account with admin privileges to do meaningful exploration.

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Sorry for the shotgun approach, but there are many possibilities and I can't distinguish among them without looking at the answers to some of these questions.

Did you have a backup?

 

[Jwiseman114]

The drive in question was my secondary/slave drive. My primary drive with Vista software was infected at the boot level with a virus and because I had all of my files backed up on my secondary, I decided to go with the Windows 7 update which I installed on the original primary drive. I do have a lot of my files backed up in a third external hard drive but it was not current and I would be losing a lot if I cannot retrieve the secondary drive files.

Both drives are SATA and the secondary does have a letter D:, and shows memory storage. I have not tried the show hidden files option yet. I will when I get home from work today. I will send an update and try to answer the other questions if they become necessary.

Thank you
JSW

I really do not believe that the disc was re-formatted.

 

[WyomingKnott]

There is a tool named WinDirStat that will do a nice job of showing where your storage usage is. You have to turn on the option to display hidden space first.

 

[bucknutty]

Chances are the windows install saw the partion as bootable so it did not give it a drive letter.

Go to control panel - admin tools - comp managment - storage - disk managment.

Check to see if you have a partition in there with out a drive leter. If you do just right click on it and give it a leter.

Keep in mind windows vista and 7 makes a 100mb system partition. Do not give this a drive letter or make it active.