Solved: Windows wont detect second drive

[Mukok Vasselle]

Over the past week my computer has had a series of issues so I decided to just format my SSD and upgrade to windows 8 from windows 7.
Before formatting i moved all my important files to my 1tb hard drive. Now that windows 8 is all set up my computer wont allow me to access my 1 tb drive but it still shows up in device manager, and in my bios. Is there any way to get access to this drive without formatting it?

 

[cilliers]

You have to create the same account name as administrator in windows 8 that you had in windows 7 and log in with it on windows 8. The files you backed up are not visible under the new OS install, because you are probably logged in under a different user account on your new windows 8.

 

[cilliers]

And for god's sake, please don't attempt to format/convert the HDD in device manager.

 

[Cromisa]

I had exactly the same issue, I had to format the disk before win8 would read it properly.

Sometimes, it has been that the drive letter has been reserved for an external device, so there is a hidden conflict. But I doubt this would be the issue on a fresh install of win 8.

 

[Mukok Vasselle]

I set up the second user account and set it to an administrator, but I still have the same problem. Sorry I can't figure out how to reply to posts.

 

[cilliers]

The user account must be exactly the same as the one you had on windows 7. EXACTLY. Same name, same letters case, etc

 

[Cromisa]

It won't have aything to do with the windows 7 account info because win 7 was on your SSD, and you formatted that before putting win 8 on it correct?

So it's just win8 not seeing the HDD. Which I have had happen to me and the disk required a format - but it's got your data on it, so that's not really a solution.

Hmm, how old is your motherboard approx?

 

[Mukok Vasselle]

It won't have aything to do with the windows 7 account info because win 7 was on your SSD, and you formatted that before putting win 8 on it correct?

So it's just win8 not seeing the HDD. Which I have had happen to me and the disk required a format - but it's got your data on it, so that's not really a solution.

Hmm, how old is your motherboard approx?

I have the asrock z77 extreme 4 and I have had it for 2 or 3 years. I don't know if this will help but when I said I formatted because my computer was having issues the problems started with my computer frequently freezing or just restarting on its own, usually when under heavy load. Then that was eventually fixed but now whenever I shut down my computer through the windows start menu the computer stops outputting an image but the fans and lights remain on. The formatting did not fix this.

 

[Mukok Vasselle]

On my computer I did notice that system reserved is being displayed as my D: drive. I wouldn't think this would be an issue though because my HDD was set as my T: drive

 

[Mukok Vasselle]

I have fixed the problem by going into windows disk management, activating the disk drive and assigning it a new drive letter. Thanks for everyone's help.

Now how do I mark this thread as closed?