Re: Puzzle - External HDD Disk Management Error

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Hi, Mike.

My mobo has eSATA connectors, but I've never used them. I've never run a true external HDD, and have NO experience with Firewire, or with USB external drives (except flash drives). But I've often hooked my internal drive cables to an HDD sitting outside the computer case so that the computer thought it was internal.

Have you tried connecting the internal SATA cables to your external HDD? Or tried putting the HDD inside temporarily, just long enough to use Disk Management to partition and format it?

The correct sequence, in my experience, is to first see that the HDD is recognized by the BIOS - that it shows up on the POST screen at startup. Second, it should show up in Device Manager. And, third, you should be able to see it in Disk Management, and create at least one partition and format it. THEN you should see it in Computer and Windows Explorer.

Remember that HDDs NEVER show up in Computer and Windows Explorer. You'll never see "Disk 0" there. You'll see only entries like "Drive X:" - which refer to a partition (volume), NOT to a physical drive. Similarly, you won't see Drive X: in Device Manager; it will show each physical HDD. Disk Management will show both physical drives - once they are recognized by Windows - and logical drives - after you have created them.

So:
Step 1: Be sure that your HDD appears in your BIOS.
Step 2: Be sure that your HDD appears in Device Manager.
Step 3: See if that HDD appears in Disk Management. If so, create at least one partition and assign a "drive" letter.
Step 4: See if that "drive' appears in Computer.

Your problem seems to be in Step 3. Have you tried the Help file. The Help file in Disk Management has a ton of good information, but it has at least three drawbacks: (1) It covers the whole Microsoft Management Console, so we have to focus on just the Disk Management parts; (2), it covers much more sophisticated matters than most of us need, such as GPT and dynamic disks; and, (3) it is organized as a reference, not a tutorial, so we can't just read it linearly like a text book. But, given all those, if you search the Help file for "foreign", you should find out how to recognize and install your new HDD.

Since you really want to use eSATA, please tell us what your BIOS shows when you connect your new HDD that way. Does your mobo have eSATA drivers built in, or are they on a CD that you need to install?

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
rc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Microsoft Windows MVP
Windows Live Mail 2009 (14.0.8064.0206) in Win7 Ultimate x64 RC 7100

"Mike311" <guest@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:775cd0e57efc7d3d9ad31e2608b02dfc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I have been searching all night for help on this...any suggestions would
be greatly appreciated...

Windows Vista Home Premium 64 will not recognize external HDD
(eSATA/firewire/USB2). I started with eSATA, but that didn't work. I
tried rebooting with HDD on, etc. The disk didn't show up in Device
Manager or in My Computer, Disk Management, etc. So, I thought I'd make
sure the other connection types worked.

When I connected with firewire 400, it showed up in Device Manager
after a scan as "Disk Drive" or something generic like that. I still
couldn't make much traction because all the posts mentioned Disk
Management steps to take, but it didn't even show up there even after
rescans and refreshs.

So, I tried the USB interface. Windows immediately recognized it as USB
device and installed drivers like "normal" for USB devices. But, it
still wasn't in My Computer. This time, however, it was present in Disk
Managment but shows as Disk 1 with "Unknown" and "Not Initialized" in
box. When I right click to initialize disk, a "Initialize Disk" dialog
comes up asking for MBR or GDT partitioning. I click ok on MBR option,
then Logical Disk Manager throws the error "Incorrect function."
Details: BIOS recognizes the drive as an external HDD and I recently
installed x64 SP2.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I would be quite grateful for any
help.

Mike

Some of my Hardware:
External HDD: Simpletech Pro Drive 1 TB (eSATA/FW/USB interfaces)
Asus P6T Deluxe V2 Mobo
Intel i7
Internal HDD: SATAII Seagate 500GB x 2 in RAID 1
6GB RAM


--
Mike311

.

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