Windows 7 multiple drives missing

[Brogbac]

Hello,

I have a weird issue. I have found threads with similar issues regarding a second hard drive. But my situation has another issue on top of that...

I had a hard drive crash after only 17 months of use, 2nd time on the same PC I bought barely 27 months ago.

So I finally broke down and bought two hard drives (the second one to backup my files which I should have done to begin with).

I connected both hard drives inside the pc with sata cables and power. Both are recognized in the BIOS and also when I go to install windows it asks which one I want to install to.

I then reinstalled Windows Vista from my Dell system restore disk. Immediately after it installed I checked to see if Windows recognized my 2nd hard drive. It did not show up, but I did see the main hard drive I installed windows on (c: ), along with my DVD drive (d: ) and all my other drives for the front of my PC-2 USB drives, SD card slot, and another card slot type I never use (drives e: f: g: and h: )

Then I immediately installed my Windows 7 upgrade (I have to install Vista first then install the 7 upgrade). Once Widows 7 was installed, my PC only shows the c: and d: drives now. The second hard drive still does not show, and now for some reason all my my usb and card drives for the front of my PC e: f: g: and h: went away. they were definitly there with Vista.

I have reinstalled windows on this PC like this about 3 times and this has never happened before where the usb and card drives dissapeared.

Please help!

[EINSTEIN_007]

Follow the below steps to find the missing drives in your Windows 7 PC:

1. First of all click on “Computer” or open any other explorer window.
2. After that click on “Tools” and then “Folder options”
3. Next, you have to press the “View” tab and clear the checkmark in “Hide empty drives in the computer folder”.
4. Check if your empty drives are now visible once again.

[Brogbac]

OK Thanks! I will try that as soon as I get home in a few hours.

[Brogbac]

Thanks, that worked perfectly to restore all the usb and sd card slot drives. I was really sweating this thinking maybe my mother board or something else was bad.

The only thing that it didn't do was make the 2nd hard drive show up but I was able to follow instructions in this thread and I basically did what tomget did in in his reply on 12/15/09, ran the wizard, and it shows up in My Computer now.

Thanks so much!