can't access second internal hard drive

just upgraded from windows XP 64 bit to Vista Home Premium 32 Bit and my
second internal hard drive doesn't seem to be accessible. I believe the
computer knows it exists, i just can't get to it. I don't want to have to
reformat it because i have about 80 gigs of stuff I wanna keep on it.

Is it visible in Drive Management (not device manager)? I understand you
cannot see it in Explorer.

"Casey" <Casey@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:90432095-E0D4-4DB8-AE19-1CD598638DA7@microsoft.com...
> just upgraded from windows XP 64 bit to Vista Home Premium 32 Bit and my
> second internal hard drive doesn't seem to be accessible. I believe the
> computer knows it exists, i just can't get to it. I don't want to have to
> reformat it because i have about 80 gigs of stuff I wanna keep on it.

It's not visible in Drive Management. Would it go under Disk 1 (Dynamic
Offline)? Because if that's it, then I guess it's there, but I can't do
anything with it.

"Colin Barnhorst" wrote:

> Is it visible in Drive Management (not device manager)? I understand you
> cannot see it in Explorer.

If you are showing such a disk and cannot account for it as any other disk
then it would have to be the one you want. Can you remove the drive and
mount it in an external enclosure? You should be able to get the data off
that way, even if it has to be done on another computer. Once you do that
you can initialize the drive again as a basic disk, format, and get it back
into service.

"Casey" <Casey@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:CBAC34A5-8BD1-45E1-AE11-CA06E7F99F35@microsoft.com...
> It's not visible in Drive Management. Would it go under Disk 1 (Dynamic
> Offline)? Because if that's it, then I guess it's there, but I can't do
> anything with it.
>
> "Colin Barnhorst" wrote:
>
>> Is it visible in Drive Management (not device manager)? I understand you
>> cannot see it in Explorer.
>

Hi, Casey.

Disk Management has an extensive Help file that includes, among other
things, this page:

Move Disks to Another Computer

Under "Detect new disks", it first says:
"On the new computer, open Disk Management. Click Action and then click
Rescan Disks. Right-click any disk marked Foreign, click Import Foreign
Disks, and then follow the instructions on your screen."

And then it has a paragraph discussing dynamic disks, RAID and other topics
that most users never get involved in.

If you don't find your answers there, please post back with further
questions - and more details about your hard drives, partitions, etc.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
rc@grandecom.net
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail 2008 in Vista Ultimate x64 SP1)

"Casey" <Casey@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:CBAC34A5-8BD1-45E1-AE11-CA06E7F99F35@microsoft.com...
> It's not visible in Drive Management. Would it go under Disk 1 (Dynamic
> Offline)? Because if that's it, then I guess it's there, but I can't do
> anything with it.
>
> "Colin Barnhorst" wrote:
>
>> Is it visible in Drive Management (not device manager)? I understand you
>> cannot see it in Explorer.

Have you tried the Import Foreign Disks command?
<http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver/en/library/e0eae787-ed9b-439f-9c31-b93002075d501033.mspx#BKMK_4>

On Tue, 17 Jun 2008 15:33:00 -0700, Casey
<Casey@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>It's not visible in Drive Management. Would it go under Disk 1 (Dynamic
>Offline)? Because if that's it, then I guess it's there, but I can't do
>anything with it.
>
>"Colin Barnhorst" wrote:
>
>> Is it visible in Drive Management (not device manager)? I understand you
>> cannot see it in Explorer.

Is mountvol another possibilty here? The problem at this level would be the
user's skill set, I would think. Mostly these commands would be encountered
in server environments.

"andy" <bogusaddress@bogusaddress.123> wrote in message
news:0tki54dlv7mvpcv2n4od0ip2rnljtqvtfc@4ax.com...
> Have you tried the Import Foreign Disks command?
> <http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver/en/library/e0eae787-ed9b-439f-9c31-b93002075d501033.mspx#BKMK_4>
>
> On Tue, 17 Jun 2008 15:33:00 -0700, Casey
> <Casey@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>
>>It's not visible in Drive Management. Would it go under Disk 1 (Dynamic
>>Offline)? Because if that's it, then I guess it's there, but I can't do
>>anything with it.
>>
>>"Colin Barnhorst" wrote:
>>
>>> Is it visible in Drive Management (not device manager)? I understand
>>> you
>>> cannot see it in Explorer.
>

Unfortunately it won't help the OP. Home Editions of Vista do not support
dynamic disks at all.

"Colin Barnhorst" <c.barnhorst@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:3F64B076-C1EE-454E-990A-109D598F2039@microsoft.com...
> Is mountvol another possibilty here? The problem at this level would be
> the user's skill set, I would think. Mostly these commands would be
> encountered in server environments.
>


--
Jane, not plain ;) 64 bit enabled :-)
Batteries not included. Braincell on vacation ;-)
MVP - Windows Desktop Experience

As Jane C points out further in this thread, you cannot access the disk
using Vista Home Premium. Move it to a computer running a business edition
of Windows (XP Pro, XP Pro x64, Vista Business, or Vista Ultimate) to
recover the data then convert the disk to basic.

"Casey" <Casey@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:CBAC34A5-8BD1-45E1-AE11-CA06E7F99F35@microsoft.com...
> It's not visible in Drive Management. Would it go under Disk 1 (Dynamic
> Offline)? Because if that's it, then I guess it's there, but I can't do
> anything with it.
>
> "Colin Barnhorst" wrote:
>
>> Is it visible in Drive Management (not device manager)? I understand you
>> cannot see it in Explorer.
>