Ultrabase 2nd HDD not behaving

[bpmcclure]

I have a new SATA caddy for my X4 base, and have a bare drive in it. When installed, I can see the new drive in BIOS, and if I right click My Computer, and select Properties and then Hardware, I see it there, but it does not show up as a letter drive, so I can not access it. I can not figure out what simple thing I am missing here. Anyone got the answer? Thanks in advance.

[rkawakami]

Could be that the disk is not formatted. What operating system are you using?

[bpmcclure]

XP Pro.

[rkawakami]

Then you can try this to see if the disk is seen by the Disk Management system:

- Click: Start / Settings / Control Panel / Administrative Tools / Computer Management / Disk Management (whew!)
- Disk 0 should be your C: drive; don't do anything to this one!
- Disk 1 should be what is installed in the Ultrabay adapter

What does it say under "Disk 1"? Something like "Basic / xxx.xx GB / Online" ?
What does it say to the right in the white area?
What do you think should be on the disk? Any chance there's important data on it?

Here's an example: http://www.kawakami-ca.com/image/disk_management.jpg

edit: In case I can't get back to this thread in the morning....

I think this is a case of having an unpartitioned drive. If this is indeed a "bare" drive and there's nothing that you want / need / expect to keep on it, then if you are still in the Disk Management window, right-click inside the white area next to "Disk 1". If you get "New partition..." as the top choice, then proceed as follows:

- Click New Partition...
- Click Next.
- Primary partition should already be checked; click Next.
- If you want all of the disk space assigned to a single partition, then click Next, otherwise size it the way you want it.
- You should be at the "Assign Drive Letter or Path" window. By default, letter D should be assigned. Click Next.
- You will be at the "Format Partition" window. You should probably to a full format, that is, don't check the "Perform a quick format" option. Click Next.
- A confirmation screen appears. This is your last chance to back out of the format. Click the Finish button.
- When done, the "D:" drive should be accessible from Windows Explorer.

[bpmcclure]

Your analysis was spot on! Did just as you recommended, and now I have a spanking new D drive with nothing on it!! Thanks so much, now on to try to clone the C drive and upgrade to a SSD. So glad I asked.