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Hyuken
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 Posted: Sun May 04, 2008 12:58 am Post subject: Dual HDDs combined into one |
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I installed a second HDD to my desktop computer and I could see them both as separate HDDs. This was almost a year ago. A couple months after I did it the two HDDs would show up only as 1 drive (C instead of two. Now I don't know what would happen if I tried to remove the non-OS drive. Is there any way to get them to show up as two drives again so I can organize the main drive and remove the second one without causing damage?
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johnlgalt
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| Posted: Mon May 05, 2008 2:35 am Post subject: |
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Did you enable a hardware / Software RAID solution on your computer? If you did, removing the drive could be disastrous....
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Hyuken
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| Posted: Wed May 07, 2008 12:50 am Post subject: |
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I believe I set them up as master/slave on the primary connection. I didn't RAID b/c I don't even know how to do that. Could I have done it by accident?
BTW the C: drive is the same size as both the HDDs put together now, so I have all the storage, I'm just not sure how to remove the slave.
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Ikeb
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| Posted: Wed May 07, 2008 2:00 am Post subject: |
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I'm only familiar with one RAID driver. In that case there's no way it could be enabled by accident (i.e. you would know). I can only suggest you carefully check messages displayed at the console while your machine is being booted. You may be able to find a clue at that point. What OS are you running?
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Bill_Bright
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Joined: Jan 16, 2004
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Location: Nebraska, USA
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| Posted: Sat May 10, 2008 1:33 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | I installed a second HDD to my desktop computer and I could see them both as separate HDDs. This was almost a year ago. A couple months after I did it the two HDDs would show up only as 1 drive |
Wow, it is too bad you waited and used the computer for 10 months after noticing the problem before seeking help. IMO, you have 2 choices, (1) Don't dink with it! or (2) Rebuild from scratch. In either case, make sure you have good backups. | Quote: | | BTW the C: drive is the same size as both the HDDs put together now |
Well, that sure sounds like a RAID0 "Striped" array.
But I agree with Ike, it is not likely RAID was enabled without you being aware of it. I also agree with John G - with a striped array, you cannot just pull one of the drives.
What operating system? This is not Windows Home Server, is it?
Who built the computer?
How are both drives identified in Device Manager?
What do you see in the BIOS Setup Menu for your drives?
(Thinking out loud - is this computer on 24/7? I wonder how long it would take to extend the striping across an added disk in a PC that is powered on, used, then powered off right away each time it is needed? 2 months?)
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Hyuken
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Location: Canada
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| Posted: Sun May 11, 2008 9:37 pm Post subject: |
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I am using Windows XP. I build this computer and at first it had only a SATA HDD but I later put in a second 80gb ATA HDD to use as backup for files.
Under disk drives in device manager, I only see "Maxtor 6l200S0" which is the SATA drive. The ATA drive that I put in was from an old computer and it still had all the OS files and everything, I never formatted it or anything either.
I didn't get the option to press 'delete' to enter BIOS, what other button is normally pressed?
The computer is not usually on overnight, just like 8 hours a day for the last 8 months.
I remember I was looking up RAID configurations but I'm like 99% sure I never did anything like that. I'm pretty sure I have them as Master-slave, is that how RAID would be too?
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johnlgalt
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| Posted: Sun May 11, 2008 10:11 pm Post subject: |
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If one is SATA and one is PATA, then they are on 2 different interfaces....So, how large is your SATA drive supposed to be?
You should not have to configure them as mast / slave - with SATA that is irrelevant, and with PATA their configuration does not affect / is not affected by SATA....
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