New hard drive not coming up in my computer...

[jeo14888]

Today i purchased and installed a new 80 GB internal hard drive. It appears in BIOS, and in device manager. But it is'nt in my computer. This is the first time i've done this so is there something i need to configure in BIOS? Or is it accesible from somewhwhere other than my computer?

 

[trance-n-e]

Is it the right partition? Is it partitioned at all?

 

[Computer Head]

Also has it been formatted with a drive letter or a volume label? Sometimes that helps. Every now and then a computer will not recognize a drive until after it's been formatted. It's weird. It's happened to me. I formatted it in DOS and it worked afterwards.

 

[jeo14888]

thanks for the advice, whats partitioning? I will try formatting tomorrow, after i know how to actually get inot DOS? ive never tried. THanks.

 

[Computer Head]

I would actually check to see if it is partititioned before you try formatting it. That would probably be it. Did you just stick the hard drive in the computer without partitioning it? They don't come partitioned. If you haven't partitioned it, make a Windows 98 boot disk (http://www.bootdisk.com, download the Windows 98 SE OEM diskmaker), then boot into DOS with that floppy. Once you have a DOS prompt, type FDISK and hit enter. Make sure to select the proper hard drive, probably #2 in FDISK. Then create a primary partition by going to option 1, then 1 again. Say yes to create the partition with all available space. Then reboot the workstation into Windows and format from there. Hope this helps.

 

[jeo14888]

Thanks very much. I partitioned it when i clicked properties of my computer, it was there just not initialized, i dont know why i didnt look there before. Its formatting now. Thanks and sorry for my stupidity.

 

[Computer Head]

No problem, glad to help.