Internal 2nd 3.5" sata HDD always unallocated after reboot

[Gurd99]

Its like I can only have one drive, C: A second drive added keeps showing up in disk management as unallocated.

After I add a new drive, create the volume with GPT it shows up in my computer as one large single space/partition. Put some files on it, reboot & the drive shows up unallocated always. Tried a few other drives. Using wd drives. Tried swamping cables and ports. No luck with this.

Please help.

[gll99]

Its like I can only have one drive, C: A second drive added keeps showing up in disk management as unallocated.

After I add a new drive, create the volume with GPT it shows up in my computer as one large single space/partition. Put some files on it, reboot & the drive shows up unallocated always. Tried a few other drives. Using wd drives. Tried swamping cables and ports. No luck with this.

Please help.

I don't have Vista so I'm just taking a shot at this:

If I read the bold part correctly it sounds like you trying to create a boot GPT drive. If your specs are correct and you have the 32 bit version of Vista from what I've read it won't work. You would need Vista 64 bit to boot from that drive.

[Gurd99]

Its like I can only have one drive, C: A second drive added keeps showing up in disk management as unallocated.

After I add a new drive, create the volume with GPT it shows up in my computer as one large single space/partition. Put some files on it, reboot & the drive shows up unallocated always. Tried a few other drives. Using wd drives. Tried swamping cables and ports. No luck with this.

Please help.

I don't have Vista so I'm just taking a shot at this:

If I read the bold part correctly it sounds like you trying to create a boot GPT drive. If your specs are correct and you have the 32 bit version of Vista from what I've read it won't work. You would need Vista 64 bit to boot from that drive.

Shouldn't it be just a second drive available to access? I did this a few years back with some smaller drives on this system without any issues.

I can't see how it would be a boot gpt drive, as straight after volume is finished I can copy files to that drive & view them.

[Krispy Kritter]

Try not using GPT as the drive format.

[fritzi93]

Try not using GPT as the drive format.

Yes. I had that exact problem, and I came to the conclusion that the mobo just wasn't going to oblige. I tried updating the SATA drivers, but no go.

I ended up partitioning the drives into 2 MBR partitions.
I've since added another 4 TB internal drive, and it's connected to a SATA RAID card. That works as GPT single partition okay.

[gll99]

Its like I can only have one drive, C: A second drive added keeps showing up in disk management as unallocated.

After I add a new drive, create the volume with GPT it shows up in my computer as one large single space/partition. Put some files on it, reboot & the drive shows up unallocated always. Tried a few other drives. Using wd drives. Tried swamping cables and ports. No luck with this.

Please help.

I don't have Vista so I'm just taking a shot at this:

If I read the bold part correctly it sounds like you trying to create a boot GPT drive. If your specs are correct and you have the 32 bit version of Vista from what I've read it won't work. You would need Vista 64 bit to boot from that drive.

Shouldn't it be just a second drive available to access? I did this a few years back with some smaller drives on this system without any issues.

I can't see how it would be a boot gpt drive, as straight after volume is finished I can copy files to that drive & view

them.

Sorry I missed the comma and thought you were trying to create a dual boot drive when you said... Its like I can only have one drive C: (notice I left out the comma. Like my wife said some years ago "Sometimes it's better to miss a comma than a period".

If this drive is over 2 TB then I agree it's likely a bios/drive controller issue.

[Gurd99]

Try not using GPT as the drive format.

Yes. I had that exact problem, and I came to the conclusion that the mobo just wasn't going to oblige. I tried updating the SATA drivers, but no go.

I ended up partitioning the drives into 2 MBR partitions.
I've since added another 4 TB internal drive, and it's connected to a SATA RAID card. That works as GPT single partition okay.

Would something like this PCI Express USB3.0 + SATA III 2+2 port card PEU3S3 be good enough for fast transfer between two internal sata drives?

Hopefully my drives will work on something like this without needing to find a new mobo.

[fritzi93]

I would guess so, it's gotta be a fairly recent design if it's SATA III.
I just used a cheap SATA III PCIe card and it works fine.

But again, you can always create a 2 GB or smaller MBR partition, then go back and partition the remaining unallocated space.
Funny that I found no mention in any of the reviews for my ASUS mobo about this issue,
And yeah, I did try upgrading the firmware in addition to the SATA drivers. No go.

Good luck.

[Krispy Kritter]

Unless the drive is over 4TB, you don't need to use GPT. MBR will work just fine. No reason to spend any money on new hardware.

Also, SATA II has plenty of bandwidth for a conventional HDD drive, especially an older 500GB model. SATA III isn't needed unless you are using SSD's.