HDD's Not Showing

[Seven Ocean]

Hello,

I have recently built a new PC(my first time) and had it up and running for the first time last night. There are three drives installed: 1 Vertex SSD for the OS (Windows 7 64-bit), and 2 Samsung Spinpoint F3's for storage. The F3's show up in BIOS, but not on "My Computer". I would like for the F3's to show on "My Computer" and use it in a RAID1 setting. Any help would be appreciated, thanks in advance. :)

[gjl711]

Did you set up the RAID array in the bios? Also, are they partitioned and formatted?

[basroil]

Hello,

I have recently built a new PC(my first time) and had it up and running for the first time last night. There are three drives installed: 1 Vertex SSD for the OS (Windows 7 64-bit), and 2 Samsung Spinpoint F3's for storage. The F3's show up in BIOS, but not on "My Computer". I would like for the F3's to show on "My Computer" and use it in a RAID1 setting. Any help would be appreciated, thanks in advance. :)
RAID is taken care of in BIOS. If your mobo doesn't support it, you can't mirror it in RAID 1. If you didn't put the cables in the right place (many mobos support only one pair in raid, or require you to have the drives in port 0 and 1, then non-raided disks in higher ports).

As for not showing in my computer, 90% chance it's your fault. You need to initialize hard disks, especially OEM versions. Just go to disk management (right click on my computer, "manage", then disk management), right click on the uninitialized disk(s if you didn't set them up in RAID) and format them to NTFS. If they don't show up in management, it's the 10% chance you got OEM versions and one came broken.

[Seven Ocean]

Did you set up the RAID array in the bios? Also, are they partitioned and formatted?

The drives have been partitioned and formatted. I am not sure how to correctly setup RAID configuration. I just tried with RAID instead of IDE and the computer gave me an error and would not start up.

I currently have the drives running in this order:

c: ssd
d: dvd
e: f3
f: f3

I believe the drives are in the 1(dvd),2(ssd),3(f3),5(f3) configuration for the SATA cables

Thank you for your help.


RAID is taken care of in BIOS. If your mobo doesn't support it, you can't mirror it in RAID 1. If you didn't put the cables in the right place (many mobos support only one pair in raid, or require you to have the drives in port 0 and 1, then non-raided disks in higher ports).

As for not showing in my computer, 90% chance it's your fault. You need to initialize hard disks, especially OEM versions. Just go to disk management (right click on my computer, "manage", then disk management), right click on the uninitialized disk(s if you didn't set them up in RAID) and format them to NTFS. If they don't show up in management, it's the 10% chance you got OEM versions and one came broken.

I got the F3's to show up using the disk management method, thank you. I just checked the specs on the mobo that I purchased and it does in fact support RAID... but the PC is not allowing me to do so. Here is the link to the mobo that I've purchased

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188049&cm_re=evga_motherboard-_-13-188-049-_-Product

I currently have the drives running in this order:

c: ssd
d: dvd
e: f3
f: f3

I believe the drives are in the 1,2,3,5 configuration

Could you help me set up RAID? Sorry for the trouble and thanks again.

[unrlmth]

The RAID disk will show up as one drive letter once you have it set up. Not every mobo is the same and you just need to follow the instructions for yours.

[gjl711]

.. Not every mobo is the same and you just need to follow the instructions for yours.
What he said.Usually what happens is that after bios post up, there is a message something like "press <key> to enter raid utility. THere it shows all the drives and allows you to set up the raid array.

From there, when you install windows you have to supply a raid driver for you mobo. After that the drives show up as one drive and the size is dependent on how you set up the array.

Best bet is to follow your mobo instructions.

[unrlmth]

What he said.Usually what happens is that after bios post up, there is a message something like "press <key> to enter raid utility. THere it shows all the drives and allows you to set up the raid array.

From there, when you install windows you have to supply a raid driver for you mobo. After that the drives show up as one drive and the size is dependent on how you set up the array.

Best bet is to follow your mobo instructions.

I'm betting he's going to use the SSD for windows so he wont have to worry about the drivers. Win7 autoinstalled my raid drivers for me.

[basroil]

The drives have been partitioned and formatted. I am not sure how to correctly setup RAID configuration. I just tried with RAID instead of IDE and the computer gave me an error and would not start up.

I currently have the drives running in this order:

c: ssd
d: dvd
e: f3
f: f3

I believe the drives are in the 1(dvd),2(ssd),3(f3),5(f3) configuration for the SATA cables

Thank you for your help.




I got the F3's to show up using the disk management method, thank you. I just checked the specs on the mobo that I purchased and it does in fact support RAID... but the PC is not allowing me to do so. Here is the link to the mobo that I've purchased

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188049&cm_re=evga_motherboard-_-13-188-049-_-Product

I currently have the drives running in this order:

c: ssd
d: dvd
e: f3
f: f3

I believe the drives are in the 1,2,3,5 configuration

Could you help me set up RAID? Sorry for the trouble and thanks again.

No, we can't help you set up raid, check the manufacture's website, it's actually VERY indepth on how to set it up. As for drives, the top most two should usually be used for boot drives, then depending on the motherboard (yours is 2 disk RAID+ 4 disk RAID) either the bottom ones or off-color ones are the secondary raid. In your case, you want to do it all differently. You want the DATA drives at the first raid (1/0 raid) and boot drive and optical drive in the second set, or data drives in the second raid (ports 2 and 3 in your case), with boot and optical in ports 0 and 1 (with RAID turned off for those drives). Check the manufacture's website for more detail.

[BeritOlam]

Seven Ocean,

Take a look here:
http://www.evga.com/videos/raidinstall.asp

Even though they only show how to install Vista and XP in a RAID array, there's still a fair amount of walk-through in the bios. And unless they've drastically changed their bios, you should get a good idea here of what you need to do.

I bet you simply haven't configured the bios right to recognize them properly. Should be a pretty 'simple' fix, once you figure out what you're not doing right.

[Seven Ocean]

Thanks for the help everyone! I think I'm going to hold off on the RAID setup for now..