Question about a Sata Hard Drive...

I am hoping that someone can help me with another hard drive I have that I want installed. I have a Sata hard drive that I need put into my computer. I have two other hard drives, C and D drive already on my computer. My brother in law was trying to install it for me and the sata drive is still plugged in but for some reason he could not get it to work. I know it is a working drive. I know my brother in law was trying to fix Raid for me. I am not sure where he left off because he doesn't tell me anything that he does. I just know that he has my drive plugged in still but it is not being recognized.

I am running windows XP service pack 3

Thank you in advance for any advice!

As far as raid, first you need matched drives. Then either your mobo needs to support it (this is considered a software raid). Or you need a Raid controller card.

Concerning the new drive not working. Have you gone into Disk Management to make sure it shows up in there?

To elaborate on Thunders post. While holding down the Windows key (key between the CTRL and ALT) press the "R" key that should bring up the run box. then type diskmgmt.msc. See if you drive is listed as either unallocated space or as an un formatted drive (file system type will be blank). If its listed as unallocated space you need to Format the drive. You want to select the NTFS file system and be sure NOT to make it a dynamic drive.

Hello again. I looked under the disc management and it isn't even showing up on there at all. Could the problem be my virtual drive at all? I was just wondering if that might have something to do with it?

how about opening in it BIOS or in the RAID controller at startup [before going into Windows]. You should see new drive, and make it part of the RAID system if thats what you want.
is it software RAID or Hardware RAID anyway?

FWIW: Not sure what "matched drives" might be, probably something from the past.

You can use two different sized drives made by two different manufacturers and the RAID will just default to the size of the smaller drive. If I set up a 40GB and an 80GB in RAID0, the two drives will be reflected as a 80GB drive. If I set up a RAID1 with the same drives, the two drives will be reflected as a 40GB drive.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_RAID_levels

Louis

FWIW: Not sure what "matched drives" might be, probably something from the past.

Both the same interface. Both the same RPM. Preferably same R\W times and same capacity. These will all work in maximizing RAID performance and not wasting resources. Example, hard drive space.

In cases like this we do not know the knowledge of the OP, or in this case the level of the person assisting him. Thus the reason for my statement.

No problem , I just wanted to clarify based on my own limited experiences with RAID setups (hardware).

Louis