Windows Vista Refuses to Recognize IDE Device

I

Isolingua

Member
An IDE HD has been installed on my PC to supplement the existing SATA HD. The SATA drive has Vista Home Premium OS in it, and the new IDE drive has Vista Ultimate (don't ask me why; this was Microsoft's idea to solve a long standing problem on my Vista Home)

I then installed Tweak VI and EasyBCD on the IDE drive. My only problem is that when I boot V. Home then Windows Explorer hides the new IDE drive (but Device Manager and My Computer shows both!) When I boot V. Ultimate there is no problem at all and all drives show everywhere.

Can anyone help? Thanks.
 
Hi Isolingua,

Open Control Panel | Administrative Tools | Computer Management -> Disk Management
See if the second HD is listed there, and if so, right-click it and assign it a letter.
 
Thanks for your reply, but 2nd HD not shown

Disk Management only shows original SATA drive (and its partitions) and DVD drive...

Hope you can think of something else to try. Appreciate your help.

Addendum:

I just noticed the new 2nd HD which does not show either in Explorer or Disk Management, does show in Device Manager...!!

Hope this helps your troubleshooting. Thanks again.
 
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Thanks!; it works but problem returns when I boot up...!

To: Mahmoud Al-Qudsi, Director

I went to Device Manager in the Vista Home Premium OS drive (old SATA) which is the only place I can see the new 2nd drive (IDE), and, trying to act on your suspicion went to the Disk Drives section, clicked on the "Update the driver" and ...VOILA...! the new 2nd IDE drive shows in both Windows Explorer and Computer Disk Management.

BUT..., when I shutdown the computer and restarted it again this morning on the Vista Home OS using EasyBCD, the new 2nd IDE drive was again gone from Windows Explorer and Computer Disk Management..!! I then went again to Device Manager and repeated the driver update process, and the IDE drive again showed up in Windows Explorer, etc.

Is there a way to make this fix permanent (it again went away, when I shutdown and rebooted the PC now...)? Like I said 2 days ago, if I use EasyBCD to boot with Vista Ultimate residing on the new IDE drive, I have no problem and both the old SATA drive and new IDE drive are visible everywhere.

Hoping to hear from you. Thanks.
 
No reply yet; if anyone can help, please feel free

I am new to these forums, and maybe I should not have addressed my reply to the last person who gave me a possible solution. Sorry...
 
Hey isolingua,

No worries about whom you address your messages to, whenever someone has an answer and has a minute to post it they'll drop by and lend a hand.

Basically, we've determined it's not a dual-booting issue, rather a problem with the drivers on your Vista install. The only think I can think of is either a virus that is uninstalling the drivers each time you reboot, or that Windows itself is messed up (quite likely, actually).

My only advice right now would be to install the drivers, open device manager, and righ-click the device and select "uninstall" then proceed to reinstall the drivers once more (Actions | Scan for Hardware Changes; then install the drivers when prompted). If it's a matter of incorrect referenes to installed drivers, this should take care of it.

Addendum:

Thread moved to Vista Support.
 
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