Windows 10 New systems installed, can't find auxiliary drives

[marcos9999]

I have just clean installed a new system. Everything is fine but the new system can't boot up my 2nd drive. It shows on device manager but does not mount. Any tips?

Thanks

 

[Neemobeer]

Is the second drive new? Are there errors in event log?

 

[marcos9999]

No, not new but the system can't find it for some reason

 

[Neemobeer]

Make sure it's initialized and has a partition in disk management

 

[marcos9999]

It shows on device manager but it does not mount. But it does not show in disk manager...

 

[Neemobeer]

I'd say there's something wrong with the disk then. Working drives should show in both disk and device manager.

 

[marcos9999]

It says disk is working properly

 

[Neemobeer]

Look in the event viewer for errors related to disk management, it should tell you why it can't access the disk.

 

[marcos9999]

Yes, sorry is is showing on both. I must have made a mistake on the clean install and deleted the drive. So it shows on disk manager, say it is working properly but I can't assess or see it on the finder...

 

[Neemobeer]

Does it have a partition in disk management? If it doesn't you'll need to create one, then it should get assigned a letter and be accessible.

 

[marcos9999]

Disk 1 is the extra drive. Is a 1 TB drive. Only 100MB are allocated? When right click I cannot make any changes for this drive. Any tips? The disk is there and working but can't change letter or do anything with it.

 

[Neemobeer]

My guess would be that one partition is your active boot partition and you won't be able to remove it while the system is live. You should be able to boot into a rescue disk and delete the partition and the system should hopefully be able to use the other EFI partition, if not you can use bootrec to fix the existing EFI partition for booting.

Alternate method (and may be easier), boot to the install and just format both drives, then power down and remove the large drive, then install Windows.

 

[marcos9999]

I see what happened. I already clean install on disk 0 with large drive off. The boot partition on the large drive was from a previous install I did and misdirected the drives. I guess I need to initialize the drive with rescue disk. Thanks

 

[Keith W]

Is your big disk GPT or MBR ? If it is MBR it must be changed. Open Disk Manager. Right click on the drive. Choose Properties, then go to the Volumes tab. Does the Partition style field say 'GUID Partition Table (GPT)' ? If so all is well. If not let me know and I'll guide you through changing it. It can be done without loosing data if done carefully but it looks like you don't have any data on it. Should be easy to liberate your 3GB disk.

 

[marcos9999]

Yes, it does say 'GUID Partition Table (GPT)' You mean all is well for a reboot from rescue disk? Thanks

 

[Keith W]

Does it have a partition in disk management? If it doesn't you'll need to create one, then it should get assigned a letter and be accessible.

If it's GPT then you should be able to do as Neemobeer advises easily. I can't see why you would need a rescue disk unless your new install has stopped booting. You should be able to do all you need to do from your new OS on your C drive. Or am I missing something ?

 

[marcos9999]

I can't format the drive 1 because there is a system partition there. Not sure what you mean as "Neemobeer advice" How do I go about accessing this drive from my new OS which is working fine, without using external boot?
Thanks

 

[Keith W]

Try this. Get diskmgmt running. Right click on either of the two unallocated partitions and allocate a drive letter (E ?) . If that works do the same for the other partition (F?). Don't close diskmgmt. Open ThisPC. Look at the displayed drives to see if your newly allocated drive letters appear. Scroll down a bit just to be sure. If not there, msg me back.

PS Neemobeer is a member who replied to your question and is quoted in my last post

 

[Neemobeer]

You will need to delete from a rescue disk or a Windows install since the partition is the active boot partition

 

[marcos9999]

Ok. It worked but I now have two partitions and 100mb with a system element. How do I intialize the whole disk so one partition and erase the system 100mb?