neatnettricks

[patkinnee]

I have a Dell Studio 1735 and I have added a second internal hard drive to it. XP Pro (C Drive) on one and Vista Home Premium (E Drive) on the other... successfully some time ago. Last night I reinstalled Vista on what should be Drive E; the installation was successful (after I did a full backup of Drive E) but now if I am on C drive, E drive is not showing up on "my computer"...and vice versa. I have no problem re-starting the laptop and going to XP or to Vista but I would like to be able to "see both drives" when I click on 'my computer'. If I right click on My Computer and then on Manage, I still see only the drive that I am on at that particular moment.
Not a major problem but it would be nice to see them both.

[drcard]

Hi patkinnee,

There could be several issues involved.

The most likely problem is misfigured HDD addresses in the boot.ini file. XP does not see Vista, but Vista will see XP ONLY if XP is installed after Vista has been installed. The reinstall lost seeing XP installed and thus does not see it. If the drive is visible in BIOS and not seen by Windows, then the drive address in the boot.ini file is wrong. Usually installing XP over the old XP enters the correct addresses and Vista will then see the XP drive. If this does not siolve your problem then answer these questions to see where to next.

Does BIOS see both drives?
Are either of the drives SATA?
Is this setup a dual boot? If so, do you get the dual boot screen with option of either drive to select?

The answers will provide clues to possible problems.

HTH, Dana:))

[patkinnee]

Well, I'm not real sure about some of your questions.
I have no idea if they both show in BIOS; how would I find out?

Yesterday if I was on C Drive (XP) I could see the Vista Drive in My Computer; if I were in Vista, I could not see the XP Drive in My Computer.
SATA? How would I find out?
This morning out of sheer frustration, I installed Vista again and for whatever reason, I can now see both drives when I go to My Computer...both on the XP drive and on the Vista drive..and both are functioning properly.
Also yesterday it showed C & E drives; after doing the Vista install again today, it now shows C (XP) and D(Vista).
Dual boot? Not sure but I don't think so.. when I turn my laptop on, it gives me a choice of going to "An earlier version of Windows" or to "Vista". If I don't make a choice, it goes to Vista after so many seconds.
Thanks for your reply, Dana. I need all the help I can get.

[drcard]

Hi patkinnee,

BIOS is the Motherboard program that runs your PC until Windows loads. When you turn on your PC the "program" that is running the PC is the BIOS. It checks all the hardware (drives, USB devices, mouse, RAM, processor, etc.) and makes sure that they are on and connected. If all is OK then you will hear a beep (some makers like Dell mute the beep on some models). After the beep and before Windows loads you can press a key and enter the BIOS setup. The key that is pressed differs with different brands of BIOS software, but usually are Del or Esc or F10. A little search in Google with your PC model number will tell you your key. BIOS will show all drives attached and which one is to be booted first. Don't change that as the screen to choose which version to boot is on the one you are booting to now. That choice of version is a boot manager to direct which drive is booted. Yes, it is a dual boot PC.

System Information (Accessories>System Tools) will detail drive model information which with a simple search will let you know if it is IDE(also called PATA) or SATA. SATA is better for the same price as PATA so most Motherboards are designed mostly for SATA and have "emanulators" to cause a PATA drive to act like a SATA. These emanulators are known to cause loss of seeing another drive.

Glad all is working.

HTH, Dana:))

[Dutchie]

Hi patkinnee,

I know I'm sortof at the tail end of this topic,
but I'd like to draw your attention to a peculiar glitch that happens
when dual- or multi-booting.

The following may explain all this:

"No restore points are available when you use Windows Vista, Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008-based operating systems
in a dual-boot configuration together with an earlier Windows operating system"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/926185

I don't know if you use System Restore or were planning to use it at some point, but I think you should be aware of it,
rather than have the rude awakening to find that there are no longer any Restore Points in Vista.

Also ,if you use SR, make sure that you only monitor the relevant partition you're in, i.o.w. in XP's SR settings ,
you only tick the XP partition to be monitored , no other drives.
While in Vista ,only monitor the Vista partition.

One drawback is that XP can no longer "see" the Vista partition,
but when in Vista ,you can see the XP partition.

Looks like you have to give up something to have SR available for Vista.

I haven't found another way to protect the System Volume Information folder on Vista (or Win7)
from the Windows process that deletes the Restore Points.

If anyone has a better method ,pls let me know

Pete.