Got a computer problem: After running an upgrade(?), I noticed something serious, I now have only C drive in my Windows desktop. My other two drives are not listed anywhere. Can anyone...

GENorkus Loc: Washington Twp, Michigan

After running an upgrade(?), I noticed something serious, I now have only C drive in my Windows desktop. My other two drives are not listed anywhere.

Can anyone tell me what I have to do to get them back?

Anhanga Brasil Loc: Cabo Frio - Brazil

Try pressing [F8] while booting to access system's BIOS
settings. Search for disks.

GENorkus Loc: Washington Twp, Michigan

Anhanga Brasil wrote:

Try pressing [F8] while booting to access system's BIOS
settings. Search for disks.

Having just tried f8, my Windows desktop went directly from boot to normale startup. It would not go to anything else.

With that in mind, I tried every other function code from f1 to f12. The only f code that did anything was f2.

From the f2 screen I attempted to return everything to the factory default settings. When restarting my computer, both File Explorer and Disk Management did not show the two extra drives.

Disk Management did show about 500GB that were not being used. I reformatted that 500GB as a Simple layout. (It's now drive partition F.)

Strange thing is that my f2 did show the two mission drives as drive 2 and drive 3.

So my problem is still there.

jonfrei

If you launch Explorer, can you see them?

GENorkus Loc: Washington Twp, Michigan

jonfrei wrote:

If you launch Explorer, can you see them?

Never thought about that as I'm presently using Edge. I'll have to try Explorer.

wrangler5 Loc: Missouri

RIGHT click on the Windows startup icon in the task bar and select Disk Management. Do the missing drives show up in that list? If they do, they are probably missing their drive letters, which you can reassign from the Disk Management service.

If the drives do not show up in Disk Management and are external drives, if it were MY computer I'd turn it off, unplug the drives, turn the computer back on and when it was up and running, plug one of the drives back in and see if it shows up. Check in Disk Management if it doesn't show up in Explorer, and assign a letter if need be. If it doesn't show up in Disk Management, plug it in to another computer and see if it shows up there.

jonfrei

GENorkus wrote:

Never thought about that as I'm presently using Edge. I'll have to try Explorer.

Use Windows Explorer. If you see the drives there, simply drag them on to the desktop to recreate the shortcuts.

nadelewitz Loc: Ithaca NY

GENorkus wrote:

Never thought about that as I'm presently using Edge. I'll have to try Explorer.

No no, not Internet Explorer the browser. Windows Explorer, what you see when you open the "My PC" icon on your desktop.

Are you talking about internal drives in the computer, or external USB drives?
If you see C: but no other drives in Windows Explorer, and it was fine before whatever update you did, either:
1. For some reason their drive letters got lost. Look in Disk Manager to see if they are there, and assign them drive letters
2. Something happened and they are now not formatted, or
3. You now have a hardware problem. If they are USB drives, plug a flash drive into the USB port to see if it appears. You could have a USB problem.

GENorkus Loc: Washington Twp, Michigan

nadelewitz wrote:

No no, not Internet Explorer the browser. Windows... (show quote)

So far I've tried the disk manager and I think, (nothing indicates what drive it is), my extra ssd came up. As said "I think". That is because disk Management showed a 1tb "C" drive, which is the correct size thatwhat I have for my C drive.

It also showed 500GB of space not formatted or being used at all. I modified that space and made it a "simple format". Now that works just like normal added drive. Since I formatted it, I lost what was on that memory. (Since I backup every month, only two weeks were lost. No real problem.)

My additional hard drive (2TB), does not show at all on regular Windows Explorer or Disk Management program.

My next action planned, is to get a docking station and hope the drive shows up.

I'm hoping the 2TB drive has not gone bad. It's about a couple years old and did not show any problems excep after I got a free upgrade from my computer manufacture.

nadelewitz Loc: Ithaca NY

GENorkus wrote:

So far I've tried the disk manager and I think, (n... (show quote)

Did you try the 2TB external drive on different USB ports? On another computer? With another cable?
Do you hear the drive spinning or making any other noise?
If it doesn't show any sign of mechanical life, it could be the circuit board inside the drive enclosure died. Can you, or have someone, take the drive out of the enclosure and connect it to another computer to see if the drive itself is dead or functional?

GENorkus Loc: Washington Twp, Michigan

nadelewitz wrote:

Did you try the 2TB external drive on different USB ports? On another computer? With another cable?
Do you hear the drive spinning or making any other noise?
If it doesn't show any sign of mechanical life, it could be the circuit board inside the drive enclosure died. Can you, or have someone, take the drive out of the enclosure and connect it to another computer to see if the drive itself is dead or functional?

External drives work fine. My problem is the extra internal drive.

nadelewitz Loc: Ithaca NY

GENorkus wrote:

External drives work fine. My problem is the extra internal drive.

Back to square one. This is detective work. Ready?

Do you see the drive in the BIOS?

If the answer is NO, the drive has died or the motherboard has a problem. Take the drive out and have someone connect it externally (with a USB dock) to another computer to see what it's condition is, first noticing if the drive is spinning or making odd noises.

If the answer is YES, open the computer and put your ear next to the drive and listen for spinning sound. No sound out of it means it's a dead drive.
If it is spinning smoothly without extra noises, you need to find out if it is formatted or not. Done through Windows 10's Disk Manager. The drive could have been wiped by an electrical bugaboo. It could also have lost its drive letter assignment. It can be given a drive letter in Disk manager.

If this is all bewildering to you, have a tech-savvy person look at it for you.

GENorkus Loc: Washington Twp, Michigan

nadelewitz wrote:

Back to square one. This is detective work. Ready?... (show quote)

I'll give this a try. A docking station is on my list of "must haves". Had one a long time ago. Don't remember why I got rid of it?

As for the "bugaboos", the fan is covering up the disk noise. Disk was quiet since day one.

As mentioned above, all my drives were fine the day I downloaded the factory "update". The following day I fired up the desktop and both drives did not work

My 500gb ssd did show on the disk management but it was totally turned off and became unformatted.

My 2TB hard drive, (about three years old), did not show up anywhere. That is making me think it has retired. Hope not but it may have.

nadelewitz Loc: Ithaca NY

GENorkus wrote:

I'll give this a try. A docking station is on my l... (show quote)

Your computer needs professional help. Depending on the "factory update" (you mean a Windows update, or something else?), maybe it can be rolled back.
You still need to find out what state the unseen drives are in....they are fine, they are damaged, they were unformatted....on and on.

This is too much to deal with this way.