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Question

Slave SATA hard drive on Windows 8

by May 16, 2014 1:02AM PDT

How do I slave a hard drive on my Windows 8 Computer?

I had the hard drive slaved to my xp and it was fine, I plug it in to Windows 8 and it doesn't recognize it. Plug it back into the XP and it shows up fine. I'm not really experienced with this, I'm used to just hooking the hard drive up and booting up with XPs and it knows there's another HD available for storage, is the process different with windows 8? is there something specific I need to do to get it to recognize the HD?

Discussion is locked

7 Posts
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Clarification Request
More info needed please
by wpgwpg May 16, 2014 1:16AM PDT

Is this drive IDE or SATA? Internal or external? The term slave was used with IDE drives where you had two drives on a single cable, but modern computers use SATA where this concept is obsolete, since each drive has its own data cable. Do you by chance refer to where the BCD is stored?

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Clarifying
by Razizzle May 16, 2014 1:48AM PDT

It's a SATA drive, internal. Guess I'm just using the incorrect terms. I'm just trying to plug it into the next data cable and have all the files and information on the drive available once I boot up. With XP it's simply just there. With windows 8, it's not.

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More questions
by wpgwpg May 16, 2014 1:57AM PDT

Have you looked in the BIOS to see if they're being recognized there? Have you looked at the Control Panel's Administrative Tools -> Computer Management -> Disk Management to see if both drives are there? Are XP and Windows 8 on the same PC or different ones?
You may have missed this, but at the bottom of the text screen where you post, there's the following:
"Please read before posting
If you're asking for technical help, please be sure to include all your system info, including operating system, model number, and any other specifics related to the problem. Also please exercise your best judgment when posting in the forums--revealing personal information such as your e-mail address, telephone number, and address is not recommended."

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Clarification Request
Add full model numbers.
by r. proffitt Forum moderator May 16, 2014 1:19AM PDT

As all SATA drives are masters the idea of a slave is usually all about IDE drives. For Windows 8 you just plug in a new SATA drive and if the file system is compatible it shows up.

Again, just plug it into a higher numbered SATA port, a power SATA plug and I have to be short here, be sure the SATA port is enabled in the BIOS.
Bob

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Clarifying
by Razizzle May 16, 2014 1:53AM PDT

I have it plugged in correctly I know, it's physically the same way I plug it in on my Vista or XP, so I guess I need to go about figuring out how to access the BIOS on windows 8. I'll add model numbers and everything later when I have access to them. From the research I've done it sounds like my windows 8 isn't assigning a drive letter to the 2nd internal, though I'm not sure. I'll figure out how to check out the BIOS and double check that it's enabled.

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(NT) and you plugged the power cord also?
by James Denison May 19, 2014 1:25PM PDT
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Answer
Terminology aside
by May 16, 2014 9:44AM PDT

Terminology aside, I ran into this issue just recently when I went to install a second HDD in my new computer. At least for me, the problem was the Secure Boot function. I had to go into the UEFI (what was once the BIOS) and disable the secure boot function (it may be named different things, but should roughly equate as secure boot). Then you boot the OS, the drive shows up, and you can optionally reenable the secure boot the next time you reboot. Having it enabled will improve your boot times to a small degree, but the next time you want to add a bit of internal hardware you'll likely run into this same issue again. The name is something of a misnomer, since it's doing very little to actually improve your system's overall security, so don't let that be a factor in your decision.

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