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Thread: How to get laptop to see 2 hard drives?

  1. #1
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    How to get laptop to see 2 hard drives?

    Got a HP dv8000 laptop with XP PROF. on it. Have 2 Western Digital HD's, one with XP Prof. and the other no operating system.

    I go into bios and it sees both hard drives and they test out fine.

    But, when I reboot computer it gives me blank screen. I can disconnect 2nd HD and reboot and main HD starts computer fine.

    How do I get it to see both HD's. It is capable of seeing them both.

    THanks in advance

  2. #2
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    Do they show up in Disk management?

  3. #3
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    Yes

  4. #4
    Stark Raving MOD Midknyte's Avatar
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    Sounds like you need to switch the boot order in the bios.

  5. #5
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    BOTH drives are Cable Select

    THerefore you cannot set one to start over the other. Only 1 can be used with operating system and the other a backup HD. HD 1 has XP Prof. and 2nd HD has pics stored on it. So, I don't want to reformat 2nd HD.

    With both HD's connected, I just get blank screen. I have all latest drivers and bios from HP. Both HD's are Western digital HD's....maybe that is the problem?

  6. #6
    Stark Raving MOD Midknyte's Avatar
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    Did you run diagnostics on the drives or not?

  7. #7
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    Yes, both are fine and both show up in Bios

    Yes, both are fine and both show up in Bios



    Quote Originally Posted by Midknyte View Post
    Did you run diagnostics on the drives or not?

  8. #8
    Stark Raving MOD Midknyte's Avatar
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    What diags did you run? Seatools?

    Did you try just swapping the positions of the drives? It sounds like the system is trying to boot off the second drive.

  9. #9
    Ultimate Member rmanet's Avatar
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    So you just popped a new laptop drive from another system and the BIOS sees it but you can't access it?

    What's a "blank screen"?

    Disk management says it's there so it's formatted but we don't know what else is going on...

    Or is this a new problem - i.e. both drives worked fine before and now they don't?
    "hope to someday have a clever or inspirational quote....."
    ANON

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