installing 2nd hard drive

[keyboard flier]

I have just installed a second hard drive into my PC. I want this 2nd one to be the slave. My problem is that my system doesn't find and assign it a drive letter.
I have set the jumper as a slave and is connected and physically installed ok, and I have set the BIOS up.
I created a ms-dos start-up disk, but when I rebooted it didn't go to ms-dos so I have not been able to format the new drive.
When I first booted up after installation the pc said that it had detected new hardware and in the device manager it is there and it says it is working properly.
But I cannot assign it a drive letter!!!!!
I have tried the trouble shooter on the device manager, but that didn't sort it out.
All I want to do is give it a drive letter so that I can save to it, large files.
I am running XP.

HELP, Please

[amanoffewwords]

I'd guess that you need to go to the disk management utility.

Start --> run --> diskmgmt.msc will bring up said utility - your new drive should appear in the list (probably as 'disk1' - right click on its entry and choose 'new partition'.

A wizard appears that asks you to select various options: choose primary partition, then select the maximum size (unless you want to partition it in smaller chunks for some reason, assign the drive letter and finally select FAT32 or NTFS format.

Obviously backup your data first and make absolutely sure you're choosing the right disk (windows will warn you if you select the boot disk).

hth
Charles

[keyboard flier]

amanoffewwords,

You are a star.
:ok:
Followed your instructions and they were spot on. Am one happy flier, thank you very, very much.:D

[amanoffewwords]

Actually, I sort of cheated :O

I checked the procedure in a rather good book (helps when you haven't got XP yourself!) - "Microsoft Windows XP Inside Out" - very comprehensive (as it should be since it comes from the horses's mouth).

Glad it helped,

Charles

[keyboard flier]

Charles,
I wouldn't minded if you contacted Bill Gates direct. I'm just grateful you read my post and replied within a short space of time. I had the new drive up and running as soon as it had formated, about an hour.

:ok: