I can only see the system disk (SSD) on disk 0 and New Volume on disk 1 (HDD) in Device Manager.In Disk Maagement, trying to allocate the other older disks, gives no result.This because it is not found.However, in BIOS I see all of the drives in computer. Also, I am aware of the possibility to take out the card from Motherboard, but the adapter card that is installed in the working PCI slot 2 is there for the purpose of extra available connectors (in this case for aditional flat cable 41 pin) to plug in the "older" type of HDDs that do not use the SATA system.This setting workked like a charm prior to the new SSD that was set to AHCI in BIOS. I did manage to find the additional (new) HDD and it shows up as an extra drive that I dedicated with a different letter before the quick format.My SSD and HDD wokk fine in W7 X-64.But, the problem is that after installing back the older HDD [it has back up of my photos, scans, music library, videos, ...], it is no longer recognised in the OS.From here I tried to update specific drivers (without having any clue of which ones to download) with installation and activating its functions in OS. Now, being really lost, I took an advice from a friend to switch off electricity from computer and plug in the 41 pin connector in the PRI_EIDE slot on mobo.Shortly at restart (after BIOS) almost immediately the computer starts with some kind of "gibberish text" info while in bios informing me of "PATA" and continues by starting the Windows start up in black screen - waiting for the 4 dots (that are part of the Windows7 flag) to appear; I notice that the time from the Windows logo "Microsoft Corporation" takes far to long before the flag shows up.Then a new black screen shows - resembling an old OS that Windows no longer is supporting - to continue showing me that Windows is missing files.It asks me to accept the OS to find missing files and to install it.After this it restarts (automaticaly) and shortly after it BIOS prompts me to chose one of two alternatives for start up; I chose the highlighted RECOMENDED.Then it does the identical search (again downloading the necessary files) to show me that there is no OS available.I did this procedure four times, closed the electrical switch and took out the cable from connector on mobo to the HDDs.Flipped back the switch to original position before pressing the on button in the computer case.Then entering the BIOS checked all internal plugged-in drives including HDD and SSD and set the system to AHCI mode. Currently I am back to the original state with no previous extra 3 HDD working in computer, [the setup with system SSD + HDD works]. Somebody suggested to by additional cable to plug into a slot in mobo; those cables I have and is not the cause of problem. Is someone sufficiently knowlegeable with the right information to solve this problem to give me professional help to solve this? Highly appreciating the much awaited help here at MDL.
It sounds like when you plugged those drives into the PRI_IDE connector the boot order changed & your PC was trying to boot the old drive. Just go back into the bios & make sure the 1st boot device is your SSD.
@ Flipper Yes. SSD is in the first boot [that's why I can communicate via the OS] The Microsoft FixIt tool found that the Mass Storage Controller driver is missing.I'm guessing that it's the driver to the scanner; I can download that later on from manufacturer website. Still no luck with the mechanical HDD in computer HELP!
First, the Mass Storage Controller is your PCI-IDE add-in card. Without the correct drivers for it Windows will not see the drives. Second, as mentioned above, it would appear that the BIOS boot order is changing when the mechanical HDDs are connected to the on-board IDE/PATA connector. Check the boot order with the drives connected to the on-board IDE. It would seem that one of your mechanical HDDs has an old, bootable installation of Windows on it.
Thank you for answer to the problem Mass Storage Controller that an IT repair guy told me is the most probable hardware issue causing this. as I have taken out all the hardware inside the (dust infested) computer, new SSD is installed for system disk (OS allocated it and performed a quick formatting)[support for TRIM is standard in W7 Ultimate; thank you ], the additional for storage new (mechanical) HDD is now active via the Disk Management and has a by me dedicated letter G:, so once the the separate three internal HDD may each have its own letter D:, E;, and F: accordingly. Right now is somewhat hectic because of national holidays, spring, Easter, giving the kids more priorities (and spending a lot of time with them), ... and activating the new office suite Outlook 2010 Pro Plus with an IP provider that had problems with IMAP and POP servers; during next week this issue should be resolved. In the meantime I downloaded new drivers (again) to chipset, graphics card, USB Controllers, Network PCI Cards, Storage Controllers, ..., that is (supposed) to improve performance.Also I still have not installed any updates - prompted WU - for OS, because someone told me that the best version drivers for hardware is at manufacturers' site; WU only supply the basic ones that makes the experience similar to Windows 98 and that is not my cup of tea in 23 Century!