This evening I added a new SATA 640GB hard drive to Tammy’s new Dell SX8000 (commonly known as XPS 8000 ) machine and the drive appeared fine in BIOS.

However, when I booted into Windows 7, the normal process of formatting the drive wasn’t working. That is, going into Computer Management then Disk Management. Usually, the unpartitioned drive will appear here. It didn’t! After several reboots, complete shutdowns, nothing worked.

So, taking the advice of others who suggested using a Linux CD to partition the drive, I instead used a Windows 7 setup CD and booted from that. From there I went ahead and partitioned and formatted the drive without issue.

Great! Well, I thought. I booted back into Windows 7 exiting Windows 7 setup CD and discovered the drive still would not appear. Ugh. So the troubleshooting began.

The answer:

Start -> Right Click Computer -> Properties
Device Manager (on left side)
Click the Disk Drives arrow to show the list
Find Your Drive You Installed Here
Right Click on the Drive -> Uninstall
After the SATA HDD disappears, click the Action menu -> Scan For Hardware Changes

This will rescan your system and reinstall your SATA HDD drivers.

After I did this, the formatted drive letters appeared for me under “Computer” because I had already partitioned and formatted the drive in the Windows 7 setup CD. For most others, you’ll just need to go back into Disk Management where you SHOULD discover the drive now where you can partition and setup the drive like normal.

Let me know if this helps.

Thought it would be a good time to post a quick computer tip since I haven’t done one in months.

For anyone stuck with a computer problem, check out techguy.org.

If you’re looking for free technical support, they have it! This site is run completely by volunteers and paid for completely by donations and sponsors. There is no charge to you (although they do appreciate donations). To get started, check out the Tech Support Guy Forums.

Other than that, I always recommend typing in your problem into google and see what comes up. This is what I do when I get a weird error I don’t understand or a problem I can’t seem to fix/resolve. Usually, google has the answer(s) I need when I need them.

Of course, it always helps to have a spare working computer when you can’t get online to figure out some major problems. Enjoy!