The second hard disk drive in the models above may not be visible to Windows because it has not yet been partitioned and formatted. In this case the drive will not appear in Windows Explorer, and will not be available to any other software.

The second disk drive may not have been partitioned and formatted during the manufacturing process.

It's also possible that using the Recovery DVD to re-establish the original factory software installation (the 'out-of-box' state) on the computer's hard disk drives can also leave the second hard disk drive un-partitioned and unformatted.

Use the Disk Management utility to partition and format the second hard disk drive.

The Disk Management utility refers to the second hard disk drive as Disk 1. 

Warning: Be sure not to change any setting for Disk 0 -- the first and primary hard disk drive . This drive contains your documents and other data, as well Windows and all other installed software.

1. Click the Windows Start button, then click Control Panel.

 

2. Click System and Maintenance [for Windows XP: Performance and Maintenance], then click Administrative Tools.

 

3. Double-click the Computer Management icon. The Computer Management window will appear.

 

4. Double-click the Storage icon.

 

5. Double-click the Disk Management icon. A list of drives will appear at right.

 

The second hard disk drive will be identified as Disk 1. Its space will be labeled "Unallocated".

 

6. Click on the unallocated area for Disk 1.

 

7. Click Action from the menu bar near the top of the Computer Management window.

 

8. In the Action men, click All Tasks, then New Partition. The New Simple Volume Wizard will appear.

 

9. Click Next to accept the default selections at the prompts for partition type and size, to assign a driver letter, and to format the drive. You can speed up the formatting process by checking the box for Perform a quick format.

 

10. Click Finish to complete the procedure. Windows will partition and format the second hard disk drive, which will take several minutes.