New windows 7 install, drives go missing in comp management

Hi

 

I have just re-installed windows 7 and was going to rename my drive partitions in computer management, but for some reason, one drive or other just keeps disappearing from Disk Management!

 

This is a new computer into which I re-installed my own windows 7, with a not so free drive,(Ztrucker and some others will know me well by now!).  It has UEFI bios which are new to me, which I thought were causing the problem, but even after changing the setting to CSM>Enabled, I still have one drive or other missing in Computer Management, no matter how many times I restart the computer.

 

I have 2 x 500GB Internal, 2 x 2 TB Internal & 2 x 1 TB External.  It seems that either 1 of the 2 TB or 1 of the 1 TB disappear alternately while restarting the computer to try to get them all to appear.

 

I've had these drives for several years and never had this bother.  The only new factor in all this is the UEFI Bios.  They're nearly a handful on their own.  Is there a setting somewhere I'm missing?  I would be grateful for anything anyone has to say on the matter.

 

I hope this makes sense and thank you for reading and in advance for any help offered.

hedley

My recommendation: Disconnect all internal drives except the one you will install Windows 7 to. Also disconnect all external drives.

Boot the DVD or flash drive and during the install take the Custom path. Delete ALL partitions so the drive is empty. DO NOT create or format any partitions. Just click Next and let the Windows installer create and format the partitions it needs.

 

Do Windows Update repeatedly until there are no more, this can take 3, 4 or 5 iterations.

 

Shutdown and connect the other internal drives.

 

Boot up and they should be detected and seen.

 

Connect your external drives one at a time. When detected and made available go to the next one.

 

Note: 4 internal drives draws a fair amount of power, what power supply do you have? Maybe it is not robust enough for your setup?

Hi Ztrucker, thanks for the reply.
Yes, that's exactly how I re-installed my pc. The power supply in my old pc was 380 watts and it ran all these. The power supply in this new one is 450 watts, so you'd think it would be able to support them. Anything else it could be?
Thanks for the help, appreciated, as always.
hedley

This is an excellent tutorial on downgrading 8 to 7. Covers UEFI and GPT too: How to Downgrade Windows 8 Preinstalled to Windows 7

Hi Ztrucker, that looks like a lot of interesting reading, thanks.  I'll have a read and get back to you.  May take a few days, though.  I still haven't any programmes in this pc yet because of this, so everything is here and there!!

 

I had a look through the bois and one thing I have done in these bios which didn't apply in the old bios was 'enable' all the sata ports.  After that, the drives all showed up in disk management and windows explorer.  Although they do frequently alternately appear/disappear at times now and then..

 

Looking at a search on Google, I'm not alone on this subject.

 

Thanks for the help, invaluable as always.

hedley