Windows Vista partition issue

Factual Questions
1

I recently installed a second hard drive in my Vista Laptop. I formatted it as NTFS, but for some reason when I’ve restarted my computer, the disk manager says it is in an “EISA Configuration” (not sure exactly what this is, but it’s the same state as the partition that holds my factory-installed back-up).

The problem is that I can’t seem to access this hard drive now. It shows up in the disk manager, but I can’t perform any actions on it (re-format, etc).

The computer knows it’s there, but it seems fully non-functional.

Any ideas how to wipe this disk clean?

2

I’m not clear on how you got to that point, but this should fix you up:

Open a command prompt as administrator.

Type “diskpart” (without quotes) and enter.

Type “rescan” and enter.

Type “list disk” and enter.

The new disk should show as disk 1.
If so, type “select disk 1” and enter.

Type “list partition” and enter.

Type “select partition x” where x is the number of the EISA partition to be deleted.

Type “delete partition override” and enter.

You should now be able to create a new partition and format it in disk manager.

3

Thanks! That did it.

To clarify the process (I left some steps out as they seemed irrelevant to solving the immediate problem).

Installed and formatted NTFS drive in swapable drive bay.

Spent a day or two with the drive in, swapping it once or twice with the CD drive just to make sure that process worked.

(here’s the part I left out):

Had a windows boot error that I used my Vista disk to repair. Put the CD drive in to effect repair.

Upon all-systems-go, the swappable hard drive now showed as being one big EISA partition.