Windows doesn't seem to recognize my secondary drive whenever I open the "My computer" icon. The added drive doesn't appear as a letter in the screen. I've already checked the connections, and I find nothing wrong with them…

The absence of a proper file system will prevent the disc from being recognized under the "My Computer" icon. Even though disks are shipped from the factory ready for installation, they are not recognized by your operating system without the help of some form of file structure. In a Microsoft Windows 95/98 environment the utility to add this file structure is called FDISK.

To access FDISK in an environment where you would want to establish this structure on a secondary or "slave" drive, boot to the Win98 startup disk. When you have an A:\> prompt type FDISK and press Enter. Win95/98/Me will give an opening screen asking if you want to use Large Drive support (FAT32), type y and enter. This should give you a menu of 5 options (four if only one drive in system). Select 5 [Enter] to change the current disk and then 2 [Enter] or the number shown for the drive to setup. To create partitions you need to press the number 1 [Enter] then press the number 1 [Enter] again (this is to create a primary partition on the drive). If this was the only drive in the system, you must also mark it Active. At this point it should be asking you if you want to use the maximum space for this partition. You can press "y" (without the quotes) and then [Enter]. After the partition(s) are set, press the "ESC" key to exit FDISK. You must reboot the system. When you get the A:\> prompt again type "dir d:" [Enter] (where d: is the correct drive letter of the new drive - the CD-ROM always comes after all hard disk drives automatically).

If the drive has not been formatted, you should see something to the effect of "Invalid media type reading drive d:". At the A:\> prompt, type FORMAT d: (or whatever drive letter is the new drive) and then press [Enter]. Press "Y" [Enter] for yes that you want to continue the format. When it is done you will get a message asking you for a "volume label" just press [Enter].

Be careful when using the preceding steps as to not accidentally remove any data on your main hard disk.

After FDISKing and FORMATting the drive, it should be assigned a drive letter and be accessible.

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