Second Desktop Hard Drive Not Working

This is with a Gateway DX4380 desktop computer.

I mentioned it briefly in my last article: How To Add/Change Password With Command Prompt

I like to add a second hard drive to all my systems — my main Asus one has three. I decided to use one of my backup hard drives in this system. I took off the side panel only to discover there was nowhere to mount a second drive. There was the DVD drive at the top, a second enclosed compartment with wires sticking out the back, under that. I did not know what this was for at first. The hard drive was attached under that. No place for a second.

I was curious what that second compartment was for, so I went to the front of the computer and lowered the flap or door that hid whatever was there. And I discovered it was a caddy for a hard drive.

As in my picture, the little sign next to the red handle says, “Please shut down the system before swapping the hard drive.” When I opened it there was no drive inside and was curious why they didn’t use it. I assumed it was broken. When I installed the hard drive and plugged in the computer, powered it on, sure enough, it didn’t pick up the drive at all. For the record, I know the drive is good.

I checked Disk Management by right-clicking on the start button and clicking on it in the menu. Sometimes Windows doesn’t assign a drive letter and that’s why it seems unavailable. But still nothing.

Read more about assigning drive letters here: How To Fix Windows Not Assigning Drive Letters

I dissected my computer again to see if the cables attached to this drive caddy could be replaced. Then I noticed the power cable wasn’t hooked up. So I plugged it into the appropriate connector, hooked up my system again, put in a hard drive and it worked.

So the moral of this story… check your cables. That’s all I got. 😊

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