[Solved] newbie question: Win7 where is my harddisk?

[Podie]

I recently installed VirtualBox and prepared a new machine containing a Windows 7 trial version. All went well and after a while I even managed tot get to see my network folders in Windows explorer.
In VirtualBox I made a new (second) harddisk. It is visible in VirtualBox, but not in Windows7 explorer.
I changed the settings from IDE to SATA, Win7 started to install SATA drivers, but still the disk in not visible in Windows7.
What to do?

[mpack]

You created the new hard disk, but did you attach it to the VM?

[Sasquatch]

Did you look for it in Windows Explorer? If so, you will never find it there. Raw disks are never shown there. Have you ever bought a new hard drive before and put it in your PC? This is the same situation. Open Computer Management (accessible from the context menu on My Computer), then go to Disk Management. You will see the drive there. Create a partition, format it and voilà, you got yourself a second drive in the VM.

[Podie]

OK, I didn't know that I had to initialize the drive as a normal fysical harddiks.
Thanks.

[Sasquatch]

It's a virtual machine, doing exactly the same thing as a normal computer. Adding new hardware needs to be installed and initialized, just like on a normal computer. In the old times, when computers weren't as common as they are now, hard drives usually came pre-partitioned and formatted, but they don't do it nowadays.

[Aquamarine]

I totally agree with sasquatch, you will never see your HD in your explorer because, raw disks are not shown. You have to make a partition for it and of course format.


Hope this helps.