How many HDD can one computer have?

[TLCJohn]

Hi All,

I am having a very bad weekend. I am having problems with a HDD, so on Thursday I when out a bought a new HDD to go in the bank of 4 HDD's. To add this new drive to the computer system I also got a 7 port D-Link Hub giving me enough space for other drives in the future (or so I thought). After plugging the new drive into the new Hub and adding the other four drives, Windows 7 is playing up.

One: It takes a long time to start up Windows 7 :(

Two: When started, I have to re-share the drives so that "Er indoors" can access files and work on items. :'(

Three: Only 4 out of the 5 drives are seen by the computer and one of the drives looks like it turns itself off. :'(

I have now put the old 4 port hub back on and all 4 (NOT 5) drives are working, could it be that Windows 7 will only recognise 4 drives at anyone time or am I doing something else wrong.

The drives are a mixture of sizes from 500GB to 1TB.

I am running Windows 7 ultimate - AVG 9 and then your standard software that you would find on a Business Computer.

Does anyone have any advice they can give me as this is getting very frustrating and I am now starting to pull out my hair (what is left of it) as I have been working on this problem for two days now!!! with no result.

Thanks for reading this post and thanks for your help in advance.

All the very best for now.

John :)

[Xlphos]

Hello,

How many USB ports does your computer have?
Are the drives host powered or do they have there own power supply?
Does the system only slowdown when the devices are connected.

- Let us know how it goes.

[TLCJohn]

Hello there Xlphos;1343215

How many USB ports does your computer have?

8 On the computer, but they are all in use... I did think of moving att the USB Devices around but that would turn into a problem, and woulsd have to be looked at over Christmas, when we are closed for the Holidays.

Are the drives host powered or do they have there own power supply?

All the Drives have there own power supply and so dose the hub.

Does the system only slowdown when the devices are connected.

The System does not slow down now I have done a Windows 7 update..... But I can still only run 4 Drives and not 7.

- Let us know how it goes.

Hope this information helps.

[Xlphos]

Hello,

Are all the drive letters used up in windows 7? You seem to have a lot of USB devices.
When you connect the hard drives is it the same hard drive that doesn't work?
Try rotating 4 hard drives (A,B,C,D,E) e.g. try Drives;
A+B+C+D
B+C+D+E

If one drive is constantly not showing then perhaps that drive has a problem with it.

You say that the drives aren't seen by the computer, have you looked in device manager to see if they are listed? Also try looking in the disk manager (where you setup partitions, format etc...) to see if all drives have a letter assigned to them.

Could you tell us what the devices are connected to your computer.

- Let us know how it goes.