Windows 7 HDD Issue

I just installed Windows 7 on my PC. I had been using Windows Vista Ultimate (32 bit) and upgraded to Windows 7 RC (32 bit). I wanted to use a 64 bit OS, so I wiped the HDD which had Windows 7 RC on it to do a clean install of the full version of Windows 7 Ultimate. At first, it wouldn't install on my HDD and wouldn't show my other 350 GB storage HDD. I unplugged the storage HDD and finally it allowed me to install on my OS HDD. After I plugged the storage drive back in, it will only display as 127 GB. It also says it's empty, when I had quite a bit of media files on it. I'm not exactly sure what the problem is.
I've checked the Bios

and the HDD option for my storage drive is selected as "auto" (other choices include LBA, Large, and C??). I'm not sure what gives. I have updated all the drivers that I could find in relation to this problem, but have not performed an update to the bios as it appears to have the proper options available and worked with my previous system.

My two HDD are:

70 GB WD Raptor (Ibelieve this is not a typical IDE drive)
350 GB Maxtor IDE

Everything worked fine with both Vista and Windows 7 RC, and I'm just experiecing this problem with 7 Ultimate.

Try editing the partitions with a partition editor

Both HDD are internal and plugged directly into the Mobo. One HDD is a WD Raptor drive with a higher RPM that I use for my OS, programs, etc. as it's quicker. The other drive, a Maxtor IDE drive, is a larger drive that I use for storage of music, pics, movies, etc.

I have heard about older Mobos having issues with large HDD, but this should not be the problem as it was working correctly with both Vista and 7 RC. I also wouldn't think it's a driver issue. Another point of interest is that when I was installing WIn 7, the installation could only "see" the raptor drive and not my storage drive. As I said before, I unplugged the storage drive (ide), installed Win 7, and plugged it back it. Now it's showing the drive, but the size is not correct and I don't have access to my data.

Well I g2g real quick, but ya could you give the spec's on your system? goto system information and copy and past the system summery

WHen I go to system summary, it doesn't display any HDD info. You still want it?

Yeah I was just going to look up your computer system for any known complications with the hard drives you specified. Of course you can do this yourself if you want, I have solved allot of problems by searching google.com

That's the best way to solve many problems, is by web searching the problem, using a few key words. In fact, that's how after two months of not being able to use it, I found a 64 bit driver for my printer. Dell didn't list this driver for my printer, but using the web search, it led me to a post on Microsoft Answers and there it was. Why as to Dell not listing it, I don't know to this day. I contacted them by email and reported it, but it was a waste of my time. Apparently, they don't want you to know everything.

Just about anything can be found on the Internet today and Search Engines are about the best way to access the data.

I don't mean to sound like a jerk, but I think that it's pretty obvious that the first thing I would have done is use a search engine. There is no way I would waste my time posting on forums if I had been able to find a solution to my problem so easily. The fact is this seems like a problem that others are having, but I have not been able to find a way to fix it or make sense of it. I appreciate that you took the time to read my problem and reply, but to tell me that I should "google the problem' really doesn't help. The reason I came to this forum is BECAUSE I found it via a search engine, and BECAUSE the site is called "Windows 7 Forums" I assumed that there would be others here who had encountered this problem or something similar and would have some knowledge in regards to fixing it. So to clarify - yes, I did search for my problem before asking. If anyone has some helpful advice to actually fixing the problem with the HDD/OS, please let me know. I'm all ears.

LOL, well yes it is obvious but its better to have more then one person searching solutions for the problem. I don't mean to sound like jerk either but when you said "but to tell me that I should "Google the problem' really doesn't help." I really did not tell you to Google the problem yourself, I said I wanted to Google for possible solutions myself. So why don't you give us some more information about your system before we can help you aright? First of all if you build a system yourself and your not competent enough to put it together right of course you probably will run into system instabilities. Try reinstalling windows 7 and see if that works if it doesn't then you probably are dealing with the your magnificent handywork. Also another thing you may try running some other OS on your system to see if the instability persist. Thanks for your post though but I think you misinterpreted what I asked of you
Everythings on the Internet... If you cant find the solution its your problem not mine (unless you let us help you).