How do I add additional internal hard drives to Pavilion h8-1217c running Windows 7 Home Premium

Question

I am stymied in my effort to utilize two recently wiped and formatted Hitachi Deskstar 500 GB SATA drives I inherited from my previous HP desktop. I have installed them in my aforementioned unit, and find that the BIOS apparently accurately identifies them, but I cannot see them in Windows. Instead, in Disk Management, a disk with twice the capacity is listed, and the system does not allow me to initialize the drives, an apparent step necessary before they can be assigned a drive letter and utilized. Upon selecting to initialize, the Disk Management program of Windows presents an Virtual Disk Manager error message saying "The system cannot find the file specified," a message the specificity of which is slightly wanting. Huh? What system? Windows? The drive? Help? BTW, this particular frustration is well documented among a number of users on the internet. Why has no answer been provided yet?

Answer 1

Don't know what you mean about a link indicating this is an issue with the HP Pavilion h8-1217c...I posted that it is a general issue with a number of computers, many of them HP, wherein the error message I earlier cited came up. To answer your particular subsequent query, in Storage Options in my BIOS, it states that the SATA Emulation is AHCPI, not IDE...a setting I believe is appropriate in this case, since, as I had stated previously (I often find that I have stated, and clearly, previously) that the two additional drives I have installed in this box are Hitachi Deskstar 500GB SATA drives from a previous HP system. Both drives were wiped and reformatted by a local computer shop that was delighted to charge me $60 for that particular piece of heavy lifting, defending their bill by suggesting they woudl have to update the firmware as a matter of course. Upon getting the drives, they freely confessed that, of course, it was NOT necessary to upgrade firmware. I di-grease! To reiterate, both drives are recognized by the BIOS, with their appropriate ser no listed. It is in Windows 7 where the problem seems to crop up. Of course, as a Windows 7 issue, HP is supposed to support it. An earlier post in this forum...a reply to me...gave me a link to instructions on how to disengage the cage that holds the drives. I have, indicated by my posts, moved WELL beyond that point. Is anyone familiar with my issue...again, it is this...with the above stated conditions, when in Disk Management in Windows, with the drives recognized in Device Manager as one drive listed as "Volume_000," I am faced with an immediate pop up box telling me to initialize the drive, either as MBR or GPT. I chose MBR, though it matters not which I choose, since upon clicking OK, another popup box identified as "Virtual Disk Manager" tells me that "The system cannot find the file specified."
This delightful cul de sac is frequently cited on the internet, with no clear answer as to a resolution anywhere that I could find. Can someone help with this. This ought not to be so difficult, nor should HP be sending me around the bend, making ludicrous statements like "you should not be adding internal drives to your computer" or "we cannot cover this issue unless you pay a fee!" A FEE!! I just bought this system within the last three months. I have purchased several desktop and laptop systems and their accessories from this computer giant in the last 7 years! Do they give a flying-you-know-what about their customers?