2nd Hard Drive Not Seen In BIOS

[sys_admin]

This is a 17" laptop with two 2.5" hard drive bays (interfaces labelled 0 and 1). The laptop came with a 32 GB mSATA drive for acceleration cache (Intel Rapid Storage and Rapid Start Technology) and a 1 TB 2.5" mechanical hard drive installed in bay 0. I recently installed a 256 GB SSD upgrade in to bay 0 and moved the 1 TB mechanical HDD to bay 1. For some reason, the 1 TB mechanical hard drive in bay 1 is not found by the BIOS. I went ahead and installed Windows on the 256 GB SSD since it was identified in BIOS. When I run HWINFO, is shows the 256 SSD at interface 0 and the mSATA drive at interface 1. Is it possible that I will have the remove the mSATA device because it shares the SATA controller interface with HDD bay 1? Will I have to do this in order for my 1TB drive to be found?

Before I installed the 256 GB SSD, I went in to the Intel Rapid Storage Technology software and disabled acceleration, and made the 32 GB mSATA drive available to be used as an ordinary drive in Windows. I was hoping to keep all of this and re-enable acceleration on the 1 TB HDD in bay 1 after reinstalling Windows.

[mdklassen]

>  I ... installed Windows on the 256 GB SSD since it was identified in BIOS.

> I was hoping to ... re-enable acceleration on the 1 TB HDD in bay 1 after reinstalling Windows.

Since "bay zero" is a SSD running Windows, is there any need for "acceleration" to be used, since the SSD and the mSATA devices are (roughly) the same speed?

[sys_admin]

There is no need to accelerate the 256 GB SSD (it's actually faster than the mSATA device). In fact, the Rapid Storage Technology software will not even let me target the 256 GB SSD for acceleration. I would still like to accelerate my 1 TB mechanical drive in bay 1 to achieve hybrid-like drive performance though.  I think I will remove the mSATA device to see if the 1 TB HDD becomes found.

[mdklassen]

Windows 7 (and presumably 8 and 10) already does some "caching" ....

Plus, your CPU has "Level 1" and "Level 2" caching.

Plus, a "spinning" disk-drive has its own cache.

So, how much "caching" do you really need? 

[sys_admin]

I know what you're saying, but I did pay extra for the Intel Rapid Storage acceleration cache so I'd like to be able to use it with the second hard drive.  It's like tuning up a hot rod just to get that extra 1 or 2 horsepower.  I plan to remove the mSATA drive this weekend.  I'll post my findings back here when I do.