I have two 80GB hard drives installed on my computer. I recently had to reinstall windows. Once I reinstalled windows xp sp2 my second drive does not show up under my comptuer. It shows up in the disk management but it is not assigned a drive letter and the option to assign it a letter is grayed out. I know the drive still works though. I downloaded a program called Stellar Pheonix FAT & NTFS scan and it can scan the drive. Any suggestions? Thanks, Jarrod
You probably did not make it active when you installed it initially........ Go back into the disk management window and right click on your HD, it should give you that as an option to make the partition active.
Is it set at the back correctly (Master/slave etc for both drives)? Does the BIOS see the drive ok? Is the cable a 40 way or 80 way? And is it a good cable? Are there any system files on it, or is it just used as storage? Can you remember assigning a drive letter/name when you installed it originally? Are you in a position to reformat it through windows and making a new partition etc? Does it show up in device manager? If it does it maybe worthwhile uninstalling it and rebooting, let windows find it again, see if this helps. Also you could uninstall the IDE controller in device manager and reboot and see if this brings it back.
Is it set at the back correctly (Master/slave etc for both drives)? dunno... but it worked before the reinstall Does the BIOS see the drive ok? yes Is the cable a 40 way or 80 way? not sure And is it a good cable? should be, it was working fine. Are there any system files on it, or is it just used as storage? storage Can you remember assigning a drive letter/name when you installed it originally? i did not install it Are you in a position to reformat it through windows and making a new partition etc? i dont really want to if i dont have to. Does it show up in device manager? yes If it does it maybe worthwhile uninstalling it and rebooting, let windows find it again, see if this helps. tried that. Also you could uninstall the IDE controller in device manager and reboot and see if this brings it back. tried that also
So, even though it is all registering with device manager etc. It is not shown up in windows explorer. This is normally the case when the partition is not active, but as you say it displays healthy, active by it.................... What happens if you right click on the drive in drive management, you should get a load of options including open and explore, what happens if you click on explore or open?
Hey Try opening My Computer then going into Control Panel. Select Administrative Tools, then Computer Mangement. Now on the left hand side click on Disk Management, if the drive shows up in there, Right Click on it up the top, then Select Change Drive Letter / Path. Click Add and give it a drive letter... see if that works. CJC
By any chance do you have anything like GoBack installed ? Does the 2nd hdd have any windows files on it, or is it just data? Make sure that the drive is set to 'Slave' and the Primary as 'Master' instead of 'Cable Select' if its on it. CJC
By any chance do you have anything like GoBack installed ? As a matter of fact, I had just got done installing Norton System Works on my system when it completely bombed. So i'm guess GoBack is still on the second drive. Does the 2nd hdd have any windows files on it, or is it just data? just data Make sure that the drive is set to 'Slave' and the Primary as 'Master' instead of 'Cable Select' if its on it. How do I do this w/o the manual to the drive? CJC
sorry, missed that... those options are also grayed out. the only option that is available is "delete partition" Thanks, Jarrod
I have to be honest, I am not really sure what the problem is but a possibility is that the Master boot record is screwed, and this would actually mean that the HD cannot initially load up. I believe there is a fix within the recovery console (On your XP disc), which should not affect the files that are contained on it. However I have never actually used the feature. I think you should be able to go onto the Microsoft website OR google and pull off some information regarding it, as I believe it is a simple fix if the MBR of the HD is messed up. As I say, I have never used that feature so as to how good it is I don't really know. Have a look anyway, and if I can locate anything relevant I shall post it.................
You can get a fresh copy of the MBR by booting onto a Windows Start-up Disc. then go 2 the letter of the drive eg D:/> and type fdisk /mbr Whilst you are on the start-up disc, go back to the A:/> and type fdisk, then go into Option 4, Parition Information or something like that, does it show both hard drives in there ? CJC
Hey You can make a bootable CD http://www.bootdisk.com/nero.htm It should tell you all u need to know how to make a bootable CD then try the fdisk /mbr once you have booted from it. CJC
I have lost my second hard drive when I reinstalled my xp. Just the same thing as what im reading. Tried many of the same things and still nothing using the computer now but want my file off D if I can. Please if you get yours fixed can you tell me how you did it?
well i fixed the problem... all i had to do was turn on "S.M.A.R.T. Hard Drives" on in my BIOS and it worked. So I dunno what exactlty hat does but it brought back my drive.
