I have 2 hard disk drives connected to a Promise Ultra IDE card. Two days
ago I started getting errors and when I looked in My Computer
neither drive shows up. They are both present in Device Manager, both
showing up as present and saying "This device is working properly" in
their "Device Properties" dialog. They also show up at boot up. Any
ideas why I cannot access them in Windows (Windows XP home edition,
service pack 2)
Thank you
Cliff Vanderpool
Cliff:
Are the drives listed in Disk Management (Start > right-click My
Computer Manage > Computer Management > Disk Management)? If so, are drive
letters assigned to each? If not, can you use DM to do so?
Anna
Cliff@home said:
Thanks for that heads-up. I do understand that I would be partitioning &
formatting the drives at this point. The problem is that even when I try
to initialize them, nothing happens. Other then in device manager and the
administrative area you pointed me to, I can not see the drives. I thought
they would show up in "My Computer" but would be unaccessable until I
format and partition them. That is not the case. I can't find them
anywhere that I can work with them.
Cliff:
I'm not sure I completely understand you, i.e., your problem. On one hand
you state that (in Disk Management) you *do* see the Initialize icon
(presumably next to the listing of the drive), but then you say "I can not
see the drives.". So I'm at a loss as to know exactly what's happening here.
In any event, in response to a recent query re partitioning/formatting a new
HD, I posted some instructions on how to accomplish this using the XP Disk
Management utility. Hopefully, it will be of some value to you.
Note that in the Disk Management window your new HD will be shown probably
as Disk 1, "Unknown" together with its capacity in GB ("Unallocated") and
"Not Initialized". (You'll see a small red-circled icon with a small white
bar in the middle of this icon).
Step through the Wizard to initialize your disk. There are just a few
screens and the process is pretty straightforward. You shouldn't have any
trouble. Just remember that you SHOULD NOT select the option to convert your
disk to a "dynamic" disk. Again, DO NOT SELECT THAT OPTION.
Now you must partition and format your new drive. Again the process is
pretty straightforward. You start by right-clicking on the schematic of your
new disk - the area that shows the disk as "Unallocated", and select from
the sub-menu "New Partition". The "New Partition Wizard" will open and
you'll be stepping through that "Wizard".
On the "Select Partition Type" window that opens, select the option,
"Primary Partition".
The "Select Partition Size" window will open where the maximum size (in MB)
of your new HD will be shown. If you want only a single partition
encompassing the entire capacity of the drive, just accept the figure shown.
If, on the other hand, you want to create multiple partitions on the drive,
so indicate the size in MB for the first partition and you will have a
subsequent opportunity to create additional partitions on that drive.
The next dialog box will allow you to assign a drive letter to your new
drive. It is best to do so at this point (rather than selecting the "Do not
assign a drive letter..." option). Either accept the default letter shown,
or choose one to your liking.
Now you will come to the formatting process...
On the "Format Partition" dialog box that opens, you probably should accept
the defaults shown unless you have good reason to do otherwise. The default
settings will create an NTFS file system with the appropriate "allocation
unit size" (cluster size). The new drive will be given the label "New
Volume". You can change it if you want. It's not really important. (You can
always change that given name at a later date). There's an option to
"Perform a quick format". If you select that option the formatting process
will go very quickly, but it will not be as thorough a process as a regular
format in terms of the system examining the drive for defects. The downside
to a non-quick format is that it it's quite time-consuming depending upon
the size of your HD. In our own case, where secondary drives are involved
and we're working with a brand-new drive, and have no reason to suspect the
drive may be defective, we usually select the "quick format" option. But
many users feel otherwise and select a regular (non-quick) format. So if
time (at least at *this* time!) is not an important consideration for you,
do not select the quick format option.
After you get the "Completing the New Partition Wizard" window showing the
selections you have previously made, the formatting process will begin after
you click the "Finish" button. But before clicking that button, review your
selections to ensure they're the ones you want. You can always go back and
change one or more of your previously selected settings by clicking on the
"Back" button.
Again, if you've selected the "quick format" option, the formatting will go
very quickly. If not, it will take a considerable amount of time. As an
example, the last time I (non-quick) formatted a 120 GB disk, it took about
45 minutes.
If you run into any difficulties, remember that the Help file in Disk
Management is your friend.
Good luck.
Anna
