Can't access that second harddrive in XP

  • Thread starter Thread starter Alex
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A

Alex

Two harddrives: C: 6 GB
D: 80 GB

My previous operating system was Windows 98. I backed up
all my data files onto the D drive before doing a
complete install of Windows XP Pro onto drive C:

Now I can't access the D drive - it says "The disk in
drive D: is not formatted. Do you want to format it now?"

I have noticed that if I reboot to DOS (ie. hold down
control while rebooting and bypass XP startup) I do have
access to all of my D drive with the correct files and
everything.

I can't remember if the D: is FAT32 or NTFS but C: has
always been FAT32. Also, I've never used any drive
overlay like GoBack, Ghost, EZ-Drive. When I originally
installed the D: drive it was strictly plug-n-play.

Can someone please help me access my D: drive?
 
Alex said:
Two harddrives: C: 6 GB
D: 80 GB

My previous operating system was Windows 98. I backed up
all my data files onto the D drive before doing a
complete install of Windows XP Pro onto drive C:

Now I can't access the D drive - it says "The disk in
drive D: is not formatted. Do you want to format it now?"

I have noticed that if I reboot to DOS (ie. hold down
control while rebooting and bypass XP startup) I do have
access to all of my D drive with the correct files and
everything.

I can't remember if the D: is FAT32 or NTFS but C: has
always been FAT32. Also, I've never used any drive
overlay like GoBack, Ghost, EZ-Drive. When I originally
installed the D: drive it was strictly plug-n-play.

Can someone please help me access my D: drive?
Click to expand...

First, check all of your jumper settings on your HDDs. Different HDD
manufacturers use different combinations of jumpers that aren't always
intuitive. Try Master/Slave setup first, then try Cable Select, etc. This
is the simplest and safest test.

I'm presuming you didn't install the D: drive using WinXP, since you copied
files to it prior to installing XP.

How did you install the 80gb HDD?
If you truly installed 80gb worth of HDD, then I would guess that you used
the HDD manufacturer's installation disk? I say this because the FDISK and
FORMAT utilities, AFAIK, don't support NTFS, nor do they support 80gb in a
single FAT32 partition (someone please correct me if I'm wrong). So, if
you used the HDD manufacturer's installation disk, it is likely that some
type of drive overlay utility was used.

If you did indeed use a HDD manufacturer's installation disk, check for
diagnostics utilities on the disk. For example, with the Western Digital
installation disk, there is an option to remove the offset at the beginning
of the HDD, which in this case may solve your problem.

If you have room on your C: drive, you can install Win98 as a second OS, in
which case you should be able to access the second HDD if it using an
overlay not supported by NTFS.

It may also be possible to install Win98 on the second HDD and set it up for
a dual-boot.

If you or a friend has another computer that is using Win9x, you could
install the drive in that machine, network it to your XP system, and
transfer the files that way.

Failing all of the above, you could try the DOS command "FDISK /MBR" on the
80gb HDD to see if that fixes the problem.

Now, after telling you all of this, I will tell you that I am not an expert.
Just quoting from my experience installing/formatting a dozen drives over
the last year or so....
 
Thanks MrDancer,

Setting up a dual-boot with Win98 did solve the problem.
I was going to have to do that anyway as I've found old
programs that don't work in XP even with compatibility
mode.

Alex
 
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