Can't Initialize Slave Hard Disk

  • Thread starter Thread starter George Mather
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G

George Mather

I'm not able to initialize a 60 GB FAT32 hard disk which
I've transferred from an old computer to my new XP system
(see previous posting below for details). The device
manager sees the disk, and I can access the files from
Explorer - the only problems are the boot message and the
fact that I can't initialize.

The usual windows directions seem to apply to an
unpartitioned, unformatted new drive, whereas these have
already been done in my case. I also see that FAT32 may
present some size limitations (~38 GB?).

Questions:

1. Is my problem likely due to the FAT32 files system,
and if so, will converting to NTFS solve it?

2. If 1. doesn't work, do I need to start all over by
reformatting in order to initialize and stop the boot
messages?

Thanks ...

________________________

Subject: Transfer hard disk drive
From: "George Mather"
<[email protected]> Sent: 11/3/2003
11:03:03 AM




Hi, Peter -

Thanks for this suggestion, but yes, this is how I get
the Unspecified error (80004005) I mentioned - and when
I return to the wizard, the indication is that the disk
is still not initialized. This, plus the boot up message,
tells me somethings wrong - I just don't have a clue what
it might be. I see nothing that says I can't run FAT32 on
one disk and NTFS on the other, so I haven't tried to
convert the slave yet.

Any other thoughts?

Thanks!

George
-----Original Message-----
Hi,
Hi,

Are you using add new hardware wizard?

Try this way:

Right click on My Computer, click "manage", in the drop
down list, click "disk management".
In the lower right pane, you can see the new harddisk,
move the mouse pointer to that drive and right click and
select initialize.

Hope it helps.

Peter

.
Click to expand...
..
 
Hi, George.

WinXP will happily use the biggest FAT32 volume you've got. It won't FORMAT
one larger that 32 GB as FAT32, because that's a limitation that Microsoft
put on it. MS wants us all to migrate to NTFS as soon as possible. But
Win98/ME will format a volume as big as about 127 GB as FAT32 and WinXP
will, if you insist, happily use the whole thing. And WinXP will also
happily mix and match NTFS and FAT32 - and FAT12 (floppies) and FAT16 and
UDF (CD drives), etc.

You mention using Device Manager, but you haven't explicitly said that
you've found and used DISK MANAGEMENT. This is a (new in Win2K) utility
that replaces the old MS-DOS-based FDISK and Format.exe, plus the
drive-letter assignment function of Device Manager. This utility also
initializes and imports "foreign disks". You can change the View to suit
yourself; I like to maximize the window and show the Volume List at the top
and the Graphical View at the bottom. A quick way to get to Disk Management
is to type at the Run prompt: diskmgmt.msc. Or, as Peter suggested a
couple of messages ago:(Actually, you have to click Computer Management, and THEN Disk Management.)

Have you found and used Disk Management? What does it say about your two
HDs? What does Device Manager say about the driver for your second HD? And
for the ATAPI or other controller it uses?

RC
 
Hi, RC -

Yes, I have tried Disk Management - both the wizard and
manual versions - in an attempt to initialize the disk. I
enclose the particulars below.

I tried initializing again last night with the same
results I've been getting previously, but it also
occurred to me that I am running Go Back, which sometimes
interferes with boot up processes, like some 3rd party
disk utilities designed adapt large disks to old
machines. Before I disable Go Back and try again (thereby
losing my revert history), have you had any experience
with adding disks while Go Back is running? Do you think
this could be the problem?

When I try to initialize using Disk Managment, I get the
following messages:

"Unexpected error has occured, check event log for more
information"

And, when I check the event log, the message is:

EVENT LOG DATA: Event Type: Error
Event Source: LDM
Event Category: None
Event ID: 2
Date: 11/4/2003
Time: 9:29:41 PM
User: N/A
Computer: DANEKA
Description:
Unspecified error (80004005).

For more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

Finally, when I check the web site, I get:

Details
ID: 2
Source: LDM

We're sorry
There is no additional information about this issue in
the Error and Event Log Messages or Knowledge Base
databases at this time. You can use the links in the
Support area to determine whether any additional
information might be available elsewhere.

The disk otherwise works fine: except for the recurring
boot up message and inability to initialize, I can read
and access files, etc.

All other indications (e.g., - Device Manager) are that
the disk is operating in good order.
 
Hi, George.

I've heard good things about GoBack, but I've never used it. Seems to me,
though, that I have heard that it interferes with a few things; maybe this
is one of them.

I hope somebody with GoBack experience will chime in and give us some clues.

Thanks for clarifying that you did use Disk Management. It's amazing to me
how many users - even sophisticated ones - have not yet found this utility,
nearly 4 years after it debuted in Win2K. MS buried it TOO deep in their
efforts to protect newbies, I suppose.

RC
 
Hi, RC -

Thought you might be interested in further developments
on this - I took the bull by the horns, deactivated
GoBack, and the slave disk is now recognized and
initialized automatically, without even needing to use
Disk Manager (recall this disk was transferred from
another machine, so is already partitioned, formated, and
part filled with data). So, it appears that GoBack can in
fact intervene in new disk installations, and that the
safe procedure is simply to deactivate it temporarily
during installation.

I see you watch for and respond to these sorts
of "hardware" issues, so this might be another useful
tool for your kit.

Cheers!

George Mather
 
Hi, George.

Thanks for the report. I'll try to remember to ask if GoBack is involved in
such problems. Since I haven't used it, I don't think of it right away. If
you see me struggling trying to help somebody, just jump right in and remind
me. ;<) As I often say, in a newsgroup, we all learn from each other.

One minor clarification, caused by Microsoft's penchant for using
confusingly-similar names to mean quite different things. (Think Windows
Explorer/Internet Explorer, or Outlook 2003/Outlook Express for a couple of
ready examples - and don't get involved in the Messenger Service/Windows
Messenger/MSN Messenger mess!)

Disk ManageMENT is the excellent MMC (Microsoft Management Console)
"snap-in" included in Win2K/XP/2K3. Disk ManageR was the much-less-capable
utility in WinNT4. (Too bad we can't just say "DM", but then everybody
thinks we mean Device Manager.)

Glad you're up and running. ;<)

RC
 
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