hard drive not recognised

  • Thread starter Thread starter dudek4ever
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dudek4ever

Hi (I sent this message yesterday but nobody answered...)
I have a computer running under Windows XP SP1 and with two hard
drives:
- one Hitachi Deskstar 120GB about two years old
- one Maxtor 13GB about 4 years old
System and program files are on the Hitachi, I use the Maxtor as an
archive.

Yesterday I was working under MS Word and as I wanted to save the
document, Word displayed a message saying that it can't find the drive
(I was actually attemtping to save it on the Maxtor). I checked and
indeed, there was only one hard drive in "My Computer".
I restarted my computer and now there are two situations:
- when, while detecting IDE drives, the computer detectes the Maxtor,
Windows is not lauched and the computer stands by with a black screen
- if the Maxtor is not detected (it implies, I don't know why, that my
DVD burner is not detected too), then Windows is lauched.

If anybody had such a problem before, please do help me, I really need
the files I have on this drive!
Thanks,
Vladimir
 
Hi (I sent this message yesterday but nobody answered...)
I have a computer running under Windows XP SP1 and with two hard
drives:
- one Hitachi Deskstar 120GB about two years old
- one Maxtor 13GB about 4 years old
System and program files are on the Hitachi, I use the Maxtor as an
archive.

Yesterday I was working under MS Word and as I wanted to save the
document, Word displayed a message saying that it can't find the drive
(I was actually attemtping to save it on the Maxtor). I checked and
indeed, there was only one hard drive in "My Computer".
I restarted my computer and now there are two situations:
- when, while detecting IDE drives, the computer detectes the Maxtor,
Windows is not lauched and the computer stands by with a black screen
- if the Maxtor is not detected (it implies, I don't know why, that my
DVD burner is not detected too), then Windows is lauched.

If anybody had such a problem before, please do help me, I really need
the files I have on this drive!
Thanks,
Vladimir
Click to expand...

You could check if the connectors are firmly in place. However it sounds
like the drive may be on its way out. Try booting from a Knoppix (or
similar) live cd. If you succeed burn the data to cd / dvd and replace the
drive.
 
Hi (I sent this message yesterday but nobody answered...)
I have a computer running under Windows XP SP1 and with two hard
drives:
- one Hitachi Deskstar 120GB about two years old
- one Maxtor 13GB about 4 years old
System and program files are on the Hitachi, I use the Maxtor as an
archive.

Yesterday I was working under MS Word and as I wanted to save the
document, Word displayed a message saying that it can't find the drive
(I was actually attemtping to save it on the Maxtor).
Click to expand...

Do you recall if the Maxtor was almost full and wouldn't have had enough
room for that Word file? These error messages are often very misleading
and not related to the real problem.
I checked and
indeed, there was only one hard drive in "My Computer".
I restarted my computer and now there are two situations:
- when, while detecting IDE drives, the computer detectes the Maxtor,
Windows is not lauched and the computer stands by with a black screen
- if the Maxtor is not detected (it implies, I don't know why, that my
DVD burner is not detected too), then Windows is lauched.

If anybody had such a problem before, please do help me, I really need
the files I have on this drive!
Click to expand...

Go into your Bios and checkout the booting order for your hard drives.
What might be happening there sometimes is that the system is attempting
to boot from the Maxtor and since there is no? legitimate boot record
and OS there it just hangs. At other times it gets past that and
switches to the Hitachi and boots. I've encountered stranger situations
than that myself.

Bob
 
Dave a écrit :
You could check if the connectors are firmly in place. However it sounds
like the drive may be on its way out. Try booting from a Knoppix (or
similar) live cd. If you succeed burn the data to cd / dvd and replace the
drive.
Click to expand...

The connectors are in place. I've just tried booting from Knoppix but
it didn't work since when the BIOS recognises the Maxtor , the system
hangs. It looks as if it wanted to boot from the Maxtor. I'll try tu
make it run under another system.
Thanks for your help anyway.
 
Robert Heiling a écrit :
Do you recall if the Maxtor was almost full and wouldn't have had enough
room for that Word file? These error messages are often very misleading
and not related to the real problem.
Click to expand...

I have about 1,5GB free space on the Maxtor so I don't think that's the
problem.
Go into your Bios and checkout the booting order for your hard drives.
What might be happening there sometimes is that the system is attempting
to boot from the Maxtor and since there is no? legitimate boot record
and OS there it just hangs. At other times it gets past that and
switches to the Hitachi and boots. I've encountered stranger situations
than that myself.

Bob
Click to expand...

It looks indeed as if the system was trying to boot from the Maxtor.
But here's the problem: when the Maxtor is plugged in and the BIOS
recognises it, then I can do nothing, not even enter the BIOS. I cannot
make any change if the Maxtor is recognised!
I think I'll try under another system and if I encounter further
problems (or if it works) I'll write it here.
 
Robert Heiling a écrit :


I have about 1,5GB free space on the Maxtor so I don't think that's the
problem.


It looks indeed as if the system was trying to boot from the Maxtor.
But here's the problem: when the Maxtor is plugged in and the BIOS
recognises it, then I can do nothing, not even enter the BIOS. I cannot
make any change if the Maxtor is recognised!
I think I'll try under another system and if I encounter further
problems (or if it works) I'll write it here.
Click to expand...

You haven't mentioned the master-slave relationships, but I suspect that
the Maxtor is slave on the secondary as opposed to slave on the primary.
If so, then an easy test to run is to unplug the power from your DVD and
re-jumper the Maxtor as master. Then try again.

Bob
 
Robert Heiling a écrit :
You haven't mentioned the master-slave relationships, but I suspect that
the Maxtor is slave on the secondary as opposed to slave on the primary.
If so, then an easy test to run is to unplug the power from your DVD and
re-jumper the Maxtor as master. Then try again.

Bob
Click to expand...

It's secondary master.
I tried to make it work on another computer but it did succeed either.
So it seems to be really out.
Anyway thank you very much indeed for your help guys.
 
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