Hard drive won't appear in newly installed OS

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tysonjm

I have a Western Digital 120G hard drive that doesn't seem to want to
mount in my PC after I did a clean install. All other hardware
installed fine after I reloaded XP/SP2, but my WD120 won't show up in
Windows Explorer.

My BIOS indicates it's there and reports an accurate size of the drive.
I've tried it as a slave on both the primary and secondary IDE
channels, but no difference (using cable select). Also, in device
manager, under Disk Drives, the name of the drive shows up there,
listed under my C: drive.

I've verified the drive works and partitions are not corrupt because in
another computer, the drive installed and appears fine. But the PC I
need it in will not "recognize" it.

I've emailed support at WD, but they have no ideas how to solve other
than what I've tried. One thing to note, before I had to clean my drive
and reinstall the OS (due to a possible virus), the drive was acting
funny, i.e. disappearing from windows explorer and running checkdsk
when I rebooted. In the other PC though, it operates as it should.

What can I try here? I heard I should update my controller card
drivers, but how do I know if I'm using a controller card? I have a
Dell 4550 at 2.66GHz and 500MB RAM. Thx to anyone who can help!
 
I have a Western Digital 120G hard drive that doesn't seem
to want to mount in my PC after I did a clean install. All other
hardware installed fine after I reloaded XP/SP2, but my
WD120 won't show up in Windows Explorer.
Click to expand...
My BIOS indicates it's there and reports an accurate size
of the drive. I've tried it as a slave on both the primary and
secondary IDE channels, but no difference (using cable select).
Also, in device manager, under Disk Drives, the name of the
drive shows up there, listed under my C: drive.
Click to expand...
I've verified the drive works and partitions are not corrupt
because in another computer, the drive installed and
appears fine. But the PC I need it in will not "recognize" it.
Click to expand...
I've emailed support at WD, but they have no ideas how to solve other
than what I've tried. One thing to note, before I had to clean my drive
and reinstall the OS (due to a possible virus), the drive was acting
funny, i.e. disappearing from windows explorer and running checkdsk
when I rebooted. In the other PC though, it operates as it should.
Click to expand...

That's likely significant. Most likely it isnt being read properly in
the Dell and thats why it doesnt show up in Explorer etc anymore.

Try another ribbon cable. That one may well have gone flakey.
What can I try here? I heard I should update my controller
card drivers, but how do I know if I'm using a controller card?
Click to expand...

You arent.
 
Thanks, Rod. You're right, I now see that there's no controller card on
my board. As for the ribbon, I went ahead and borrowed the ribbon from
the PC this drive works on, but same result...it still doesn't appear.

In device mgr, I have Intel 82801DB Ultra ATA Storage Controller -24C
listed under IDE controllers. Is this where the problem could lie? Any
other thoughts?
 
Thanks, Rod. You're right, I now see that there's no controller card on
my board. As for the ribbon, I went ahead and borrowed the ribbon from
the PC this drive works on, but same result...it still doesn't appear.
Click to expand...

Weird. Did the clean install of XP go perfectly or did you have to kludge it ?
In device mgr, I have Intel 82801DB Ultra ATA Storage Controller
-24C listed under IDE controllers. Is this where the problem could lie?
Click to expand...

Its possible its failing.
Any other thoughts?
Click to expand...

Just that question about the clean XP install.
 
Rod Speed said:
Weird. Did the clean install of XP go perfectly or did you have to kludge it ?


Its possible its failing.


Just that question about the clean XP install.
Click to expand...

Maybe you just arent being careful enough. Those WD drives
are quite sensitive to the correct jumper config when they are
the only drive on a ribbon cable, you should have no jumpers
in that situation. While you said that the drive is visible in the
bios and Computer Management, but not in My Computer,
you may not have been careful enough to check that that
was with a specific jumper and cable config in the Dell.
It may show up in the other PC fine just because it isnt
the only drive on the ribbon cable in that PC.
 
tysonjm said:
I have a Western Digital 120G hard drive that doesn't seem to want to
mount in my PC after I did a clean install. All other hardware
installed fine after I reloaded XP/SP2, but my WD120 won't show up in
Windows Explorer.
Click to expand...

So you had XP before and then it showed up just fine?
Next you reinstalled from scratch and now the filesystem on this drive
is not recognized.
My BIOS indicates it's there and reports an accurate size of the drive.
I've tried it as a slave on both the primary and secondary IDE
channels, but no difference (using cable select). Also, in device
manager, under Disk Drives, the name of the drive shows up there,
listed under my C: drive.

I've verified the drive works and partitions are not corrupt because in
another computer, the drive installed and appears fine.
Click to expand...
But the PC I need it in will not "recognize" it.
Click to expand...

And both PC use the same OS?
Some OSes care more about small errors than others.
I've emailed support at WD, but they have no ideas how to solve other
than what I've tried. One thing to note, before I had to clean my drive
and reinstall the OS (due to a possible virus), the drive was acting
funny, i.e. disappearing from windows explorer and running checkdsk
when I rebooted. In the other PC though, it operates as it should.

What can I try here? I heard I should update my
Click to expand...
controller card
Click to expand...

That is not to be taken litterally. Read that as 'controller'.
drivers, but how do I know if I'm using a controller card?
Click to expand...

Doesn't matter. It applies to all controllers, nomatter where the
controller logic may be situated.
And this is probably not a controller issue.
 
Thanks, Rod. You're right, I now see that there's no controller card on
my board. As for the ribbon, I went ahead and borrowed the ribbon from
the PC this drive works on, but same result...it still doesn't appear.

In device mgr, I have Intel 82801DB Ultra ATA Storage Controller -24C
listed under IDE controllers. Is this where the problem could lie? Any
other thoughts?
Click to expand...

You have to connect it as a Primary IDE slave drive.
Secondary IDE is for CD/DVD ROM drives only.
Does your computer show it in the BIOS page as such?

You didn't disable it in Device Manager, Primary IDE Channel Properties,
Advanced Settings tab, Device 1, Device Type (should be "Auto Detection")?
 
You have to connect it as a Primary IDE slave drive.
Nope.

Secondary IDE is for CD/DVD ROM drives only.
Nope.

Does your computer show it in the BIOS page as such?
Click to expand...

He already said it does.
 
As far as I know, I have the best jumper settings. The drive actually
isn't the only one on the cable...so like the PC it worked on before,
it is the second drive. BTW, I tried the drive again in that other PC
and now the same thing is happening...not showing up in My Computer -
can the drive be bad, and still show up fine everywhere except My
Computer?
 
Yes, showed up fine in the previous XP, however would disappear from
time to time. The other PC was actually using XP Home, while the one it
needs to work in is XP Pro...
 
As far as I know, I have the best jumper settings.
Click to expand...

You need to check that now given that that is a known problem.
And you need to check for a loose or flakey jumper too.
The drive actually isn't the only one on the cable...
so like the PC it worked on before, it is the second drive.
OK.

BTW, I tried the drive again in that other
PC and now the same thing is happening...
not showing up in My Computer - can the
drive be bad, and still show up fine
everywhere except My Computer?
Click to expand...

Yes, if the partition detail cant be read reliably,
that will produce the symptoms you are seeing.
XP will only show it in My Computer if it decides
that its partitioned and formatted. If it decides
that it hasnt been partitioned and formatted yet,
it wont be visible in My Computer, but will be
visible on the black bios screen at boot time
and in Disk Management.
 
Yes, showed up fine in the previous XP, however would disappear from
time to time. The other PC was actually using XP Home, while the one it
needs to work in is XP Pro...
Click to expand...
What is the status of this drive in disk manager?

(diskmgmt.msc from the RUN box)


Dave
 
Yes, showed up fine in the previous XP, however would disappear from
time to time. The other PC was actually using XP Home, while the one it
needs to work in is XP Pro...
Click to expand...
On a drive of mine, I once removed the circiut board, cleaned the
contacts and reinstalled it. If you're very careful, it's something
to try.
All you need is the torx head tool.
Dave
 
Thx, Dave. Disk Manager is reporting that there is a Disk 1 there, but
as a red "minus" sign and is giving a much smaller size (5G)
unallocated to whatever it thinks IS there. Wonder what that means...

Also, I could try cleaning the contacts, but never done that before so
a little nervous. Could be very careful and give it a try though at
this point.
 
Just a follow-up to this issue. The other PC that the hard drive in
question would actually show up in (after it stopped showing up the
regular PC) doesn't seem to like it either anymore, however, I am
getting an actual error when I boot up with it. After the BIOS screen,
I get an error saying: "error allocating mem bar for pci device" also,
something about not being able to see Disk 0. Then, when it loads, the
drive will show up in Device Mgr, but not in My Computer.

Just seem so strange, that it would appear before on this PC, but not
any more. If I could just get it to show up once, I'd back up
everything to DVD and then RMA the drive. It's always about getting the
data. :( But how do you back up a 120G HD? Get another 120G HD? Ugh...
 
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