Installed XP, Now it can't find my 2nd Hard Drive

  • Thread starter Thread starter Adam
  • Start date Start date
A

Adam

Hello,
Yesterday I upgraded from Windows Me to Windows XP Home. When I was running
ME I had two hard drives (the main 80gig and a 2nd 20gig as a backup).
Before installing XP I moved all of the files I wanted to backup to the
20gig. Then I formatted the 80, changed it from Fat 32 to NTFS like the XP
manuel told me and installed XP. No problem at all.

Once in XP I went to my computer to get some of the files I needed from the
2nd Hard Drive. Unfortunately, it was not listed anywhere in My Computer.
I started searching around the Net for help and found out about Disk
Management, so I went there. Once I was at Disk Management I saw both Hard
Drives listed, they were each listed under layout as Partition.

First was the C: Drive listed as Disk 0 , Basic, and Online. It labeled it
as Healthy (System)
Under that C: Drive was my second hard drive, though it did not have any
drive letter assigned to it. It was listed as:
Disk 1, Basic, Online. Then on the bar it was listed as FAT32 , Healthy
(Active).

I tried to right click on it to click on Change Drive Letter and Paths, but
the only thing that was clickable was Delete Partition.

Under ACTION I clicked on Rescan Disk but that did not do anything.

I know all of the files are still on the drive because there is only a small
percent free.

CAN ANYBODY HELP!!!! :-) I have my entire graphics portfolio backed up on
there with hundreds of emails, contacts and important info.

THANK YOU IN ADVANCE.
Also..if any more info is needed let me know, I hope I covered everything.

Adam
 
Hi Adam.

I've had exactly the same problem with my laptop...reinstalled Window's XP, inserted my removable disk with all my backed-up files on it...only to be unable to access it..aghhhh. anyway to cut to the chase i think I may have stumbled across a solution.

When you turn on ypur pc, press F12 to enter the Boot up screen...you should see your offending drive complete with extension letter...highlight it and select "to boot from disk" or words to that effect....now I reckon you will go into a "GO - BACK" Screen...press the space bar and select to DISABLE GO BACK...will take 20 minutes or so to clear the GO Back data...don't worry it is not wiping your files...you will then be asked to continue boot up....Window's XP will proceed to load and low and behold you should be able to access your disk!! Well I hope so anyway...this worked for me and i hope it will for you...let me know how you get on..

Simon
 
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