Missing Hard Drive

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dick Reuben
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D

Dick Reuben

Running XP Home SO2.

I have two 80 gig hard drives. All of a sudden my D drive isn't
accessible. When I try to access it, I get a mesage box that tells
me:

"D:\ is not accessible. The wrong diskette is in the drive. Insert
(Volume Serial Number) into Drive D" The message is exactly as
quoted...no serial number is quoted.

I've run anti-virus and anti-spyware software, plus ckdsk/f all with
no help.

Anyone got any ideas?
 
Dick, is the drive that is not accessible a External Drive? Are your
drives SATA or PATA? The latter uses the IDE
Connectors Primary and Secondary on the Motherboard. SATA are the newer
type using small black connectors.
 
So the drive is displayed in My Computer but is not accessible? Have you
checked it's status in Computer Management? (right click the My Computer
icon and select Manage. On the left pane select Disk Management. On the
right side check the drive's status.) There is a possibility the drive's
partition tale has become corrupted for some reason.

You might also want to download a drive testing tool from the hard drive
manufacturer's site and run it to see if the drive is OK.
 
Tried your suggestions but "nocigar".m I wonder what the "wrong
diskette'sennce means.....?
 
Try going into Device Manager and remove the drive then reboot and see if it
is redetected. This will not cause data loss unless the device is already
knackered.

(right click My Computer and select Properties->Device Manager Tab. Expand
Disk Drives. Right click the drive you want to remove and select Uninstall.
Then exit Device Manager and reboot. The drive should be detected upon
rebooting to Windows and you should see a message to that effect displayed
from the taskbar. You might have to reboot again.)
 
Sorrry--forgot to mention that I had done that...and there was no
change in the abilitdy to access the drive.

This is so silly...Win knows the drive is there, but it won;t let me
at it!
 
Dick Reuben said:
Tried your suggestions but "nocigar".m I wonder what the "wrong
diskette'sennce means.....?
Click to expand...
This is a message that can appear if the drive is identified as a floppy or
a cd.
It may appear if there is some problem with the hard drive.
Jim
 
I suspect it is a hard drive problem rather than a windows problem. Have you
shutdown the system, opened the case and ensured all the cables to it are
properly connected? I have seen cables wiggle loose after years of service.
I've also seen cables degrade too. Remember there is a lot of minor
vibration and heat inside a case. Either of these can cause a cable to
fault. A replacement IDE cable is very inexpensive and might do the trick.

Do you have any diagnostic software to run on the drive? Drives do die after
time and they don't always go out with a bang. Sometimes they develop enough
bad sectors that they begin doing all kinds of funky things.
 
Unfortunately running diagnotic software on the drive is probablly not
an option since I can't access the drive. I would accept the cable
possibility except that I don't know if a loose or bad cable would
produce the strange error message: "D:\ is not accessible. The wrong
diskette is in the drive. Insert (Volume Serial Number) into Drive D"

To me it sounds like the drive is being considered to be some kind of
floppy or other drive that handles removable media by Windows.
However, after :deleting the drive in Device Mgr. it comes back the
same way when I reboot.

But I'll check the cables today.

Thanks, and if you come up with any other thoughts, pass 'em on!

Thanks again, Dick
 
All indications you have provided points to the drive not getting any
voltage. Check the power cable very carefully.
 
Dick most diagnostic software is run from a floppy or bootable CD and not
run from within windows.

Rather than speculate on whether a loose cable might cause the problem why
not just take 10 minutes and check that the cables are properly seated?

The post about faulty power supply should also be followed up on.
 
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