Undetected SATA Maxtor 150 Gb Drive

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Current config:

Gateway 500 Media Center Edition 2004
800 Mhz Bus, Pentium 4 3.0 Ghz Processor
2Gb Corsair RAM
Primary Drive - C: 100 Gb SATA Maxtor (holds OS)
Secondary Drive - D: 150 Gb SATA Maxtor

This past week I had to re-install/update some drivers. As a matter of
course, I was using my OS disc to obtain some of these files and left the
disc in the optical drive. Sometime last night I guess I suffered some type
of auto-restart whereby *I think* the computer rebooted from the OS disc.
Yesterday, when I left the computer, it was working just fine. I come to the
computer today to find I can no longer see the D: drive.

I checked the BIOS settings and it is not detecting the D: drive - I have
not been able to redetect this drive. It's there, all the wires are still in
the same place and the disc has power. For some reason, the D: drive is no
longer being detected by the computer.

I assume this has something to do with the reboot from the OS disc. How can
a reboot from an OS disc remove the computer's ability to detect this drive?
(if that is the case) What can I do, aside from a complete re-install of
XPMCE, to reconnect with my D: drive so that I can access it again? I went
through all the BIOS config options and I can find no recourse there. I
tried a system restore in the outside chance this would restore some settings
but to no effect.

Some pointers as to how to re-establish function of this drive would be
appreciated.
Thanks!
 
Brad Hammers said:
Current config:

Gateway 500 Media Center Edition 2004
800 Mhz Bus, Pentium 4 3.0 Ghz Processor
2Gb Corsair RAM
Primary Drive - C: 100 Gb SATA Maxtor (holds OS)
Secondary Drive - D: 150 Gb SATA Maxtor

This past week I had to re-install/update some drivers. As a matter of
course, I was using my OS disc to obtain some of these files and left the
disc in the optical drive. Sometime last night I guess I suffered some
type
of auto-restart whereby *I think* the computer rebooted from the OS disc.
Yesterday, when I left the computer, it was working just fine. I come to
the
computer today to find I can no longer see the D: drive.

I checked the BIOS settings and it is not detecting the D: drive - I have
not been able to redetect this drive. It's there, all the wires are still
in
the same place and the disc has power. For some reason, the D: drive is
no
longer being detected by the computer.

I assume this has something to do with the reboot from the OS disc. How
can
a reboot from an OS disc remove the computer's ability to detect this
drive?
(if that is the case) What can I do, aside from a complete re-install of
XPMCE, to reconnect with my D: drive so that I can access it again? I
went
through all the BIOS config options and I can find no recourse there. I
tried a system restore in the outside chance this would restore some
settings
but to no effect.

Some pointers as to how to re-establish function of this drive would be
appreciated.
Thanks!
Click to expand...


Brad:
First, a question or two...

You say the problem began after you installed "some drivers" from the "OS
disc". I assume you're referring to the XP installation CD, right? What
"drivers" did you install? Ordinarily, drivers are not installed from the XP
installation CD. Rather they're installed from the motherboard's
installation CD and/or from the CD or floppy disk that's furnished by the
manufacturer of the component in question.

Anyway, immediately following this installation of "drivers", did the
system boot properly and did the system recognize the secondary HD? And if
so, did the problem arise *only* after the system (apparently) rebooted?

And you're absolutely sure the problem HD is connected/configured correctly,
right? Its SATA signal (data) cable is securely fastened on both the drive
and the motherboard's SATA connector? Ditto for its power connector.
Absolutely sure?

Anyway, the first thing you should do at this point is to download the HD
diagnostic utility from Maxtor
(http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/downloads/powermax.htm)
and check out your problem drive. I'm assuming you have a non-RAID
configuration. If it is a RAID configuration, note Maxtor's Note on this.

If the drive checks out OK, we can go on from there...
Anna
 
Brad:
First, a question or two...

You say the problem began after you installed "some drivers" from the "OS
disc". I assume you're referring to the XP installation CD, right? What
"drivers" did you install? Ordinarily, drivers are not installed from the XP
installation CD. Rather they're installed from the motherboard's
installation CD and/or from the CD or floppy disk that's furnished by the
manufacturer of the component in question.
Click to expand...

When I say installed some drivers from the OS disc, that was a brief way of
describing getting my sound card to work. That was a few days ago, and I
didn't install anything from the OS disc, I just had it in there. I got the
soundcard working and the system has been 100% OK for the last few days.
Anyway, immediately following this installation of "drivers", did the
system boot properly and did the system recognize the secondary HD? And if
so, did the problem arise *only* after the system (apparently) rebooted?

And you're absolutely sure the problem HD is connected/configured correctly,
right? Its SATA signal (data) cable is securely fastened on both the drive
and the motherboard's SATA connector? Ditto for its power connector.
Absolutely sure?
Click to expand...

I have the case open for fans and can see all the wires and plugs. I
checked them this morning - all accounted for, connected properly, the like.
The drive, from a hardware standpoint, is 100% connected.
Anyway, the first thing you should do at this point is to download the HD
diagnostic utility from Maxtor
(http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/downloads/powermax.htm)
and check out your problem drive. I'm assuming you have a non-RAID
configuration. If it is a RAID configuration, note Maxtor's Note on this.
Click to expand...

I have no access the to the D: drive. From the computer's view, there is no
drive there. When I got on the computer this morning, I noticed it had done
a voluntary restart - there are some programs that I close down after system
start up that were running, that don't normally run. No diagnostic tool will
touch this drive because, again, it's like it's not even there.

If the computer rebooted from the OS disc, would this have overwritten or
changed something that would cause the drive to go undetected? If so, where
would these changes be made that I might edit them?

The drive is fine. Last night, before I went to bed, everything was
operational. What changed was the presence of the OS disc in the optical
drive and the voluntary reboot (the computer does this sometimes by itself,
no idea why, and hasn't been any kind of a problem, except for an occaisional
nuisance).

Hope this helps you help me a bit more. Much appreciated!

Brad
 
Brad Hammers said:
When I say installed some drivers from the OS disc, that was a brief way
of
describing getting my sound card to work. That was a few days ago, and I
didn't install anything from the OS disc, I just had it in there. I got
the
soundcard working and the system has been 100% OK for the last few days.


I have the case open for fans and can see all the wires and plugs. I
checked them this morning - all accounted for, connected properly, the
like.
The drive, from a hardware standpoint, is 100% connected.


I have no access the to the D: drive. From the computer's view, there is
no
drive there. When I got on the computer this morning, I noticed it had
done
a voluntary restart - there are some programs that I close down after
system
start up that were running, that don't normally run. No diagnostic tool
will
touch this drive because, again, it's like it's not even there.

If the computer rebooted from the OS disc, would this have overwritten or
changed something that would cause the drive to go undetected? If so,
where
would these changes be made that I might edit them?

The drive is fine. Last night, before I went to bed, everything was
operational. What changed was the presence of the OS disc in the optical
drive and the voluntary reboot (the computer does this sometimes by
itself,
no idea why, and hasn't been any kind of a problem, except for an
occaisional
nuisance).

Hope this helps you help me a bit more. Much appreciated!

Brad
Click to expand...


Brad:
I've never come across a single situation where leaving the XP installation
CD in the computer with a subsequent reboot caused a HD to become
dysfunctional. I can't imagine a situation where this could occur. But since
there was a reboot and you noticed various programs running afterwards I
suppose some sort of drive corruption involving some program or another
*could* have occurred. But if so, it would seem that this would affect only
your bootable drive and not the secondary one.

Since apparently the BIOS does not detect that HD, again assuming it is
correctly connected/configured in the machine, it would appear that you're
dealing with a dead drive. Can you possibly install that drive in another
computer? If you could, and that computer's BIOS does not detect the drive,
then it would seem a near-certainty that the drive is dead.
Anna
 
One thing to try is the 'restore' pick a date where things were ok. If the
drive is still unknown then the drive may have died. HTH

Current config:

Gateway 500 Media Center Edition 2004
800 Mhz Bus, Pentium 4 3.0 Ghz Processor
2Gb Corsair RAM
Primary Drive - C: 100 Gb SATA Maxtor (holds OS)
Secondary Drive - D: 150 Gb SATA Maxtor

This past week I had to re-install/update some drivers. As a matter of
course, I was using my OS disc to obtain some of these files and left the
disc in the optical drive. Sometime last night I guess I suffered some type
of auto-restart whereby *I think* the computer rebooted from the OS disc.
Yesterday, when I left the computer, it was working just fine. I come to
the
computer today to find I can no longer see the D: drive.

I checked the BIOS settings and it is not detecting the D: drive - I have
not been able to redetect this drive. It's there, all the wires are still
in
the same place and the disc has power. For some reason, the D: drive is no
longer being detected by the computer.

I assume this has something to do with the reboot from the OS disc. How can
a reboot from an OS disc remove the computer's ability to detect this drive?
(if that is the case) What can I do, aside from a complete re-install of
XPMCE, to reconnect with my D: drive so that I can access it again? I went
through all the BIOS config options and I can find no recourse there. I
tried a system restore in the outside chance this would restore some
settings
but to no effect.

Some pointers as to how to re-establish function of this drive would be
appreciated.
Thanks!
 
Anna said:
Brad:
I've never come across a single situation where leaving the XP
installation CD in the computer with a subsequent reboot caused a HD to
become dysfunctional. I can't imagine a situation where this could occur.
But since there was a reboot and you noticed various programs running
afterwards I suppose some sort of drive corruption involving some program
or another *could* have occurred. But if so, it would seem that this would
affect only your bootable drive and not the secondary one.

Since apparently the BIOS does not detect that HD, again assuming it is
correctly connected/configured in the machine, it would appear that you're
dealing with a dead drive. Can you possibly install that drive in another
computer? If you could, and that computer's BIOS does not detect the
drive, then it would seem a near-certainty that the drive is dead.
Anna
Click to expand...

ADDENDUM:
In my message above I failed to mention another option to take...

Assuming that your motherboard has only two SATA connectors and that your
boot drive is connected to SATA 1, reverse the connections so that the
secondary HD is connected to SATA 1 and the booting HD is connected to SATA
2. Get into the BIOS and change the boot order accordingly and see if the
system will boot. While you're there, see if the BIOS still doesn't detect
the problem HD.
Anna
 
Brad Hammers said:
Current config:

Gateway 500 Media Center Edition 2004
800 Mhz Bus, Pentium 4 3.0 Ghz Processor
2Gb Corsair RAM
Primary Drive - C: 100 Gb SATA Maxtor (holds OS)
Secondary Drive - D: 150 Gb SATA Maxtor

This past week I had to re-install/update some drivers. As a matter of
course, I was using my OS disc to obtain some of these files and left the
disc in the optical drive. Sometime last night I guess I suffered some type
of auto-restart whereby *I think* the computer rebooted from the OS disc.
Yesterday, when I left the computer, it was working just fine. I come to the
computer today to find I can no longer see the D: drive.

I checked the BIOS settings and it is not detecting the D: drive - I have
not been able to redetect this drive. It's there, all the wires are still in
the same place and the disc has power. For some reason, the D: drive is no
longer being detected by the computer.

I assume this has something to do with the reboot from the OS disc. How can
a reboot from an OS disc remove the computer's ability to detect this drive?
(if that is the case) What can I do, aside from a complete re-install of
XPMCE, to reconnect with my D: drive so that I can access it again? I went
through all the BIOS config options and I can find no recourse there. I
tried a system restore in the outside chance this would restore some settings
but to no effect.

Some pointers as to how to re-establish function of this drive would be
appreciated.
Thanks!
Click to expand...

Use Start - Run - DISKMGMT.MSC and see if it lists both drives. If it
does, then the information provided about the second drive should
indicate what the problem is.

Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2006)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference
has never been in bed with a mosquito."
 
Hi,
Don't know if you have sorted it yet but just one thing , the OS disk
usually requires user interaction to boot from the CD ie "Press Any Key to
Boot from the CD". Therefore the OS would not have done anything to your
system.
Could the bios have reset and the drives are not detected properly, have you
checked.

Neil
 
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