windows lost my hard drive :(

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Guest

Hi all.
I'm using windows xp professional for a long time now and I don't really
want to switch ;)
Anyway 2 days ago after a routine restart (my computer is usually on 24/7)
my Windows installation stopped recognizing my 2nd (out of 6) hard drive.
The BIOS still recognizes it, linux live cd's recognize it and have access
to the files, but win xp can't :(

I tried to connect the hard drive to different ide cables in different ide
connection to no avail.

I'm really lost on the reason why windows won't recognize the hard drive
anymore while other operating systems and the BIOS can still recognize it and
communicate with it.

The device manager doesn't show it, the "Disk Management" screen show drives
0-4 (the other 5 hard drives I have) but not the missing hard drive.

Any suggestions/assistance on this matter (other than reinstalling windows
or switching to linux...) will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advanced
David Alon
 
daat99 said:
Hi all.
I'm using windows xp professional for a long time now and I don't really
want to switch ;)
Anyway 2 days ago after a routine restart (my computer is usually on 24/7)
my Windows installation stopped recognizing my 2nd (out of 6) hard drive.
The BIOS still recognizes it, linux live cd's recognize it and have access
to the files, but win xp can't :(

I tried to connect the hard drive to different ide cables in different ide
connection to no avail.

I'm really lost on the reason why windows won't recognize the hard drive
anymore while other operating systems and the BIOS can still recognize it and
communicate with it.

The device manager doesn't show it, the "Disk Management" screen show drives
0-4 (the other 5 hard drives I have) but not the missing hard drive.

Any suggestions/assistance on this matter (other than reinstalling windows
or switching to linux...) will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advanced
David Alon
Click to expand...

I'd try another known-good IDE cable...

if that does no good...

Then I'd use your Linux cd and backup all the data on the drive to one that
Windows recognizes OK.

Next run the drive manufacturer's diagnostic on the drive as it may just
plain be bad
 
Sometimes I have problems with my Molex ( white ) Power Connectors. Did
you try a different one or switch with another
drive.? Try the drive in another computer? Corrupt Partition Table?
Does the drive have only Linux or Window Partitions?
 
philo said:
I'd try another known-good IDE cable...

if that does no good...

Then I'd use your Linux cd and backup all the data on the drive to one that
Windows recognizes OK.

Next run the drive manufacturer's diagnostic on the drive as it may just
plain be bad
Click to expand...

I ruled out cables and connectors problem by switching both the IDE and
power cables with another hard drive that windows recognize and it still
doesn't recognize the same hard regardless of which cables it uses while
showing the other 5 drives.
 
I switched the power connectors between the missing drive and a working drive
with no result (the missing drive is still missing).
I haven't tried to see the hard drive in another computer yet but I do know
for a fact that it works on this computer, just not using windows for some
reason (I can access/read the NTFS partition files using linux).
How can I check for and fix a corrupted partition table?

The hard drive on only 1 NTFS partition in it utilizing its full capacity.
 
daat99 said:
I ruled out cables and connectors problem by switching both the IDE and
power cables with another hard drive that windows recognize and it still
doesn't recognize the same hard regardless of which cables it uses while
showing the other 5 drives.
Click to expand...


Well definately use the Linux cd to backup your data...
then run the mfg's diagnostic on the drive (if it sees it, that is)
 
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