XP sp2 hard drive problem

  • Thread starter Thread starter Draconis
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Draconis

Hello,

I recently re-installed XP (SP2), and before I formatted my master hard
drive to run a clean install of XP, I backed up the files I needed to a
slave drive. Now that the master drive has been formatted, and XP
installed, it won't let me read any of the files on the slave drive.

Windows explorer will not show the drive, but Device Manager does, and
it says it is running fine. I also went into the Disk Management, and
initialized the drive, and the drive now shows in Disk Management as
"online" but unallocated. It's only a 30GB Maxtor drive, with roughly
24GB of files on it, and I had been using it as a slave prior to the
format and install that I did on the master drive, so I'm not sure why
it won't let me read it.

Everything is in NTFS, and I have taken a spare HD (40GB Samsung, 39GB
filled), which I had also used prior to the format/install as a slave
drive, and it won't let me access that drive either. Both of these
drives I was using yesterday, prior to the format/install of the master
HD.

Both the master and the slave drives (no matter which slave I used) are
recognized by the BIOS, and like I said, seem to be recognized by
WinXP, but I can't read the info on them.

I would appreciate if anyone could give me ideas as quickly as
possible, as I can basically do nothing on that computer until I get
this situation resolved, since the drivers that I need for my wireless
and video cards are on the slave drive, along with the programs that I
would like to set up now that I have re-installed.

I've looked all over for an answer, and found plenty relating to "new"
hard drives, but nothing with my particular case. Thanks in advance
for anything anyone has to offer.

Draconis
 
Did you physically unplug the other drives while you were formatting and
reinstalling......They need to be.Also,if so chk the jumper pins,are they set
properly.
 
Draconis said:
Hello,

I recently re-installed XP (SP2), and before I formatted my master hard
drive to run a clean install of XP, I backed up the files I needed to a
slave drive. Now that the master drive has been formatted, and XP
installed, it won't let me read any of the files on the slave drive.

Windows explorer will not show the drive, but Device Manager does, and
it says it is running fine. I also went into the Disk Management, and
initialized the drive, and the drive now shows in Disk Management as
"online" but unallocated. It's only a 30GB Maxtor drive, with roughly
24GB of files on it, and I had been using it as a slave prior to the
format and install that I did on the master drive, so I'm not sure why
it won't let me read it.

Everything is in NTFS, and I have taken a spare HD (40GB Samsung, 39GB
filled), which I had also used prior to the format/install as a slave
drive, and it won't let me access that drive either. Both of these
drives I was using yesterday, prior to the format/install of the master
HD.

Both the master and the slave drives (no matter which slave I used) are
recognized by the BIOS, and like I said, seem to be recognized by
WinXP, but I can't read the info on them.

I would appreciate if anyone could give me ideas as quickly as
possible, as I can basically do nothing on that computer until I get
this situation resolved, since the drivers that I need for my wireless
and video cards are on the slave drive, along with the programs that I
would like to set up now that I have re-installed.

I've looked all over for an answer, and found plenty relating to "new"
hard drives, but nothing with my particular case. Thanks in advance
for anything anyone has to offer.

Draconis
Click to expand...


Draconis:
With respect to your 30 GB Maxtor HD, you say "I also went into the Disk
Management, and initialized the drive, and the drive now shows in Disk
Management as
"online" but unallocated.". Well, if you "initialized" that drive in DM that
would tend to indicate it was a "virgin" HD, i.e., unpartitioned &
unformatted. That probably is the reason DM shows the disk space as
"unallocated". Is it possible that during the XP installation process you
inadvertently deleted the partition(s) on that Maxtor HD?

But that doesn't explain why you're having the same problem with the Samsung
40 GB HD.

1. When you boot without *any* other HD being installed, does the system
boot to a Desktop without incident? No problems of any kind affecting your
boot HD? It functions flawlessly? You say you "re-installed XP (SP2) and had
to format your boot drive. Why was this necessary?

2. With respect to the Samsung HD - are you sure you've properly
connected/configured it as a secondary HD? Absolutely sure?

3. And when you say you can't access the secondary HD you mean that it's not
shown in My Computer and Windows Explorer, right?
Anna
 
Hi Draconis

It could be your lucky day, exactly the same problem as you had, i have used
powerquest drive image 7 since it came out and back up my main c drive every
2 weeks, over the last year i have had 4-5 major hard drive (xp) problems and
have had to restore never been a problem 2o minutes back up and running, but
this time (service pack 2) when c failed it took d&e with it (thats where me
backups were) whatever you do do not format or partition that drive, goto
http://www.r-studio.com/ and download a demo of r-studio and it will show all
your files are still there, it you want to recover them you can download the
full version for $70, have a look at this link,
http://support.microsoft.com/newsgr...ware&mid=e20c0ebd-59c2-4a0e-b1e0-6d77a1211b5f

Frank

Hope it helps
 
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