I am using a Compaq T8000 (purchased in Nov. 2002), running XP-Home Edition.
Drive C has a capacity120GB with file system NTFS. Drive D (an internal
"slave" drive) should have a capacity of 80GB. I also have several external
USB hard drives that I use for backups and storage. Everything worked well
until today. I was using an I/O Magic portable hard disk (Maxtor 7200RPM --
40GB), and I did not notice any problems. However, after I unplugged the
I/O Magic disk, I suddenly could not access my internal Drive D. It says
that Drive D is not formatted. I checked the I/O Magic disk, and I can't
see any problems there -- all my data is still intact. I rebooted, but
still have the same problem -- Drive D is not formatted (and yet I was able
to use it yesterday). I did a search for this problem and found numerous
references to the external disk suddenly not being formatted, but that is
not my problem. The only relationship in my case is that an external disk
was plugged into the USB port immediately before I saw this problem. None
of the sites I read had a solution except to take the computer to a tech
shop to try to retrieve data.

One other point I should mention is that I did have another I/O Magic disk
that suddenly "went bad" some time ago. By that, I mean that it could not
even be formatted. That time, too, I did not know what caused the
problem -- but the problem was related only to that disk and not to my
internal hard drives.

Now, the good news is that I could go ahead and format Drive D myself
because I will not lose any data. I have multiple backups of *everything*
and even alternate disks from home to the office every few weeks to make
sure that I will have a copy even if everything at home were destroyed or
stolen. However, can anyone explain what might have happened to cause this
problem so I can avoid it in the future? And, most important, I would hope
to avoid a similar problem with Drive C.

Thanks,
MaryL

First off, you describe your issue very well. It's very hard to know why
a drive suddenly reports itself as unformatted. Doubtful it was some kind
of lettering collision. You might want to take a look at the System event
log and see if any IDE controller or drive errors have happened recently.
If I had to speculate, I'd say the Partition table has been corrupted. There
are recovery tools but your plan to just reformat is probably best. If you
can afford the time, I'd do a full format, not quick just to verify the
integrity
of the drive itself.
Event Log:
Click Start, Run (type) EventVwr.Msc [Enter]
Expand System and scan Right Pane for red icons that denote errors.

"MaryL" <(E-Mail Removed)-OUT-THE-LITTER> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>I am using a Compaq T8000 (purchased in Nov. 2002), running XP-Home
>Edition. Drive C has a capacity120GB with file system NTFS. Drive D (an
>internal "slave" drive) should have a capacity of 80GB. I also have
>several external USB hard drives that I use for backups and storage.
>Everything worked well until today. I was using an I/O Magic portable hard
>disk (Maxtor 7200RPM -- 40GB), and I did not notice any problems.
>However, after I unplugged the I/O Magic disk, I suddenly could not access
>my internal Drive D. It says that Drive D is not formatted. I checked the
>I/O Magic disk, and I can't see any problems there -- all my data is still
>intact. I rebooted, but still have the same problem -- Drive D is not
>formatted (and yet I was able to use it yesterday). I did a search for
>this problem and found numerous references to the external disk suddenly
>not being formatted, but that is not my problem. The only relationship in
>my case is that an external disk was plugged into the USB port immediately
>before I saw this problem. None of the sites I read had a solution except
>to take the computer to a tech shop to try to retrieve data.
>
> One other point I should mention is that I did have another I/O Magic disk
> that suddenly "went bad" some time ago. By that, I mean that it could not
> even be formatted. That time, too, I did not know what caused the
> problem -- but the problem was related only to that disk and not to my
> internal hard drives.
>
> Now, the good news is that I could go ahead and format Drive D myself
> because I will not lose any data. I have multiple backups of *everything*
> and even alternate disks from home to the office every few weeks to make
> sure that I will have a copy even if everything at home were destroyed or
> stolen. However, can anyone explain what might have happened to cause
> this problem so I can avoid it in the future? And, most important, I
> would hope to avoid a similar problem with Drive C.
>
> Thanks,
> MaryL
>

Thank you very much. Now, I hope you can decipher what I found. There were
a whole series of errors with red icons, most from today. The messages
appear in "clusters" within a short time span. Each showed: Error/Today's
Date/Time/Disk/None (under Category)/7 (under Event)/N/A (under User/ and
the computer ID number. One "cluster" or grouping will be followed by a
series of Information listings -- also for today -- but no errors with them.
Then will come another group of errors, then another group of Information,
etc. There is a very long list of these messages. When I scrolled to the
bottom, I could see that the error messages actually started two days ago
(12/28/2007). What type of information can I extract from this?

Incidentally, my earlier reference to Maxtor was actually to my internal
Drive D (the one with the problem) and not to the I/O Magic extrnal drive.

MaryL


"R. McCarty" <PcEngWork-NoSpam_@mindspring.com> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> First off, you describe your issue very well. It's very hard to know why
> a drive suddenly reports itself as unformatted. Doubtful it was some kind
> of lettering collision. You might want to take a look at the System event
> log and see if any IDE controller or drive errors have happened recently.
> If I had to speculate, I'd say the Partition table has been corrupted.
> There
> are recovery tools but your plan to just reformat is probably best. If you
> can afford the time, I'd do a full format, not quick just to verify the
> integrity
> of the drive itself.
> Event Log:
> Click Start, Run (type) EventVwr.Msc [Enter]
> Expand System and scan Right Pane for red icons that denote errors.
>
> "MaryL" <(E-Mail Removed)-OUT-THE-LITTER> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>>I am using a Compaq T8000 (purchased in Nov. 2002), running XP-Home
>>Edition. Drive C has a capacity120GB with file system NTFS. Drive D (an
>>internal "slave" drive) should have a capacity of 80GB. I also have
>>several external USB hard drives that I use for backups and storage.
>>Everything worked well until today. I was using an I/O Magic portable
>>hard disk (Maxtor 7200RPM -- 40GB), and I did not notice any problems.
>>However, after I unplugged the I/O Magic disk, I suddenly could not access
>>my internal Drive D. It says that Drive D is not formatted. I checked
>>the I/O Magic disk, and I can't see any problems there -- all my data is
>>still intact. I rebooted, but still have the same problem -- Drive D is
>>not formatted (and yet I was able to use it yesterday). I did a search
>>for this problem and found numerous references to the external disk
>>suddenly not being formatted, but that is not my problem. The only
>>relationship in my case is that an external disk was plugged into the USB
>>port immediately before I saw this problem. None of the sites I read had
>>a solution except to take the computer to a tech shop to try to retrieve
>>data.
>>
>> One other point I should mention is that I did have another I/O Magic
>> disk that suddenly "went bad" some time ago. By that, I mean that it
>> could not even be formatted. That time, too, I did not know what caused
>> the problem -- but the problem was related only to that disk and not to
>> my internal hard drives.
>>
>> Now, the good news is that I could go ahead and format Drive D myself
>> because I will not lose any data. I have multiple backups of
>> *everything* and even alternate disks from home to the office every few
>> weeks to make sure that I will have a copy even if everything at home
>> were destroyed or stolen. However, can anyone explain what might have
>> happened to cause this problem so I can avoid it in the future? And,
>> most important, I would hope to avoid a similar problem with Drive C.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> MaryL
>>
>
>

You Double-Click each Red icon and the details box for the event will
be shown. Included will be an Event ID# and a brief description of the
error. It's likely you'll see mention of IDE/ATAPI or disk drive was not
able to write data.

"MaryL" <(E-Mail Removed)-OUT-THE-LITTER> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Thank you very much. Now, I hope you can decipher what I found. There
> were a whole series of errors with red icons, most from today. The
> messages appear in "clusters" within a short time span. Each showed:
> Error/Today's Date/Time/Disk/None (under Category)/7 (under Event)/N/A
> (under User/ and the computer ID number. One "cluster" or grouping will
> be followed by a series of Information listings -- also for today -- but
> no errors with them. Then will come another group of errors, then another
> group of Information, etc. There is a very long list of these messages.
> When I scrolled to the bottom, I could see that the error messages
> actually started two days ago (12/28/2007). What type of information can
> I extract from this?
>
> Incidentally, my earlier reference to Maxtor was actually to my internal
> Drive D (the one with the problem) and not to the I/O Magic extrnal drive.
>
> MaryL
>
>
> "R. McCarty" <PcEngWork-NoSpam_@mindspring.com> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>> First off, you describe your issue very well. It's very hard to know why
>> a drive suddenly reports itself as unformatted. Doubtful it was some kind
>> of lettering collision. You might want to take a look at the System event
>> log and see if any IDE controller or drive errors have happened recently.
>> If I had to speculate, I'd say the Partition table has been corrupted.
>> There
>> are recovery tools but your plan to just reformat is probably best. If
>> you
>> can afford the time, I'd do a full format, not quick just to verify the
>> integrity
>> of the drive itself.
>> Event Log:
>> Click Start, Run (type) EventVwr.Msc [Enter]
>> Expand System and scan Right Pane for red icons that denote errors.
>>
>> "MaryL" <(E-Mail Removed)-OUT-THE-LITTER> wrote in message
>> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>>>I am using a Compaq T8000 (purchased in Nov. 2002), running XP-Home
>>>Edition. Drive C has a capacity120GB with file system NTFS. Drive D (an
>>>internal "slave" drive) should have a capacity of 80GB. I also have
>>>several external USB hard drives that I use for backups and storage.
>>>Everything worked well until today. I was using an I/O Magic portable
>>>hard disk (Maxtor 7200RPM -- 40GB), and I did not notice any problems.
>>>However, after I unplugged the I/O Magic disk, I suddenly could not
>>>access my internal Drive D. It says that Drive D is not formatted. I
>>>checked the I/O Magic disk, and I can't see any problems there -- all my
>>>data is still intact. I rebooted, but still have the same problem --
>>>Drive D is not formatted (and yet I was able to use it yesterday). I did
>>>a search for this problem and found numerous references to the external
>>>disk suddenly not being formatted, but that is not my problem. The only
>>>relationship in my case is that an external disk was plugged into the USB
>>>port immediately before I saw this problem. None of the sites I read had
>>>a solution except to take the computer to a tech shop to try to retrieve
>>>data.
>>>
>>> One other point I should mention is that I did have another I/O Magic
>>> disk that suddenly "went bad" some time ago. By that, I mean that it
>>> could not even be formatted. That time, too, I did not know what caused
>>> the problem -- but the problem was related only to that disk and not to
>>> my internal hard drives.
>>>
>>> Now, the good news is that I could go ahead and format Drive D myself
>>> because I will not lose any data. I have multiple backups of
>>> *everything* and even alternate disks from home to the office every few
>>> weeks to make sure that I will have a copy even if everything at home
>>> were destroyed or stolen. However, can anyone explain what might have
>>> happened to cause this problem so I can avoid it in the future? And,
>>> most important, I would hope to avoid a similar problem with Drive C.
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>> MaryL
>>>
>>
>>
>
>

On Dec 30, 12:16 pm, "MaryL" <stanco...@yahoo.comTAKE-OUT-THE-LITTER>
wrote:
> I am using a Compaq T8000 (purchased in Nov. 2002), running XP-Home Edition.
> Drive C has a capacity120GB with file system NTFS. Drive D (an internal
> "slave" drive) should have a capacity of 80GB. I also have several external
> USB hard drives that I use for backups and storage. Everything worked well
> until today. I was using an I/O Magic portable hard disk (Maxtor 7200RPM --
> 40GB), and I did not notice any problems. However, after I unplugged the
> I/O Magic disk, I suddenly could not access my internal Drive D. It says
> that Drive D is not formatted. I checked the I/O Magic disk, and I can't
> see any problems there -- all my data is still intact. I rebooted, but
> still have the same problem -- Drive D is not formatted (and yet I was able
> to use it yesterday). I did a search for this problem and found numerous
> references to the external disk suddenly not being formatted, but that is
> not my problem. The only relationship in my case is that an external disk
> was plugged into the USB port immediately before I saw this problem. None
> of the sites I read had a solution except to take the computer to a tech
> shop to try to retrieve data.
>
> One other point I should mention is that I did have another I/O Magic disk
> that suddenly "went bad" some time ago. By that, I mean that it could not
> even be formatted. That time, too, I did not know what caused the
> problem -- but the problem was related only to that disk and not to my
> internal hard drives.
>
> Now, the good news is that I could go ahead and format Drive D myself
> because I will not lose any data. I have multiple backups of *everything*
> and even alternate disks from home to the office every few weeks to make
> sure that I will have a copy even if everything at home were destroyed or
> stolen. However, can anyone explain what might have happened to cause this
> problem so I can avoid it in the future? And, most important, I would hope
> to avoid a similar problem with Drive C.
>
> Thanks,
> MaryL

Have you looked at your disks in Control Panel/Administrative Tools/
Computer Management/Disk Management? It may be that rather than
losing a drive, you just somehow got your drive letters out of whack.
You can rearrange which partitions get which letters in Disk
Management.

<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:8108dd1d-50b6-43e2-86d1-(E-Mail Removed)...
> On Dec 30, 12:16 pm, "MaryL" <stanco...@yahoo.comTAKE-OUT-THE-LITTER>
> wrote:
>> I am using a Compaq T8000 (purchased in Nov. 2002), running XP-Home
>> Edition.
>> Drive C has a capacity120GB with file system NTFS. Drive D (an internal
>> "slave" drive) should have a capacity of 80GB. I also have several
>> external
>> USB hard drives that I use for backups and storage. Everything worked
>> well
>> until today. I was using an I/O Magic portable hard disk (Maxtor
>> 7200RPM --
>> 40GB), and I did not notice any problems. However, after I unplugged the
>> I/O Magic disk, I suddenly could not access my internal Drive D. It says
>> that Drive D is not formatted. I checked the I/O Magic disk, and I can't
>> see any problems there -- all my data is still intact. I rebooted, but
>> still have the same problem -- Drive D is not formatted (and yet I was
>> able
>> to use it yesterday). I did a search for this problem and found numerous
>> references to the external disk suddenly not being formatted, but that is
>> not my problem. The only relationship in my case is that an external
>> disk
>> was plugged into the USB port immediately before I saw this problem.
>> None
>> of the sites I read had a solution except to take the computer to a tech
>> shop to try to retrieve data.
>>
>> One other point I should mention is that I did have another I/O Magic
>> disk
>> that suddenly "went bad" some time ago. By that, I mean that it could
>> not
>> even be formatted. That time, too, I did not know what caused the
>> problem -- but the problem was related only to that disk and not to my
>> internal hard drives.
>>
>> Now, the good news is that I could go ahead and format Drive D myself
>> because I will not lose any data. I have multiple backups of
>> *everything*
>> and even alternate disks from home to the office every few weeks to make
>> sure that I will have a copy even if everything at home were destroyed or
>> stolen. However, can anyone explain what might have happened to cause
>> this
>> problem so I can avoid it in the future? And, most important, I would
>> hope
>> to avoid a similar problem with Drive C.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> MaryL
>
> Have you looked at your disks in Control Panel/Administrative Tools/
> Computer Management/Disk Management? It may be that rather than
> losing a drive, you just somehow got your drive letters out of whack.
> You can rearrange which partitions get which letters in Disk
> Management.

I checked the location you suggested. Only two drives are shown (which
would be correct since I don't have any external drives connected right
now). Disk 0 (bottom of screen) appears to be Drive C, and Disk 1 appears
to be Drive D. Both are listed as Healthy (Active). However, Drive D shows
100% free space, and that should not be correct.

MaryL

I double-clicked on several red icons. Each one showed that Drive D has a
bad block. When I clicked on the location for more information, I found
this explanation: "The device has a bad block of memory, which Windows
attempted to read. The data might be missing or corrupted." Under User
Action, it says: "If this event is logged regularly, replace the hard disk
drive." I hope that won't be necessary, but I'll reformat first. I know I
will eventually need a new computer and was looking at some this week. A
tech at Staples said it might be a mistake to get Vista at this time because
I have a number of peripherals that I could not afford to replace (two
printers, slide scanner, router, cable modem, etc.), and he said Vista is
not compatible with some devices. I haven't looked any farther than that as
yet because I would rather not spend the money for a new computer if I can
put if off for awhile.

MaryL

"R. McCarty" <PcEngWork-NoSpam_@mindspring.com> wrote in message
news:OVb1%(E-Mail Removed)...
> You Double-Click each Red icon and the details box for the event will
> be shown. Included will be an Event ID# and a brief description of the
> error. It's likely you'll see mention of IDE/ATAPI or disk drive was not
> able to write data.
>
> "MaryL" <(E-Mail Removed)-OUT-THE-LITTER> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Thank you very much. Now, I hope you can decipher what I found. There
>> were a whole series of errors with red icons, most from today. The
>> messages appear in "clusters" within a short time span. Each showed:
>> Error/Today's Date/Time/Disk/None (under Category)/7 (under Event)/N/A
>> (under User/ and the computer ID number. One "cluster" or grouping will
>> be followed by a series of Information listings -- also for today -- but
>> no errors with them. Then will come another group of errors, then another
>> group of Information, etc. There is a very long list of these messages.
>> When I scrolled to the bottom, I could see that the error messages
>> actually started two days ago (12/28/2007). What type of information can
>> I extract from this?
>>
>> Incidentally, my earlier reference to Maxtor was actually to my internal
>> Drive D (the one with the problem) and not to the I/O Magic extrnal
>> drive.
>>
>> MaryL
>>
>>
>> "R. McCarty" <PcEngWork-NoSpam_@mindspring.com> wrote in message
>> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>>> First off, you describe your issue very well. It's very hard to know
>>> why
>>> a drive suddenly reports itself as unformatted. Doubtful it was some
>>> kind
>>> of lettering collision. You might want to take a look at the System
>>> event
>>> log and see if any IDE controller or drive errors have happened
>>> recently.
>>> If I had to speculate, I'd say the Partition table has been corrupted.
>>> There
>>> are recovery tools but your plan to just reformat is probably best. If
>>> you
>>> can afford the time, I'd do a full format, not quick just to verify the
>>> integrity
>>> of the drive itself.
>>> Event Log:
>>> Click Start, Run (type) EventVwr.Msc [Enter]
>>> Expand System and scan Right Pane for red icons that denote errors.
>>>
>>> "MaryL" <(E-Mail Removed)-OUT-THE-LITTER> wrote in message
>>> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>>>>I am using a Compaq T8000 (purchased in Nov. 2002), running XP-Home
>>>>Edition. Drive C has a capacity120GB with file system NTFS. Drive D (an
>>>>internal "slave" drive) should have a capacity of 80GB. I also have
>>>>several external USB hard drives that I use for backups and storage.
>>>>Everything worked well until today. I was using an I/O Magic portable
>>>>hard disk (Maxtor 7200RPM -- 40GB), and I did not notice any problems.
>>>>However, after I unplugged the I/O Magic disk, I suddenly could not
>>>>access my internal Drive D. It says that Drive D is not formatted. I
>>>>checked the I/O Magic disk, and I can't see any problems there -- all my
>>>>data is still intact. I rebooted, but still have the same problem --
>>>>Drive D is not formatted (and yet I was able to use it yesterday). I
>>>>did a search for this problem and found numerous references to the
>>>>external disk suddenly not being formatted, but that is not my problem.
>>>>The only relationship in my case is that an external disk was plugged
>>>>into the USB port immediately before I saw this problem. None of the
>>>>sites I read had a solution except to take the computer to a tech shop
>>>>to try to retrieve data.
>>>>
>>>> One other point I should mention is that I did have another I/O Magic
>>>> disk that suddenly "went bad" some time ago. By that, I mean that it
>>>> could not even be formatted. That time, too, I did not know what
>>>> caused the problem -- but the problem was related only to that disk and
>>>> not to my internal hard drives.
>>>>
>>>> Now, the good news is that I could go ahead and format Drive D myself
>>>> because I will not lose any data. I have multiple backups of
>>>> *everything* and even alternate disks from home to the office every few
>>>> weeks to make sure that I will have a copy even if everything at home
>>>> were destroyed or stolen. However, can anyone explain what might have
>>>> happened to cause this problem so I can avoid it in the future? And,
>>>> most important, I would hope to avoid a similar problem with Drive C.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> MaryL
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>
>

If you format the disk/volume, don't take the Quick format mode. Let
Disk Management format and check the clusters. Every drive has extra
or spare clusters to remap the ones marked bad. A full format will take
much longer but check for any unreliable areas on the disk surface.

As to Vista, it's biggest issue is the "Public Perception" that has set in.
I hear the comments all the time "Need 2+ Gigabytes, it's slow" and
several other real & imagined problems with it.

Peripheral support can be a problem so it's best to check vendor sites
and see if your particular model has Vista drivers/support.

"MaryL" <(E-Mail Removed)-OUT-THE-LITTER> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>I double-clicked on several red icons. Each one showed that Drive D has a
>bad block. When I clicked on the location for more information, I found
>this explanation: "The device has a bad block of memory, which Windows
>attempted to read. The data might be missing or corrupted." Under User
>Action, it says: "If this event is logged regularly, replace the hard disk
>drive." I hope that won't be necessary, but I'll reformat first. I know I
>will eventually need a new computer and was looking at some this week. A
>tech at Staples said it might be a mistake to get Vista at this time
>because I have a number of peripherals that I could not afford to replace
>(two printers, slide scanner, router, cable modem, etc.), and he said Vista
>is not compatible with some devices. I haven't looked any farther than
>that as yet because I would rather not spend the money for a new computer
>if I can put if off for awhile.
>
> MaryL
>
> "R. McCarty" <PcEngWork-NoSpam_@mindspring.com> wrote in message
> news:OVb1%(E-Mail Removed)...
>> You Double-Click each Red icon and the details box for the event will
>> be shown. Included will be an Event ID# and a brief description of the
>> error. It's likely you'll see mention of IDE/ATAPI or disk drive was not
>> able to write data.
>>
>> "MaryL" <(E-Mail Removed)-OUT-THE-LITTER> wrote in message
>> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>>> Thank you very much. Now, I hope you can decipher what I found. There
>>> were a whole series of errors with red icons, most from today. The
>>> messages appear in "clusters" within a short time span. Each showed:
>>> Error/Today's Date/Time/Disk/None (under Category)/7 (under Event)/N/A
>>> (under User/ and the computer ID number. One "cluster" or grouping will
>>> be followed by a series of Information listings -- also for today -- but
>>> no errors with them. Then will come another group of errors, then
>>> another group of Information, etc. There is a very long list of these
>>> messages. When I scrolled to the bottom, I could see that the error
>>> messages actually started two days ago (12/28/2007). What type of
>>> information can I extract from this?
>>>
>>> Incidentally, my earlier reference to Maxtor was actually to my internal
>>> Drive D (the one with the problem) and not to the I/O Magic extrnal
>>> drive.
>>>
>>> MaryL
>>>
>>>
>>> "R. McCarty" <PcEngWork-NoSpam_@mindspring.com> wrote in message
>>> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>>>> First off, you describe your issue very well. It's very hard to know
>>>> why
>>>> a drive suddenly reports itself as unformatted. Doubtful it was some
>>>> kind
>>>> of lettering collision. You might want to take a look at the System
>>>> event
>>>> log and see if any IDE controller or drive errors have happened
>>>> recently.
>>>> If I had to speculate, I'd say the Partition table has been corrupted.
>>>> There
>>>> are recovery tools but your plan to just reformat is probably best. If
>>>> you
>>>> can afford the time, I'd do a full format, not quick just to verify the
>>>> integrity
>>>> of the drive itself.
>>>> Event Log:
>>>> Click Start, Run (type) EventVwr.Msc [Enter]
>>>> Expand System and scan Right Pane for red icons that denote errors.
>>>>
>>>> "MaryL" <(E-Mail Removed)-OUT-THE-LITTER> wrote in message
>>>> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>>>>>I am using a Compaq T8000 (purchased in Nov. 2002), running XP-Home
>>>>>Edition. Drive C has a capacity120GB with file system NTFS. Drive D
>>>>>(an internal "slave" drive) should have a capacity of 80GB. I also
>>>>>have several external USB hard drives that I use for backups and
>>>>>storage. Everything worked well until today. I was using an I/O Magic
>>>>>portable hard disk (Maxtor 7200RPM -- 40GB), and I did not notice any
>>>>>problems. However, after I unplugged the I/O Magic disk, I suddenly
>>>>>could not access my internal Drive D. It says that Drive D is not
>>>>>formatted. I checked the I/O Magic disk, and I can't see any problems
>>>>>there -- all my data is still intact. I rebooted, but still have the
>>>>>same problem -- Drive D is not formatted (and yet I was able to use it
>>>>>yesterday). I did a search for this problem and found numerous
>>>>>references to the external disk suddenly not being formatted, but that
>>>>>is not my problem. The only relationship in my case is that an external
>>>>>disk was plugged into the USB port immediately before I saw this
>>>>>problem. None of the sites I read had a solution except to take the
>>>>>computer to a tech shop to try to retrieve data.
>>>>>
>>>>> One other point I should mention is that I did have another I/O Magic
>>>>> disk that suddenly "went bad" some time ago. By that, I mean that it
>>>>> could not even be formatted. That time, too, I did not know what
>>>>> caused the problem -- but the problem was related only to that disk
>>>>> and not to my internal hard drives.
>>>>>
>>>>> Now, the good news is that I could go ahead and format Drive D myself
>>>>> because I will not lose any data. I have multiple backups of
>>>>> *everything* and even alternate disks from home to the office every
>>>>> few weeks to make sure that I will have a copy even if everything at
>>>>> home were destroyed or stolen. However, can anyone explain what might
>>>>> have happened to cause this problem so I can avoid it in the future?
>>>>> And, most important, I would hope to avoid a similar problem with
>>>>> Drive C.
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>> MaryL
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>
>

On Dec 30, 2:11 pm, "MaryL" <stanco...@yahoo.comTAKE-OUT-THE-LITTER>
>
> I checked the location you suggested. Only two drives are shown (which
> would be correct since I don't have any external drives connected right
> now). Disk 0 (bottom of screen) appears to be Drive C, and Disk 1 appears
> to be Drive D. Both are listed as Healthy (Active). However, Drive D shows
> 100% free space, and that should not be correct.


Oops, that doesn't sound good. I doubt that your USB drive had
anything to do with it; it sounds more like a hardware failure. There
are disk utilities that can do non-destructive formats, but since you
have good backups, what I would suggest is reformatting it and then
running as many diagnostic programs as you have or can find. I find a
program called Speedfan
http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php
very useful; it is freeware, and it shows you the SMART data from your
drive, including read and write errors, and tracks their increase over
time. Also very useful for monitoring the temperature of your drives
and CPU. Good Luck!

Thanks for all your help! I will do a full format tonight and let it take
as long as necessary.

MaryL


"R. McCarty" <PcEngWork-NoSpam_@mindspring.com> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> If you format the disk/volume, don't take the Quick format mode. Let
> Disk Management format and check the clusters. Every drive has extra
> or spare clusters to remap the ones marked bad. A full format will take
> much longer but check for any unreliable areas on the disk surface.
>
> As to Vista, it's biggest issue is the "Public Perception" that has set
> in.
> I hear the comments all the time "Need 2+ Gigabytes, it's slow" and
> several other real & imagined problems with it.
>
> Peripheral support can be a problem so it's best to check vendor sites
> and see if your particular model has Vista drivers/support.
>
> "MaryL" <(E-Mail Removed)-OUT-THE-LITTER> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>>I double-clicked on several red icons. Each one showed that Drive D has a
>>bad block. When I clicked on the location for more information, I found
>>this explanation: "The device has a bad block of memory, which Windows
>>attempted to read. The data might be missing or corrupted." Under User
>>Action, it says: "If this event is logged regularly, replace the hard disk
>>drive." I hope that won't be necessary, but I'll reformat first. I know
>>I will eventually need a new computer and was looking at some this week.
>>A tech at Staples said it might be a mistake to get Vista at this time
>>because I have a number of peripherals that I could not afford to replace
>>(two printers, slide scanner, router, cable modem, etc.), and he said
>>Vista is not compatible with some devices. I haven't looked any farther
>>than that as yet because I would rather not spend the money for a new
>>computer if I can put if off for awhile.
>>
>> MaryL
>>
>> "R. McCarty" <PcEngWork-NoSpam_@mindspring.com> wrote in message
>> news:OVb1%(E-Mail Removed)...
>>> You Double-Click each Red icon and the details box for the event will
>>> be shown. Included will be an Event ID# and a brief description of the
>>> error. It's likely you'll see mention of IDE/ATAPI or disk drive was not
>>> able to write data.
>>>
>>> "MaryL" <(E-Mail Removed)-OUT-THE-LITTER> wrote in message
>>> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>>>> Thank you very much. Now, I hope you can decipher what I found. There
>>>> were a whole series of errors with red icons, most from today. The
>>>> messages appear in "clusters" within a short time span. Each showed:
>>>> Error/Today's Date/Time/Disk/None (under Category)/7 (under Event)/N/A
>>>> (under User/ and the computer ID number. One "cluster" or grouping
>>>> will be followed by a series of Information listings -- also for
>>>> today -- but no errors with them. Then will come another group of
>>>> errors, then another group of Information, etc. There is a very long
>>>> list of these messages. When I scrolled to the bottom, I could see that
>>>> the error messages actually started two days ago (12/28/2007). What
>>>> type of information can I extract from this?
>>>>
>>>> Incidentally, my earlier reference to Maxtor was actually to my
>>>> internal Drive D (the one with the problem) and not to the I/O Magic
>>>> extrnal drive.
>>>>
>>>> MaryL
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> "R. McCarty" <PcEngWork-NoSpam_@mindspring.com> wrote in message
>>>> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>>>>> First off, you describe your issue very well. It's very hard to know
>>>>> why
>>>>> a drive suddenly reports itself as unformatted. Doubtful it was some
>>>>> kind
>>>>> of lettering collision. You might want to take a look at the System
>>>>> event
>>>>> log and see if any IDE controller or drive errors have happened
>>>>> recently.
>>>>> If I had to speculate, I'd say the Partition table has been corrupted.
>>>>> There
>>>>> are recovery tools but your plan to just reformat is probably best. If
>>>>> you
>>>>> can afford the time, I'd do a full format, not quick just to verify
>>>>> the integrity
>>>>> of the drive itself.
>>>>> Event Log:
>>>>> Click Start, Run (type) EventVwr.Msc [Enter]
>>>>> Expand System and scan Right Pane for red icons that denote errors.
>>>>>
>>>>> "MaryL" <(E-Mail Removed)-OUT-THE-LITTER> wrote in message
>>>>> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>>>>>>I am using a Compaq T8000 (purchased in Nov. 2002), running XP-Home
>>>>>>Edition. Drive C has a capacity120GB with file system NTFS. Drive D
>>>>>>(an internal "slave" drive) should have a capacity of 80GB. I also
>>>>>>have several external USB hard drives that I use for backups and
>>>>>>storage. Everything worked well until today. I was using an I/O Magic
>>>>>>portable hard disk (Maxtor 7200RPM -- 40GB), and I did not notice any
>>>>>>problems. However, after I unplugged the I/O Magic disk, I suddenly
>>>>>>could not access my internal Drive D. It says that Drive D is not
>>>>>>formatted. I checked the I/O Magic disk, and I can't see any problems
>>>>>>there -- all my data is still intact. I rebooted, but still have the
>>>>>>same problem -- Drive D is not formatted (and yet I was able to use
>>>>>>it yesterday). I did a search for this problem and found numerous
>>>>>>references to the external disk suddenly not being formatted, but that
>>>>>>is not my problem. The only relationship in my case is that an
>>>>>>external disk was plugged into the USB port immediately before I saw
>>>>>>this problem. None of the sites I read had a solution except to take
>>>>>>the computer to a tech shop to try to retrieve data.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> One other point I should mention is that I did have another I/O Magic
>>>>>> disk that suddenly "went bad" some time ago. By that, I mean that it
>>>>>> could not even be formatted. That time, too, I did not know what
>>>>>> caused the problem -- but the problem was related only to that disk
>>>>>> and not to my internal hard drives.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Now, the good news is that I could go ahead and format Drive D myself
>>>>>> because I will not lose any data. I have multiple backups of
>>>>>> *everything* and even alternate disks from home to the office every
>>>>>> few weeks to make sure that I will have a copy even if everything at
>>>>>> home were destroyed or stolen. However, can anyone explain what
>>>>>> might have happened to cause this problem so I can avoid it in the
>>>>>> future? And, most important, I would hope to avoid a similar problem
>>>>>> with Drive C.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>>> MaryL
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>
>