2nd hard drive has no letter assigned after install

G

Guest

i have happily been running 2 hard drives for a few years now - one has the
OS on it and the other is used solely for storage. I have just had to do a
fresh install of the OS on the main drive and now have the problem of it not
showing the storage drive.
My computer shows only drive C no second hard drive
Devices shows both hard drives
Disk management shows both devices and shows that they are both healthy and
active etc. However only the main drive has a letter assigned to it.
How do i assign a letter to the 2nd drive without losing all the info on it?
It was fine before the new install on the other drive.
I have tried installing the OS with it attached and without but no change.
Im using Win Xp
help its urgent!
 
G

Guest

Thats a big mistake having it connected during an xp installation....However
for the problem,in diskmgmt,L.click on the unlettered hd,go to actions,select
"change drive letter/path" See if the letters are available.You could/can
also
open system properties,advanced,virtual memory,performace,change button,
if it shows,set to "let system manage"
 
D

DL

An installation, whilst a 2nd hd is connected, doesnt usually cause a
problem, other than sometimes installing to the wrong hd.
However both zip & card readers connected can cause problems.
 
G

Guest

Tried all that and nothing...
When i tried the bit in disk management where you click on 'actions' the
only option i get is to partition drive.... which is already done and healthy
etc!
checked system properties and that is all set correctly.
any more ideas guys? i have 2 days to retireve some vital info from it!
 
A

Anna

Littlestormbigthunder said:
Tried all that and nothing...
When i tried the bit in disk management where you click on 'actions' the
only option i get is to partition drive.... which is already done and
healthy
etc!
checked system properties and that is all set correctly.
any more ideas guys? i have 2 days to retireve some vital info from it!
Click to expand...


Little...
1. First of all, download the HDD diagnostic program from the website of the
manufacturer of the "problem" HDD and check it out, notwithstanding that the
disk is recognized in the BIOS and the XP OS.

2. Assuming it checks out OK, disconnect the drive from the system after
powering off and boot *only* with your boot drive connected. We'll assume it
boots without incident and functions properly, right?

3. After again powering off, reconnect the secondary HDD. Make absolutely
certain it's properly connected and properly configured, i.e., its jumper is
correctly set. (I'm assuming in all this that the HDDs involved are PATA and
not SATA drives. You never did say.)

4. If still no go, reconnect the problem HDD to another IDE channel.

In our experience - in nearly every case where the secondary HDD involved is
non-defective - the non-recognition problem occurs because the disk has been
improperly connected and/or improperly configured.
Anna
 
G

Guest

yep tried all that. What puzzles me is that it had been working find for
18mths! all that changed was that i formated my main drive and reinstalled
the OS. Can't understand why it wont assign a letter as it says its working
fine, shows up on boot up, shows up on device manager and shows up as all ok
 
M

~Mike Hollywood

hi,
your problem is really odd. It could be a defective cable connector, but i
doubt it.
What i'd do at this stage of the game is:
with the system off, disconnect the problem hard drive, and pull the
connectors off the opticals.
Then re-cycle the system by bringing it up, and then sutting it down.
Then, having set the problem drive to cable select or master, plug the
optical cable into it.
Boot up and see what happens.
Mike

(do you have a 2nd system you can put it in? Also, there are usb external
drive
kits that let you connect a drive outside of the box via the usb port. I
have two
of them, they are easy to use, they cost about $25.)
 
G

Guest

Ah, now we are thinking along the same lines.... I was playing with the
settings at boot up when i accidently made it try and boot from the problem
drive and it can up with the go back start up screen and then some message
about it not being able to start or something. I did have go back on the
system before i reinstalled the OS.
So i guess it may be this causing the problem? Would it help if i
reinstalled Go back on the working drive?
 
P

Pierjean

I am having the exact same problem as you with my (now) second HDD with no assigned letter.
I tried everything for weeks.
problem started with having this drive (Sony Vaio) with Norton Goback installed. Goback became corrupted and asked me to reinstall. to desinstall, I needed a password that I lost. no way to get around it. when rebooting, no way to use the goback feature neither since it ask me again for the password. after a so called "help" from symantec 6 technicians with India accent who had all different version on "how to" > The last one made me remove keys in registry. since then the hard drive lost its letter. recognized in Bios and disk managment, as active and healthy. not recognized in my computer. this disk has also a 5 GB hidden partition with the Vaio recovery files that I cannot reach/. I Just learned that Symantec has a program to remove all Norton left over files after a faulty desinstall. This is to be used before reinstalling. my problem is: I cannot even reinstall it since I cannot open the drive. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

EggHeadCafe.com - .NET Developer Portal of Choice
http://www.eggheadcafe.com
 
L

LadyDungeness

Have you tried -- right click on MY COMPUTER > Manage > Hard Disk
Drives > Assign a Drive Letter

`
Lady Dungeness
Crabby, but Delicious!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


On Mon, 23 Jul 2007 13:32:50 -0700, Pierjean wrote:

|I am having the exact same problem as you with my (now) second HDD with no assigned letter.
|I tried everything for weeks.
|problem started with having this drive (Sony Vaio) with Norton Goback installed. Goback became corrupted and asked me to reinstall. to desinstall, I needed a password that I lost. no way to get around it. when rebooting, no way to use the goback feature neither since it ask me again for the password. after a so called "help" from symantec 6 technicians with India accent who had all different version on "how to" > The last one made me remove keys in registry. since then the hard drive lost its letter. recognized in Bios and disk managment, as active and healthy. not recognized in my computer. this disk has also a 5 GB hidden partition with the Vaio recovery files that I cannot reach/. I Just learned that Symantec has a program to remove all Norton left over files after a faulty desinstall. This is to be used before reinstalling. my problem is: I cannot even reinstall it since I cannot open the drive. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
|
|EggHeadCafe.com - .NET Developer Portal of Choice
|http://www.eggheadcafe.com
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Similar Threads

XP Pro cannot detect drive letter for 2nd hard drive 2
No Letter Assigned To 2nd Hard Drive. HELP! 1
No 2nd Hard Drive after XP reinstall 8
No Drive letter for second drive. 4
2nd hard drive 1
Hard drive has no letter assigned 7
Hard drive 1
New Ext HDD No Drive Assigned 2

Top