Partition Magic & lost drive

[Bampah]

I used Partition magic on my new WD 320Gb HDD to mirror my existing C:
drive (Seagate 250Gb)
Everything seemed to go OK but when I rebooted, my new drive was not
recognised in BIOS.
I have changed leads and swapped the drives in every possible
configuration to no avail.
The Seagate still cheerfully appears but no sign of the WD.
Is there any way of resetting the WD so that it will br recognised in
BIOS?
tia
Both SATA drives + XP 3

 

[John McGaw]

I used Partition magic on my new WD 320Gb HDD to mirror my existing C:
drive (Seagate 250Gb)
Everything seemed to go OK but when I rebooted, my new drive was not
recognised in BIOS.
I have changed leads and swapped the drives in every possible
configuration to no avail.
The Seagate still cheerfully appears but no sign of the WD.
Is there any way of resetting the WD so that it will br recognised in
BIOS?
tia
Both SATA drives + XP 3

I have never tried to use Partition Magic to clone a drive (and quite
honestly didn't even know that it was capable). But, since your original
drive is intact, there is nothing to stop you from trying again. This time,
after cloning, remove the original drive entirely to a safe place and then
try booting the clone (this is the proper way to do it). If that doesn't
work there are a number of freeware cloning programs, some of which are
CD-bootable Linux products, out there which are known to work. But the key
is to _always_ disconnect the original drive before booting the clone or
all of the magic will leak out and you are doomed to failure.

 

[mm]

I used Partition magic on my new WD 320Gb HDD to mirror my existing C:

What version of PM? AFAIK, 8 is the last one, and it says that the
maximu size partiotn it can handle is 160 gigs. AFAICR, the manual
didn't say what happened if you tried to use it on a bigger size,
although I think people have done it.

Are you saying you copied all the data or just that you partiioned it.
What size partition did you make, 250?

Did you run PM from a boot cd, or under window? What version?

drive (Seagate 250Gb)
Everything seemed to go OK but when I rebooted, my new drive was not
recognised in BIOS.

Why don't you boot with PM on a CD and see what it thinks about the
drive? Then find some other Partition software and do the same thing.

Some will give warnings when there is no problem. You have to decide
which warnings matter.

 

[Tim]

I used Partition magic on my new WD 320Gb HDD to mirror my existing C:
drive (Seagate 250Gb)
Everything seemed to go OK but when I rebooted, my new drive was not
recognised in BIOS.
I have changed leads and swapped the drives in every possible
configuration to no avail.
The Seagate still cheerfully appears but no sign of the WD.
Is there any way of resetting the WD so that it will br recognised in
BIOS?
tia
Both SATA drives + XP 3

Another couple of things you might want to double-check...

1. The parition, on the WD, must be a primary, not extended
partition; and

2. It must be specifically set active, so the computer will know it
is to boot from that particular parition.

I'm thinking you may have already done this, but in case either of
these are not done, Windows will not boot.

 

[Tim]

Another couple of things you might want to double-check...

1.  The parition, on the WD, must be a primary, not extended
partition; and

2.  It must be specifically set active, so the computer will know it
is to boot from that particular parition.

I'm thinking you may have already done this, but in case either of
these are not done, Windows will not boot.

Also, since these are SATA drives, it makes a difference on many mobos
which numbered SATA slot you plug a drive into. The numbered SATA
slots must be specifically set to ON in the BIOS in order for the
drive to be recognized. In the BIOS, there should be SATA drive
numbers, corresponding to the numbered SATA slot on the mobo, that
need to be set to ON, in order to be recognized.

 

[mm]

I have never tried to use Partition Magic to clone a drive (and quite
honestly didn't even know that it was capable).

Me neither. It will move data when shrinking or splitting a
partition, so they are not in the way, but I think that's the only
time it moves data.

But, since your original
drive is intact, there is nothing to stop you from trying again. This time,

I think you're right.

If the facts were a little different, I'd think maybe partition
recovery software was called for, at least to check out the situation.

http://www.ntfs.com/boot-disk.htm This one only gives a 10 day trial
period but it looks pretty powreful. Oh, then it's 80 dollars. There
are cheeaper and iirc free ones.

 

[ElJerid]

I used Partition magic on my new WD 320Gb HDD to mirror my existing C:
drive (Seagate 250Gb)
Everything seemed to go OK but when I rebooted, my new drive was not
recognised in BIOS.
I have changed leads and swapped the drives in every possible
configuration to no avail.
The Seagate still cheerfully appears but no sign of the WD.
Is there any way of resetting the WD so that it will br recognised in
BIOS?
tia
Both SATA drives + XP 3

Cause the drive is not recognized by the bios, the problem is not due to
wrong mirroring or partionning.
You don' t say what motherboard you have, but with many, you can't
interchange all sata connections.
They have specific colors and some could be reserved for raid (Asus, for
ex.). Check your manual and connect to appropriate sata connectors.
If this does not work, download and run drive utilities from WD site in
order to recognize the drive.

 

[GMAN]

I used Partition magic on my new WD 320Gb HDD to mirror my existing C:
drive (Seagate 250Gb)
Everything seemed to go OK but when I rebooted, my new drive was not
recognised in BIOS.
I have changed leads and swapped the drives in every possible
configuration to no avail.
The Seagate still cheerfully appears but no sign of the WD.
Is there any way of resetting the WD so that it will br recognised in
BIOS?
tia
Both SATA drives + XP 3

You should go ahead and try the

Acronis True Image WD Edition Software found for free on the
www.westerdigital.com site.

http://support.wdc.com/product/downloaddetail.asp?swid=119&wdc_lang=en


It will fully clone everything from old drive to new drive. including a
recovery partition if your specific brand name PC has one of those small
recovery partitions.


This version just requires that at least one of the drives in your system is a
WD drive which you have.

 

[Bampah]

What are you saying?  Is it that when you enter setup you do not see your
new drive listed as one of the drives, or is it that the new drive is
unbootable?

If you don't see it listed, make sure the connection is enabled and then set
it to not installed and then re-set it to automatic.  If this doesn't work,
try a different Sata connector and power cord.  if no joy, look on the drive
for a jumper that shouldn't be there.  as a last resort, Google for problems
regarding the drive model and your motherboard.   Your bios should findthe
drive whether or not it can boot.

If it's there but won't boot, first, check your bios for boot order options.
make sure the first one points to your new drive.  if it does, but still
won't boot, boot your old drive, go into to PM and mark the new partitionon
the new drive as Active.  If PM gives you an horrible warning, ignore it.

If none of that works, delete the partition on the new drive and try cloning
it again.  I've cloned ten or eleven drives with PM8 ___pre-vista___ with no
problems.  Double check all your settings for the clone operation, i.e.that
the new drive partition is to be an active, boot partition.

Good luck -- oh, and a long shot, maybe search for problems with PM and SP3.
haven't heard of any, but I haven't looked.

Mike

One thing I hadn't tried was swapping the power cables.
When I went to do this I noticed that a connector had pulled loose.
Once corrected, my drive was back up
again............................... but not for long.
BIOS fails to recognise it again????
Ah Well. Back to square 1.