Slave drive not recognized in My Computer after power interruption

[Guest]

I have an IBM-DPTA-351500 with firmware P5AOA30A installed as a CS slave
drive in an Emachine computer. This drive has been recognized as drive F by
this computer for a couple of years without any problems. Recently, I had a
friend look at my computer to see if he could tell why I had a high pitch
frequency noise in this computer. He determined that it was mostly coming
from this IBM drive and unplugged the power cable to it while the computer
was running (!!!yes I know, I couldn't believe he did it but he just reached
up and did it before I knew what he was doing!!!). The computer did get a
little quieter but he said he thought the master hard drive was making some
noise too.

However, here is my problem. He plugged it back in and I didn't think a
thing about it until I sat down to see if there was anything on it I still
needed before taking it out to put in a new hard drive (first to run as a
slave to copy over the master and then make it become the master). When I
tried to look for it in My Computer it was no longer there. However, it does
show up in Disk Management but the drive letter assignment is no longer
there. The option to "change drive letter and path" is grayed out so I
cannot give it a drive letter. (all options except delete partition and help
are grayed out).

I tried unplugging the data cable and the power to the IBM drive and
rebooting the computer but the result is still the same. I tried putting the
IBM drive in a different computer but the results are still the same. How
can I make Windows recognize this drive again so I can get into it?

Thank you in advance for your help,

 

[C J.]

I have an IBM-DPTA-351500 with firmware P5AOA30A installed as a CS slave
drive in an Emachine computer. This drive has been recognized as drive F
by
this computer for a couple of years without any problems. Recently, I had
a
friend look at my computer to see if he could tell why I had a high pitch
frequency noise in this computer. He determined that it was mostly coming
from this IBM drive and unplugged the power cable to it while the computer
was running (!!!yes I know, I couldn't believe he did it but he just
reached
up and did it before I knew what he was doing!!!). The computer did get a
little quieter but he said he thought the master hard drive was making
some
noise too.

However, here is my problem. He plugged it back in and I didn't think a
thing about it until I sat down to see if there was anything on it I still
needed before taking it out to put in a new hard drive (first to run as a
slave to copy over the master and then make it become the master). When I
tried to look for it in My Computer it was no longer there. However, it
does
show up in Disk Management but the drive letter assignment is no longer
there. The option to "change drive letter and path" is grayed out so I
cannot give it a drive letter. (all options except delete partition and
help
are grayed out).

I tried unplugging the data cable and the power to the IBM drive and
rebooting the computer but the result is still the same. I tried putting
the
IBM drive in a different computer but the results are still the same. How
can I make Windows recognize this drive again so I can get into it?

Thank you in advance for your help,

Dang Cindy... (sighs)

Well it sounds to me like your friend really did you a disservice. He
probably zapped the circuit board on the drive - in the process of
unplugging and then replugging it in. One should always power down a PC,
and ground themselves adequately, before working with the harddrives or even
installed Video, Audio cards and the Motherboard.

As a note for future reference: Some noise in a harddrive after awhile -
is unremarkable; Short of chattering (occasional high speed chuh chuh's or a
hissing rinnnnnnnng) to the more severe grinding (sounds like your chopping
up frozen pork with the garbage disposal on reboot before it dies.)

Did you have a backup of your drives contents?

One other thought.... Your friend needs a wood shampoo.

 

[Guest]

If it was "fried" then how come Disk Management can see the hard drive?
Also, I have Speedfan installed and it too can see the IBM hard drive. Since
it can be seen by other programs on the computer, why can't My Computer see
it? Isn't there any type of program that I can use on it to get back into it
to assign a drive letter to hopefully make it accessable?

Thanks,
Cindy

 

[C J.]

If it was "fried" then how come Disk Management can see the hard drive?
Also, I have Speedfan installed and it too can see the IBM hard drive.
Since
it can be seen by other programs on the computer, why can't My Computer
see
it? Isn't there any type of program that I can use on it to get back into
it
to assign a drive letter to hopefully make it accessable?

Thanks,
Cindy

Just to be sure I understand, you say Disk Manager shows the drive and size
of the partition, but theres no drive letter...

When you reconnected the drive cable... you were certain the red or blue
band on the flat cable was facing the four pin power connector from the
power supply. If its correct, follow the next steps

Lets see about a couple of things First

1. Click Start
2. Click on Control Panel
3. Click on performance and maintenance.
4. Click on System icon
5. Tab on Hardware.
6. Click on Device Manager.
7. Open the [+] Disk Drives Branch in the tree.

a. Is your drive listed there as a slave.
1. if Yes - remove the drive from that list and reboot the
computer. In theory windows should detect it and install a new driver for
it.

2. If No - you might what to try slaving the drive into a different
PC - and see if Windows on that system will assign a drive letter for it.
if its seen run "chkdisk /r /f" on the drive in that computer, before
putting it back into your PC.

 

[C J.]

If it was "fried" then how come Disk Management can see the hard drive?
Also, I have Speedfan installed and it too can see the IBM hard drive.
Since
it can be seen by other programs on the computer, why can't My Computer
see
it? Isn't there any type of program that I can use on it to get back
into it
to assign a drive letter to hopefully make it accessable?

Thanks,
Cindy

Just to be sure I understand, you say Disk Manager shows the drive and
size of the partition, but theres no drive letter...

When you reconnected the drive cable... you were certain the red or blue
band on the flat cable was facing the four pin power connector from the
power supply. If its correct, follow the next steps

Lets see about a couple of things First

1. Click Start
2. Click on Control Panel
3. Click on performance and maintenance.
4. Click on System icon
5. Tab on Hardware.
6. Click on Device Manager.
7. Open the [+] Disk Drives Branch in the tree.

a. Is your drive listed there as a slave.
1. if Yes - remove the drive from that list and reboot the computer.
In theory windows should detect it and install a new driver for it.

Skip Step Two... below

 

[Guest]

The cable is connected correctly.

The drive shows up in Device Manager also without any error.

I can try the remove and reboot suggested but I already essentially did that
when I removed the hard drive and installed it on a totally different
computer like I wrote earlier so I don't think it will make any difference.
It was recognized in Disk Management in that different computer but not in My
Computer just like on the original computer. In both computers, Disk
Management lists this IBM drive as Healthy and Active but no drive letter.

How can Disk Management and Device Manager (and Speedfan) all see this hard
drive but My Computer cannot? If we can figure that out then we should be
able to bypass the problem and reset it. I would think if it was "fried"
then it would not be recognized at all. In my mind, some sort of "pathway"
was lost that allows entry into the disk...like we can see the building but
we just can't open the door. We need to find a way to open the door.

If it was "fried" then how come Disk Management can see the hard drive?
Also, I have Speedfan installed and it too can see the IBM hard drive.
Since
it can be seen by other programs on the computer, why can't My Computer
see
it? Isn't there any type of program that I can use on it to get back into
it
to assign a drive letter to hopefully make it accessable?

Thanks,
Cindy

Just to be sure I understand, you say Disk Manager shows the drive and size
of the partition, but theres no drive letter...

When you reconnected the drive cable... you were certain the red or blue
band on the flat cable was facing the four pin power connector from the
power supply. If its correct, follow the next steps

Lets see about a couple of things First

1. Click Start
2. Click on Control Panel
3. Click on performance and maintenance.
4. Click on System icon
5. Tab on Hardware.
6. Click on Device Manager.
7. Open the [+] Disk Drives Branch in the tree.

a. Is your drive listed there as a slave.
1. if Yes - remove the drive from that list and reboot the
computer. In theory windows should detect it and install a new driver for
it.

2. If No - you might what to try slaving the drive into a different
PC - and see if Windows on that system will assign a drive letter for it.
if its seen run "chkdisk /r /f" on the drive in that computer, before
putting it back into your PC.

 

[C J.]

Hi Cindy,

The reason Disk Manager (and Speedfan) see the Physical disk drive is
because its connected via IDE1 (primary) or IDE2 (secondary) channels on the
motherboard. If DM can see it, but have no drive letter(s) for it, and "My
computer " in windows can't access it - that to me indicates damage either
to the controller in the drives electronics, or it could be a sign of a
corrupted System Volume Information folder for that drive. You've obviously
tried to put it in another machine and that didn't work.

You can install a non partitioned or formatted diskdrive and then use disk
manager to prepare that drive for use in Windows. Once its been
partitioned... a drive letter(s) is/are assigned, and then you would format
the partitioned space(s). .

Admittedly, I haven't been a lot of help, but I have been busy combing the
web looking for a solution or a workaround to your problem. I haven't had
any luck thus far (you can't be the only person in the history of Windows NT
to have this problem... I definitely know you're not the only person to have
a problem with IBM (Hitachi) diskdrives. Incidently, you'll find they make
great paper weights heh.))

Back in a day, when I was still running Windows 98SE - I had a IBM 60GB
Deskstar ATA/133 drive. It was brand spanking new - I hadn't even had the
friggin thing a month... and one night while in the middle of saving some
files to E: DriveStores (what I called one partition volume in mine,) the
drive just suddenly started to clattering and head hammering really bad. In
fact, it froze Windows 98SE and I had to reboot. Then Windows wouldn't
start because the drive was still connected. So i had to disconnect it and
then windows started normally minus the drive. I was stumped for months as
to what I was going to do with the drive because i had all this stuff on it.

The cable is connected correctly.

The drive shows up in Device Manager also without any error.

I can try the remove and reboot suggested but I already essentially did
that
when I removed the hard drive and installed it on a totally different
computer like I wrote earlier so I don't think it will make any
difference.
It was recognized in Disk Management in that different computer but not in
My
Computer just like on the original computer. In both computers, Disk
Management lists this IBM drive as Healthy and Active but no drive letter.

How can Disk Management and Device Manager (and Speedfan) all see this
hard
drive but My Computer cannot? If we can figure that out then we should be
able to bypass the problem and reset it. I would think if it was "fried"
then it would not be recognized at all. In my mind, some sort of
"pathway"
was lost that allows entry into the disk...like we can see the building
but
we just can't open the door. We need to find a way to open the door.

If it was "fried" then how come Disk Management can see the hard drive?
Also, I have Speedfan installed and it too can see the IBM hard drive.
Since
it can be seen by other programs on the computer, why can't My Computer
see
it? Isn't there any type of program that I can use on it to get back
into
it
to assign a drive letter to hopefully make it accessable?

Thanks,
Cindy



:

I have an IBM-DPTA-351500 with firmware P5AOA30A installed as a CS
slave
drive in an Emachine computer. This drive has been recognized as
drive F
by
this computer for a couple of years without any problems. Recently, I
had a
friend look at my computer to see if he could tell why I had a high
pitch
frequency noise in this computer. He determined that it was mostly
coming
from this IBM drive and unplugged the power cable to it while the
computer
was running (!!!yes I know, I couldn't believe he did it but he just
reached
up and did it before I knew what he was doing!!!). The computer did
get
a
little quieter but he said he thought the master hard drive was making
some
noise too.

However, here is my problem. He plugged it back in and I didn't think
a
thing about it until I sat down to see if there was anything on it I
still
needed before taking it out to put in a new hard drive (first to run
as a
slave to copy over the master and then make it become the master).
When
I
tried to look for it in My Computer it was no longer there. However,
it
does
show up in Disk Management but the drive letter assignment is no
longer
there. The option to "change drive letter and path" is grayed out so
I
cannot give it a drive letter. (all options except delete partition
and
help
are grayed out).

I tried unplugging the data cable and the power to the IBM drive and
rebooting the computer but the result is still the same. I tried
putting
the
IBM drive in a different computer but the results are still the same.
How
can I make Windows recognize this drive again so I can get into it?

Thank you in advance for your help,

Just to be sure I understand, you say Disk Manager shows the drive and
size
of the partition, but theres no drive letter...

When you reconnected the drive cable... you were certain the red or blue
band on the flat cable was facing the four pin power connector from the
power supply. If its correct, follow the next steps

Lets see about a couple of things First

1. Click Start
2. Click on Control Panel
3. Click on performance and maintenance.
4. Click on System icon
5. Tab on Hardware.
6. Click on Device Manager.
7. Open the [+] Disk Drives Branch in the tree.

a. Is your drive listed there as a slave.
1. if Yes - remove the drive from that list and reboot the
computer. In theory windows should detect it and install a new driver for
it.

2. If No - you might what to try slaving the drive into a different
PC - and see if Windows on that system will assign a drive letter for it.
if its seen run "chkdisk /r /f" on the drive in that computer, before
putting it back into your PC.

 

[Guest]

Did you ever get into your disk? Maybe I could use the same thing to get
into mine.

The only choice not grayed out is the "delete partition" in Disk Management.
If you delete a partition will it wipe all the data out on the drive too? I
don't know why it would have allow that option but gray out all the other
options.

Like you said...I can't be the first person to experience this type of
problem. When looking at the Properties on this drive it says "This device
is working properly"..so if there is no problem with it My Computer should be
able to access it.

Hi Cindy,

The reason Disk Manager (and Speedfan) see the Physical disk drive is
because its connected via IDE1 (primary) or IDE2 (secondary) channels on the
motherboard. If DM can see it, but have no drive letter(s) for it, and "My
computer " in windows can't access it - that to me indicates damage either
to the controller in the drives electronics, or it could be a sign of a
corrupted System Volume Information folder for that drive. You've obviously
tried to put it in another machine and that didn't work.

You can install a non partitioned or formatted diskdrive and then use disk
manager to prepare that drive for use in Windows. Once its been
partitioned... a drive letter(s) is/are assigned, and then you would format
the partitioned space(s). .

Admittedly, I haven't been a lot of help, but I have been busy combing the
web looking for a solution or a workaround to your problem. I haven't had
any luck thus far (you can't be the only person in the history of Windows NT
to have this problem... I definitely know you're not the only person to have
a problem with IBM (Hitachi) diskdrives. Incidently, you'll find they make
great paper weights heh.))

Back in a day, when I was still running Windows 98SE - I had a IBM 60GB
Deskstar ATA/133 drive. It was brand spanking new - I hadn't even had the
friggin thing a month... and one night while in the middle of saving some
files to E: DriveStores (what I called one partition volume in mine,) the
drive just suddenly started to clattering and head hammering really bad. In
fact, it froze Windows 98SE and I had to reboot. Then Windows wouldn't
start because the drive was still connected. So i had to disconnect it and
then windows started normally minus the drive. I was stumped for months as
to what I was going to do with the drive because i had all this stuff on it.

The cable is connected correctly.

The drive shows up in Device Manager also without any error.

I can try the remove and reboot suggested but I already essentially did
that
when I removed the hard drive and installed it on a totally different
computer like I wrote earlier so I don't think it will make any
difference.
It was recognized in Disk Management in that different computer but not in
My
Computer just like on the original computer. In both computers, Disk
Management lists this IBM drive as Healthy and Active but no drive letter.

How can Disk Management and Device Manager (and Speedfan) all see this
hard
drive but My Computer cannot? If we can figure that out then we should be
able to bypass the problem and reset it. I would think if it was "fried"
then it would not be recognized at all. In my mind, some sort of
"pathway"
was lost that allows entry into the disk...like we can see the building
but
we just can't open the door. We need to find a way to open the door.

If it was "fried" then how come Disk Management can see the hard drive?
Also, I have Speedfan installed and it too can see the IBM hard drive.
Since
it can be seen by other programs on the computer, why can't My Computer
see
it? Isn't there any type of program that I can use on it to get back
into
it
to assign a drive letter to hopefully make it accessable?

Thanks,
Cindy



:

I have an IBM-DPTA-351500 with firmware P5AOA30A installed as a CS
slave
drive in an Emachine computer. This drive has been recognized as
drive F
by
this computer for a couple of years without any problems. Recently, I
had a
friend look at my computer to see if he could tell why I had a high
pitch
frequency noise in this computer. He determined that it was mostly
coming
from this IBM drive and unplugged the power cable to it while the
computer
was running (!!!yes I know, I couldn't believe he did it but he just
reached
up and did it before I knew what he was doing!!!). The computer did
get
a
little quieter but he said he thought the master hard drive was making
some
noise too.

However, here is my problem. He plugged it back in and I didn't think
a
thing about it until I sat down to see if there was anything on it I
still
needed before taking it out to put in a new hard drive (first to run
as a
slave to copy over the master and then make it become the master).
When
I
tried to look for it in My Computer it was no longer there. However,
it
does
show up in Disk Management but the drive letter assignment is no
longer
there. The option to "change drive letter and path" is grayed out so
I
cannot give it a drive letter. (all options except delete partition
and
help
are grayed out).

I tried unplugging the data cable and the power to the IBM drive and
rebooting the computer but the result is still the same. I tried
putting
the
IBM drive in a different computer but the results are still the same.
How
can I make Windows recognize this drive again so I can get into it?

Thank you in advance for your help,


Just to be sure I understand, you say Disk Manager shows the drive and
size
of the partition, but theres no drive letter...

When you reconnected the drive cable... you were certain the red or blue
band on the flat cable was facing the four pin power connector from the
power supply. If its correct, follow the next steps

Lets see about a couple of things First

1. Click Start
2. Click on Control Panel
3. Click on performance and maintenance.
4. Click on System icon
5. Tab on Hardware.
6. Click on Device Manager.
7. Open the [+] Disk Drives Branch in the tree.

a. Is your drive listed there as a slave.
1. if Yes - remove the drive from that list and reboot the
computer. In theory windows should detect it and install a new driver for
it.

2. If No - you might what to try slaving the drive into a different
PC - and see if Windows on that system will assign a drive letter for it.
if its seen run "chkdisk /r /f" on the drive in that computer, before
putting it back into your PC.

 

[C J.]

Yeah - I finally did, a few months later when I first installed XP SP1. No
one was more surprised than I was when it fired up.

Just for giggles I decided to hook the drive up one night, turned on the PC
and XP saw it as plain as day. Knowing I was seeing a miracle, but that it
was or could be short lived (once the drive heated up,) I took the time to
back all the stuff off it that I wanted / needed and then I wiped the drive
and tossed it out.

You never did answer me about whether you have a backup of the contents for
that drive... I'm assuming your answer would be no, and thats unfortunate.

I did run across something a few minutes ago... You tried the drive in
another machine, and there was still no drive letter. According to the
article that indicates a bad drive controller. What probably happened was
an ESD (Electro Static Discharge) occured when your friend touched the drive
(while PC was already on) to disconnect it ( If he touched the circuit card
on the drive more directly, then POW. Your lucky to even be seeing it in DM)

The article also went on to suggest if the drive worked on another PC then
the IDE channel on what would be your motherboard might of gone bad. That
doesn't sound like what your problem is.

Only other thing you can do, is get an estimate from a drive recovery
service such as Ontrack. I'll forwarn you now, that process could cost a
couple of thousand dollars... depending on the drive size and the amount of
data.

I'll keep looking to see what else I can come up with. I have this marked
as being watched in my News reader.

Did you ever get into your disk? Maybe I could use the same thing to get
into mine.

The only choice not grayed out is the "delete partition" in Disk
Management.
If you delete a partition will it wipe all the data out on the drive too?
I
don't know why it would have allow that option but gray out all the other
options.

Like you said...I can't be the first person to experience this type of
problem. When looking at the Properties on this drive it says "This
device
is working properly"..so if there is no problem with it My Computer should
be
able to access it.

Hi Cindy,

The reason Disk Manager (and Speedfan) see the Physical disk drive is
because its connected via IDE1 (primary) or IDE2 (secondary) channels on
the
motherboard. If DM can see it, but have no drive letter(s) for it, and
"My
computer " in windows can't access it - that to me indicates damage
either
to the controller in the drives electronics, or it could be a sign of a
corrupted System Volume Information folder for that drive. You've
obviously
tried to put it in another machine and that didn't work.

You can install a non partitioned or formatted diskdrive and then use
disk
manager to prepare that drive for use in Windows. Once its been
partitioned... a drive letter(s) is/are assigned, and then you would
format
the partitioned space(s). .

Admittedly, I haven't been a lot of help, but I have been busy combing
the
web looking for a solution or a workaround to your problem. I haven't had
any luck thus far (you can't be the only person in the history of Windows
NT
to have this problem... I definitely know you're not the only person to
have
a problem with IBM (Hitachi) diskdrives. Incidently, you'll find they
make
great paper weights heh.))

Back in a day, when I was still running Windows 98SE - I had a IBM 60GB
Deskstar ATA/133 drive. It was brand spanking new - I hadn't even had
the
friggin thing a month... and one night while in the middle of saving some
files to E: DriveStores (what I called one partition volume in mine,) the
drive just suddenly started to clattering and head hammering really bad.
In
fact, it froze Windows 98SE and I had to reboot. Then Windows wouldn't
start because the drive was still connected. So i had to disconnect it
and
then windows started normally minus the drive. I was stumped for months
as
to what I was going to do with the drive because i had all this stuff on
it.

The cable is connected correctly.

The drive shows up in Device Manager also without any error.

I can try the remove and reboot suggested but I already essentially did
that
when I removed the hard drive and installed it on a totally different
computer like I wrote earlier so I don't think it will make any
difference.
It was recognized in Disk Management in that different computer but not
in
My
Computer just like on the original computer. In both computers, Disk
Management lists this IBM drive as Healthy and Active but no drive
letter.

How can Disk Management and Device Manager (and Speedfan) all see this
hard
drive but My Computer cannot? If we can figure that out then we should
be
able to bypass the problem and reset it. I would think if it was
"fried"
then it would not be recognized at all. In my mind, some sort of
"pathway"
was lost that allows entry into the disk...like we can see the building
but
we just can't open the door. We need to find a way to open the door.



:


If it was "fried" then how come Disk Management can see the hard
drive?
Also, I have Speedfan installed and it too can see the IBM hard
drive.
Since
it can be seen by other programs on the computer, why can't My
Computer
see
it? Isn't there any type of program that I can use on it to get
back
into
it
to assign a drive letter to hopefully make it accessable?

Thanks,
Cindy



:

I have an IBM-DPTA-351500 with firmware P5AOA30A installed as a CS
slave
drive in an Emachine computer. This drive has been recognized as
drive F
by
this computer for a couple of years without any problems.
Recently, I
had a
friend look at my computer to see if he could tell why I had a high
pitch
frequency noise in this computer. He determined that it was mostly
coming
from this IBM drive and unplugged the power cable to it while the
computer
was running (!!!yes I know, I couldn't believe he did it but he
just
reached
up and did it before I knew what he was doing!!!). The computer
did
get
a
little quieter but he said he thought the master hard drive was
making
some
noise too.

However, here is my problem. He plugged it back in and I didn't
think
a
thing about it until I sat down to see if there was anything on it
I
still
needed before taking it out to put in a new hard drive (first to
run
as a
slave to copy over the master and then make it become the master).
When
I
tried to look for it in My Computer it was no longer there.
However,
it
does
show up in Disk Management but the drive letter assignment is no
longer
there. The option to "change drive letter and path" is grayed out
so
I
cannot give it a drive letter. (all options except delete
partition
and
help
are grayed out).

I tried unplugging the data cable and the power to the IBM drive
and
rebooting the computer but the result is still the same. I tried
putting
the
IBM drive in a different computer but the results are still the
same.
How
can I make Windows recognize this drive again so I can get into it?

Thank you in advance for your help,


Just to be sure I understand, you say Disk Manager shows the drive and
size
of the partition, but theres no drive letter...

When you reconnected the drive cable... you were certain the red or
blue
band on the flat cable was facing the four pin power connector from
the
power supply. If its correct, follow the next steps

Lets see about a couple of things First

1. Click Start
2. Click on Control Panel
3. Click on performance and maintenance.
4. Click on System icon
5. Tab on Hardware.
6. Click on Device Manager.
7. Open the [+] Disk Drives Branch in the tree.

a. Is your drive listed there as a slave.
1. if Yes - remove the drive from that list and reboot the
computer. In theory windows should detect it and install a new driver
for
it.

2. If No - you might what to try slaving the drive into a
different
PC - and see if Windows on that system will assign a drive letter for
it.
if its seen run "chkdisk /r /f" on the drive in that computer, before
putting it back into your PC.

 

[C J.]

Heh... I found one more thing Cindy,

.... when you look at that drive in Disk Manager... is there a Dark Blue
Band, a Lite Blue Band or a Black band there representing the drive with no
letter? If there is any color band.. have you tried right clicking on the
band seeing if you can assign a letter from there?

Yeah - I finally did, a few months later when I first installed XP SP1. No
one was more surprised than I was when it fired up.

Just for giggles I decided to hook the drive up one night, turned on the
PC and XP saw it as plain as day. Knowing I was seeing a miracle, but
that it was or could be short lived (once the drive heated up,) I took
the time to back all the stuff off it that I wanted / needed and then I
wiped the drive and tossed it out.

You never did answer me about whether you have a backup of the contents
for that drive... I'm assuming your answer would be no, and thats
unfortunate.

I did run across something a few minutes ago... You tried the drive in
another machine, and there was still no drive letter. According to the
article that indicates a bad drive controller. What probably happened was
an ESD (Electro Static Discharge) occured when your friend touched the
drive (while PC was already on) to disconnect it ( If he touched the
circuit card on the drive more directly, then POW. Your lucky to even be
seeing it in DM)

The article also went on to suggest if the drive worked on another PC then
the IDE channel on what would be your motherboard might of gone bad. That
doesn't sound like what your problem is.

Only other thing you can do, is get an estimate from a drive recovery
service such as Ontrack. I'll forwarn you now, that process could cost a
couple of thousand dollars... depending on the drive size and the amount
of data.

I'll keep looking to see what else I can come up with. I have this marked
as being watched in my News reader.

Did you ever get into your disk? Maybe I could use the same thing to get
into mine.

The only choice not grayed out is the "delete partition" in Disk
Management.
If you delete a partition will it wipe all the data out on the drive too?
I
don't know why it would have allow that option but gray out all the other
options.

Like you said...I can't be the first person to experience this type of
problem. When looking at the Properties on this drive it says "This
device
is working properly"..so if there is no problem with it My Computer
should be
able to access it.

Hi Cindy,

The reason Disk Manager (and Speedfan) see the Physical disk drive is
because its connected via IDE1 (primary) or IDE2 (secondary) channels on
the
motherboard. If DM can see it, but have no drive letter(s) for it, and
"My
computer " in windows can't access it - that to me indicates damage
either
to the controller in the drives electronics, or it could be a sign of a
corrupted System Volume Information folder for that drive. You've
obviously
tried to put it in another machine and that didn't work.

You can install a non partitioned or formatted diskdrive and then use
disk
manager to prepare that drive for use in Windows. Once its been
partitioned... a drive letter(s) is/are assigned, and then you would
format
the partitioned space(s). .

Admittedly, I haven't been a lot of help, but I have been busy combing
the
web looking for a solution or a workaround to your problem. I haven't
had
any luck thus far (you can't be the only person in the history of
Windows NT
to have this problem... I definitely know you're not the only person to
have
a problem with IBM (Hitachi) diskdrives. Incidently, you'll find they
make
great paper weights heh.))

Back in a day, when I was still running Windows 98SE - I had a IBM 60GB
Deskstar ATA/133 drive. It was brand spanking new - I hadn't even had
the
friggin thing a month... and one night while in the middle of saving
some
files to E: DriveStores (what I called one partition volume in mine,)
the
drive just suddenly started to clattering and head hammering really bad.
In
fact, it froze Windows 98SE and I had to reboot. Then Windows wouldn't
start because the drive was still connected. So i had to disconnect it
and
then windows started normally minus the drive. I was stumped for months
as
to what I was going to do with the drive because i had all this stuff on
it.




The cable is connected correctly.

The drive shows up in Device Manager also without any error.

I can try the remove and reboot suggested but I already essentially
did
that
when I removed the hard drive and installed it on a totally different
computer like I wrote earlier so I don't think it will make any
difference.
It was recognized in Disk Management in that different computer but
not in
My
Computer just like on the original computer. In both computers, Disk
Management lists this IBM drive as Healthy and Active but no drive
letter.

How can Disk Management and Device Manager (and Speedfan) all see this
hard
drive but My Computer cannot? If we can figure that out then we
should be
able to bypass the problem and reset it. I would think if it was
"fried"
then it would not be recognized at all. In my mind, some sort of
"pathway"
was lost that allows entry into the disk...like we can see the
building
but
we just can't open the door. We need to find a way to open the door.



:


If it was "fried" then how come Disk Management can see the hard
drive?
Also, I have Speedfan installed and it too can see the IBM hard
drive.
Since
it can be seen by other programs on the computer, why can't My
Computer
see
it? Isn't there any type of program that I can use on it to get
back
into
it
to assign a drive letter to hopefully make it accessable?

Thanks,
Cindy



:

I have an IBM-DPTA-351500 with firmware P5AOA30A installed as a CS
slave
drive in an Emachine computer. This drive has been recognized as
drive F
by
this computer for a couple of years without any problems.
Recently, I
had a
friend look at my computer to see if he could tell why I had a
high
pitch
frequency noise in this computer. He determined that it was
mostly
coming
from this IBM drive and unplugged the power cable to it while the
computer
was running (!!!yes I know, I couldn't believe he did it but he
just
reached
up and did it before I knew what he was doing!!!). The computer
did
get
a
little quieter but he said he thought the master hard drive was
making
some
noise too.

However, here is my problem. He plugged it back in and I didn't
think
a
thing about it until I sat down to see if there was anything on it
I
still
needed before taking it out to put in a new hard drive (first to
run
as a
slave to copy over the master and then make it become the master).
When
I
tried to look for it in My Computer it was no longer there.
However,
it
does
show up in Disk Management but the drive letter assignment is no
longer
there. The option to "change drive letter and path" is grayed out
so
I
cannot give it a drive letter. (all options except delete
partition
and
help
are grayed out).

I tried unplugging the data cable and the power to the IBM drive
and
rebooting the computer but the result is still the same. I tried
putting
the
IBM drive in a different computer but the results are still the
same.
How
can I make Windows recognize this drive again so I can get into
it?

Thank you in advance for your help,


Just to be sure I understand, you say Disk Manager shows the drive
and
size
of the partition, but theres no drive letter...

When you reconnected the drive cable... you were certain the red or
blue
band on the flat cable was facing the four pin power connector from
the
power supply. If its correct, follow the next steps

Lets see about a couple of things First

1. Click Start
2. Click on Control Panel
3. Click on performance and maintenance.
4. Click on System icon
5. Tab on Hardware.
6. Click on Device Manager.
7. Open the [+] Disk Drives Branch in the tree.

a. Is your drive listed there as a slave.
1. if Yes - remove the drive from that list and reboot the
computer. In theory windows should detect it and install a new driver
for
it.

2. If No - you might what to try slaving the drive into a
different
PC - and see if Windows on that system will assign a drive letter for
it.
if its seen run "chkdisk /r /f" on the drive in that computer, before
putting it back into your PC.

 

[Guest]

I "think" I copied over all the data a couple of years ago when I had to take
that drive out of it's computer when it's graphic card (permanent part of the
motherboard) when out and putting in a new graphics card could not bypass the
one on the motherboard. But before I removed that IBM drive from this
computer I wanted to look at it one more time and compare the files to make
sure I had a copy of everything I wanted. If it ends up I can't do a thing
to get into it I won't spend thousands of dollars on it just to take a look
(probably wouldn't even spend a hundred dollars on it either).

The hard drive was still in the case in the computer when all of this took
place. My friend only unplugged the power cable and didn't touch the board
on the drive. Does this info change your thought on the drive controller
being affected by an ESD?

There is a Dark Blue Band for the drive, but as I said before everything is
grayed out but "delete partition" and "help" when I right click on it.
Otherwise that was my first thought was to assign my own drive letter to see
if that fixed things but since everything but delete partition and help is
grayed out I can't do a darn thing.

Can you delete a partition without wiping out the files?

 

[Rock]

Can you delete a partition without wiping out the files?

No.

 

[C J.]

Hi Cindy,.

I believe you said the drive was your F: drive... one final thing will tell
us if the drive is completely toasted - or perhaps Windows is screwed up in
some way that can be fixed.

I don't want to get your hopes up...

Press Start, Run - type CMD... at C:\ prompt.. Type F: [Enter]

If your fortunate enough to see an F:\ prompt - and not an "Invalid drive
Specification" or "The system cannot find the drive specified" error
messages - the next thing I'd try is Chkdsk F: /r /f

Reboot the system, and see if the drive becomes visible.

One site I looked at today discussed an internal hard drive not being
visible in "my computer", - and one of the admins there suggested the OP
shut down his computer, remove the Hard drive, remove the battery on the
motherboard and let it completely lose any milli-voltage (leave it set for
24 hours,) before reversing the procedure. Since the original poster never
got back to them with the results, attempting this with a problem drive
might not be worth while trying.

Harddrives go out in some unique ways. I had a ST32231 seagate drives
circuit board frapp while my computer was running. The platters and heads
inside the drive are still good ( I never had a lick of trouble with it
until the card shorted out.) If I could find a replacement drive with a
good circuit board I'd attempt a swap. I already told you about my IBM
Deskstar. I just hope someone didn't find it in the trash and try to use it.
heh.

At anyrate let us know what you find out.

 

[Guest]

I had tried this before but just tried it again, just incase a miracle would
happen but got the same results...
"The system cannot find the drive specified" error message

I have been spending a lot of time searching the Internet too and haven't
found anything to "fix" my problem. Disk management says the hard drive is
healthy and active and Device Manager says it is working properly so it just
doesn't make sense that I can't get into it.

I hope someone here has some more ideas too as there has to be a way to get
into a healthy, active, properly working hard drive that only My Computer has
a problem with.

Thank you for continuing to try and solve this problem!

Hi Cindy,.

I believe you said the drive was your F: drive... one final thing will tell
us if the drive is completely toasted - or perhaps Windows is screwed up in
some way that can be fixed.

I don't want to get your hopes up...

Press Start, Run - type CMD... at C:\ prompt.. Type F: [Enter]

If your fortunate enough to see an F:\ prompt - and not an "Invalid drive
Specification" or "The system cannot find the drive specified" error
messages - the next thing I'd try is Chkdsk F: /r /f

Reboot the system, and see if the drive becomes visible.

One site I looked at today discussed an internal hard drive not being
visible in "my computer", - and one of the admins there suggested the OP
shut down his computer, remove the Hard drive, remove the battery on the
motherboard and let it completely lose any milli-voltage (leave it set for
24 hours,) before reversing the procedure. Since the original poster never
got back to them with the results, attempting this with a problem drive
might not be worth while trying.

Harddrives go out in some unique ways. I had a ST32231 seagate drives
circuit board frapp while my computer was running. The platters and heads
inside the drive are still good ( I never had a lick of trouble with it
until the card shorted out.) If I could find a replacement drive with a
good circuit board I'd attempt a swap. I already told you about my IBM
Deskstar. I just hope someone didn't find it in the trash and try to use it.
heh.

At anyrate let us know what you find out.

No.