2nd Hard Disk - not recoqnised

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Paul

Hello,
Thanks for reading me.

I've an old HP Pavillion PC, and I'm upgrading to a brand spanking new
one at the end of this week. To help with data transition I have
obtained a second hard drive (Maxtor 160Gb).

However this isn't recoqnised by Windows as such. The BIOS finds it,
WinXPPro (SP2) found it on first boot and installed it without error.
However it doesn't appear in windows explorer. If I right-click my
computer \ manage \ disk manager it shows up as 'foreign' If I make it
native it warns it will delete its contents. I don't want this to
happen as it now has all my data on it.

Eck! Any ideas?

~ Paul
 
Paul, is it the older IDE Ribbon Cable Interface or the newer SATA
Interface. If the latter you have to probably install
drivers for it. If the Maxtor drive is IDE and not new then use fdisk and
partition, set Active and Format.
 
Thank you for your reply.

All my drives are the grey ribbon type.
Won't fdisking etc remove its contents? It has data on it you see.

So I had an old computer with a two very small hard disks. Obtained a
new one (maxtor) and connected the two. The old PC I was using
recoqnised it and I was able to copy my files from the small HD to the
Maxtor.
I then took Maxtor drive (with all my data now on) to my home PC so I
could copy some more files to it. The idea was that when the new PC
arrives I can connect this to it and have two drives in the new one.

However for the meantime I have placed it back into my HP Pavillion.
It is here that the drive is showing as foreign and not able to view
its contents.

~ Paul
 
Paul said:
Hello,
Thanks for reading me.

I've an old HP Pavillion PC, and I'm upgrading to a brand spanking new
one at the end of this week. To help with data transition I have
obtained a second hard drive (Maxtor 160Gb).

However this isn't recoqnised by Windows as such. The BIOS finds it,
WinXPPro (SP2) found it on first boot and installed it without error.
However it doesn't appear in windows explorer. If I right-click my
computer \ manage \ disk manager it shows up as 'foreign' If I make it
native it warns it will delete its contents. I don't want this to
happen as it now has all my data on it.

Eck! Any ideas?

~ Paul
Click to expand...

When you installed the new disk in the first computer (where you
transferred the data), did you define it as a dynamic disk rather than a
basic disk?

In Windows Help & Support, search for "foreign disk". Here's an excerpt:

Disk status descriptions

....

Foreign

The Foreign status occurs when you move a dynamic disk to the local
computer from another computer running Windows 2000, or Windows XP
Professional. The Foreign status can also occur on computers running
Windows XP Home Edition that are configured to dual-boot with another
operating system that uses dynamic disks (such as Windows 2000
Professional). Dynamic disks are not supported on Windows XP Home
Edition or on portable computers. A warning icon appears on disks that
display the Foreign status.

To access data on the disk, you must add the disk to your computer's
system configuration. To add a disk to your computer's system
configuration, import the foreign disk (right-click the disk and then
click Import Foreign Disks). Any existing volumes on the foreign disk
become visible and accessible when you import the disk. For instructions
describing how to move and import disks, see To move disks to another
computer.

In Windows XP Home Edition you cannot access data on the disk, but you
can convert the disk to a basic disk so that you can use the disk.
Converting a dynamic disk to a basic disk destroys all data on the disk.

Warning

Do not convert a dynamic disk to a basic disk unless you are certain
that you no longer need the data on that disk.
To convert the disk to an empty basic disk, see To change a dynamic disk
back to a basic disk.
In some cases, a disk that was previously connected to the system can
display the Foreign status. Configuration data for dynamic disks is
stored on all dynamic disks, so the information about which disks are
owned by the system is lost when all dynamic disks fail.

For instructions describing how to fix disks with Foreign status, see
Troubleshooting.
 
Hi thanks for your reply,

The computer I took it from: I don't know if it was dynamic or basic.
To be honest I'm not sure what the difference is.
I'll try reinserting it back into another computer to see if I can
view the informaiton.

~ Paul
 
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