Another "No Drive Letter Assigned" Problem

[wizard_chef]

I just upgraded to a new computer and after moving crucial files over,
I mounted the old disk into the new computer, along with a CD/DVD
burner that replaced a CDR in the new computer. So, I have two devices
in the PATA chain. Found out the hard way that only by making the
CD/DVD burner master and the old drive slave, can I get the system to
boot properly. Also had to diddle with the BIOS setting.

The old drive is a WD1000 100 GB drive with two partitions, one which
was bootable. It was running Windows 2000. The new system is running XP
Pro, and the new C: drive is a SATA.

Here's the deal. No drive letter is being assigned. The drive shows up
in Disk Management but only as one large partition. Right clicking on
the old drive symbol in disk managment give me only one non-greyed-out
option ... Delete the partition.

I have tons of valuable data on this drive. Any help here appreciated!

ps I have tried Rescan. No help. Also, previous posts to this forum
don't seem to help me on this one.

 

[Cari \(MS-MVP\)]

You did remember to install the motherboard chipset drivers for the
RAID/SATA didn't you?

 

[Anna]

You did remember to install the motherboard chipset drivers for the
RAID/SATA didn't you?

wizard_chef:
If I correctly understand your problem (and I'm not entirely sure I do), you
cannot access any data on your WD 1000 HD that you've installed as a
secondary drive, right? You're able to boot to your XP OS on your SATA drive
with no problem, right?

That WD drive is detected in the BIOS without any problem, right? Only that
it's not recognized by your XP OS in that no drive letter can be assigned
nor data be accessed from the drive.

Assuming the drive is without defect, and we'll assume that's the case, it
would seem that the drive has not been properly connected/configured. Are
you absolutely sure its data cable is securely connected to the drive and
the motherboard? Any chance that the cable might be defective? I take it
you've connected that drive as a Slave to your DVD burner on either the
Primary or Secondary IDE channels. Is the burner working OK? Are you sure
you've jumpered the drive correctly? And (nearly) needless to say, your XP
OS is formatted NTFS, right?
Anna

 

[Guest]

wizard_chef:
If I correctly understand your problem (and I'm not entirely sure I do), you
cannot access any data on your WD 1000 HD that you've installed as a
secondary drive, right? You're able to boot to your XP OS on your SATA drive
with no problem, right?

That WD drive is detected in the BIOS without any problem, right? Only that
it's not recognized by your XP OS in that no drive letter can be assigned
nor data be accessed from the drive.

Assuming the drive is without defect, and we'll assume that's the case, it
would seem that the drive has not been properly connected/configured. Are
you absolutely sure its data cable is securely connected to the drive and
the motherboard? Any chance that the cable might be defective? I take it
you've connected that drive as a Slave to your DVD burner on either the
Primary or Secondary IDE channels. Is the burner working OK? Are you sure
you've jumpered the drive correctly? And (nearly) needless to say, your XP
OS is formatted NTFS, right?
Anna

Anna

Thank you for your reply, I am having the exact same problem as wizard_chef.

My system boots to a 74gb WD sata (clean install);

on the pata chain I have:
Pri master - Maxtor HD
Pri slave - Maxtor HD
Sec master - DVD Burner
Sec slave - Maxtor HD (this is the device at issue, a 20Gb FAT32 with
active partition. This was my old systems boot
drive)

The system BIOS recognizes the all devices properly, including the Sec
slave. When I boot the system to Win XP Pro and open the disk management
console, it identifies all five devices. The Sec slave is listed also as
FAT32 (healthy) (active), but, no drive letter is assigned. When I
right-click on that partition (or go to the action menu, my only option is to
"Delete Partition".

Any work-arounds will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again,
Don (prosol)

 

[Anna]

Anna
Thank you for your reply, I am having the exact same problem as
wizard_chef.

My system boots to a 74gb WD sata (clean install);

on the pata chain I have:
Pri master - Maxtor HD
Pri slave - Maxtor HD
Sec master - DVD Burner
Sec slave - Maxtor HD (this is the device at issue, a 20Gb FAT32 with
active partition. This was my old systems boot drive)

The system BIOS recognizes the all devices properly, including the Sec
slave. When I boot the system to Win XP Pro and open the disk management
console, it identifies all five devices. The Sec slave is listed also as
FAT32 (healthy) (active), but, no drive letter is assigned. When I
right-click on that partition (or go to the action menu, my only option is
to "Delete Partition".

Any work-arounds will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again,
Don (prosol)

Don:
Repeating my advice to "wizard_chef", make absolutely sure that you've
properly connected & configured that Maxtor drive. Re:check the cable
connections and ensure that it's properly jumpered. You are using a 80-wire
IDE cable for that connection, right? Any chance that the cable may be
defective? I assume that the DVD burner on that Secondary IDE channel is
functioning properly, right?

Could you temporarily install that Maxtor as Primary Slave and Secondary
Master to see if the problem still exists?

I assume that there's data on that 20 GB drive that you still want to
access, right?
Anna