Can no longer recognize second drive

[compsosinc]

Running XP Pro SP2. System has a Maxtor 60GB SCSI hard drive & second
300GB Maxtor on Promise Controller on separate connections (not daisy
chained). The 60GB is a boot-up drive partitioned into C:\ (operating
system) & D:\ (Applications installed). The 300GB drive (F:\) has (1)
partition and contains a data files only. System has ran fine for 2
years. Discovered the C:\ partition had only 700MB free space so began
to delete the following files and perform routine maintenance:

1. Deleted (in Local Settings) all files within the "Temp" folder &
"temporary Internet Files"
2. Deleted all files within C:\Windows\Temp
3. Deleted all $*.X files under C:\Windows EXCEPT the $hf_mig$
folder. These included: $MSI...$ntServicePack..., & $NTunistall...
4. Ran System Tools>Disk Cleanup. Performed compressing of files, etc
5. Rebooted.

After rebooting, can no longer "access" the second drive. If I click
on it in "My Computer" it ask if I want to format it. Also shows it's
only 128GB, not 300GB. Shows same in Disk Management.

What I have done so far:

1. Reloaded XP SP2. Checked for Windows updates.
2. Uninstalled/Disconnected second drive, rebooted, reconnected,
rebooted. Same results.

The second drive is detected by the BIOS correctly.

Any ideas what may have happened or what other troubleshooting steps
to take?

 

[Bill Blanton]

I'd start by pulling the controller card out of the loop. Is the 300GB Maxtor
a SCSI or an IDE(PATA or SATA) device? If need be, temporarily disconnect
an optical drive to connect it to the mobo. I assume the BIOS supports
48-bit LBA, since you say it detects it correctly.

If that fails, I'd run a partinfo on the drive to see what the partition tables
and the boot sector look like. You can find that here-
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/utilities.html

Of course don't do anything that writes to the drive until you discover
what the problem is.

 

[compsosinc]

I'd start by pulling the controller card out of the loop. Is the 300GB Maxtor
a SCSI or an IDE(PATA or SATA) device? If need be, temporarily disconnect
an optical drive to connect it to the mobo. I assume the BIOS supports
48-bit LBA, since you say it detects it correctly.

If that fails, I'd run a partinfo on the drive to see what the partition tables
and the boot sector look like. You can find that here-http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/utilities.html

Of course don't do anything that writes to the drive until you discover
what the problem is.











- Show quoted text -

It was the partition table we fixed it using a utility from
www.partitionsupport.com. Thanks