Can't access data on slave drive after reinstalling XP

Guest · Mar 6, 2005

I've just reinstalled XP on my C drive (master). I have a second hard drive
(primary slave) which is partitioned and worked fine prior to XP
reinstallation. It is a western digital 200GB WD Caviar SE - 7200 RPM drive
connected internally to a Promise Ultra 100 TX2 PCI Controller Card. It has
all of my backup files on it.

THe new installation of XP is fine, although the second drive is only
recognized as "F" and double clicking onto the slave drive only brings up a
format disk option. XP is not showing the partitions. How do I "tell" XP
that this drive has already been formatted for XP and is partitioned and that
there is data already on it?

Looking on the Western Digital website i get:

"Data cannot be accessed on a slave drive after reinstalling Windows XP Home
Edition on the master drive. This issue is related to the operating system
and is beyond the basic level of support offered by Western Digital. Because
this is a Windows operating system issue, please contact Microsoft for
technical support on this issue after verifying that you have installed and
jumpered all of your IDE devices correctly."

Go figure... Any help would be greatly appreciated. I have years and years
of work saved on the second hard drive!

Thank you in advance.

Tom · Mar 6, 2005

OnCallDoc said:
I've just reinstalled XP on my C drive (master). I have a second hard
drive
(primary slave) which is partitioned and worked fine prior to XP
reinstallation. It is a western digital 200GB WD Caviar SE - 7200 RPM
drive
connected internally to a Promise Ultra 100 TX2 PCI Controller Card. It
has
all of my backup files on it.

THe new installation of XP is fine, although the second drive is only
recognized as "F" and double clicking onto the slave drive only brings up
a
format disk option. XP is not showing the partitions. How do I "tell" XP
that this drive has already been formatted for XP and is partitioned and
that
there is data already on it?

Looking on the Western Digital website i get:

"Data cannot be accessed on a slave drive after reinstalling Windows XP
Home
Edition on the master drive. This issue is related to the operating
system
and is beyond the basic level of support offered by Western Digital.
Because
this is a Windows operating system issue, please contact Microsoft for
technical support on this issue after verifying that you have installed
and
jumpered all of your IDE devices correctly."

Go figure... Any help would be greatly appreciated. I have years and
years
of work saved on the second hard drive!

Thank you in advance.

If you have time, and especially a broadband connection, you could try
downloading Knoppix, burning ISO to CD and using it as a CD run (operating
system) Linux distro. You may be able to see all of your files using it, and
then copy them over to your current hard drive, then format the second drive
using Windows, and then copy back over the files.

In the future though, I would ALWAYS keep what is important to you, on media
outside of the actual PC, e.g. external hard drive, or DVD backup data, as
DVD burners are real cheap, as are the DVD media.

Guest · Mar 6, 2005

thanks Tom for the advice and solution. At least I know now there is a
possibility I can get my data back. Is there another solution? I thought the
idea with a second hard drive was to back up data files so that in the event
your operating system crashes you would not lose your data.

I guess it was naive to think I could simply plug the second hard drive back
in as a plug and play like device and expect everything to be as it was
before.

Any other suggestions?

Thank you.

Tom · Mar 6, 2005

OnCallDoc said:
thanks Tom for the advice and solution. At least I know now there is a
possibility I can get my data back. Is there another solution? I thought
the
idea with a second hard drive was to back up data files so that in the
event
your operating system crashes you would not lose your data.

The backup thinking is correct, but you are still at the mercy of the PC as
a whole. If the PC fails, it still doesn't make it possible to see the files
on another PC, even if the drive was not the system drive. Since Windows
isn't recognizing a file system (FAT or NTFS), it won't see it as a valid
storage device, though data may actually reside on it.

I guess it was naive to think I could simply plug the second hard drive
back
in as a plug and play like device and expect everything to be as it was
before.

What filing system are you using (NTFS or FAT)? I am assuming NTFS
considering the size of your drive.

Any other suggestions?

Well, I am not to knowledgeable about file recovery programs for NTFS
formatted drives, though I have heard of them before. Do a Google search for
free file recovery programs (or not so expensive ones) I know some of those
very good systems cost well into the hundreds of dollars, even thousands.

Anna · Mar 6, 2005

OnCallDoc said:
I've just reinstalled XP on my C drive (master). I have a second hard
drive (primary slave) which is partitioned and worked fine prior to XP
reinstallation. It is a western digital 200GB WD Caviar SE - 7200 RPM
drive connected internally to a Promise Ultra 100 TX2 PCI Controller Card.
It
has all of my backup files on it.

THe new installation of XP is fine, although the second drive is only
recognized as "F" and double clicking onto the slave drive only brings up
a format disk option. XP is not showing the partitions. How do I "tell"
XP
that this drive has already been formatted for XP and is partitioned and
that there is data already on it?

Looking on the Western Digital website i get:

"Data cannot be accessed on a slave drive after reinstalling Windows XP
Home Edition on the master drive. This issue is related to the
operating
system and is beyond the basic level of support offered by Western
Digital.
Because this is a Windows operating system issue, please contact Microsoft
for
technical support on this issue after verifying that you have installed
and jumpered all of your IDE devices correctly."

Go figure... Any help would be greatly appreciated. I have years and
years of work saved on the second hard drive!

Thank you in advance.

OnCallDoc said:
thanks Tom for the advice and solution. At least I know now there is a
possibility I can get my data back. Is there another solution? I thought
the
idea with a second hard drive was to back up data files so that in the
event
your operating system crashes you would not lose your data.

I guess it was naive to think I could simply plug the second hard drive
back
in as a plug and play like device and expect everything to be as it was
before.

Any other suggestions?

Thank you.

Doc:
You state that your problem began after a reinstallation of XP on your
primary HD. Can we assume that no hardware changes of any kind occurred at
this time? And that you're *absolutely* certain the second drive that you're
having problems with is correctly jumpered and connected? And that there
were no problems with that drive prior to the reinstall of the OS?

Have you tried connecting the second drive to one of your motherboard's IDE
connectors (making sure it's jumpered correctly, of course)? Are you using
the Promise controller card because your motherboard's BIOS doesn't support
large-capacity disks? Even if so, try connecting the drive to one of the
MB's IDE connectors and see if at least a portion of the drive is recognized
and can be accessed.

You mention that the drive's letter is "F". Is that a change from its
previous drive letter before you reinstalled XP?

When you access XP's Disk Management utility (Start > right-click My
Computer > Manage > Disk Management), specifically and in detail, what does
it show re your problem drive? When you right-click on the graphic for that
drive, is there an item "Change Drive Letter and Paths..." that can be
accessed?
Anna

Guest · Mar 6, 2005

thanks for your reply Anna. The answers to your questions are answered below.

Doc:
You state that your problem began after a reinstallation of XP on your
primary HD. Can we assume that no hardware changes of any kind occurred at
this time? And that you're *absolutely* certain the second drive that you're
having problems with is correctly jumpered and connected? And that there
were no problems with that drive prior to the reinstall of the OS?
------------------
Correct. There were no problems with the second hard drive nor were there
problems with the primary drive. I just formatted the C drive because I
could not get my iPod to work (OS would crash everytime I plugged in my ipod
-- it was my last resort). Otherwise the hardware is intact and unchanged.
------------------
------------------

Have you tried connecting the second drive to one of your motherboard's IDE
connectors (making sure it's jumpered correctly, of course)? Are you using
the Promise controller card because your motherboard's BIOS doesn't support
large-capacity disks? Even if so, try connecting the drive to one of the
MB's IDE connectors and see if at least a portion of the drive is recognized
and can be accessed.
--------------------
I'll give it a try right after I answer this.
--------------------
--------------------

You mention that the drive's letter is "F". Is that a change from its
previous drive letter before you reinstalled XP?
--------------
yes and no. the drive is 200GB so i partitioned it into four 50GB drives.
Currently windows only sees it as one drive that is 128GB.
--------------
---------------

When you access XP's Disk Management utility (Start > right-click My
Computer > Manage > Disk Management), specifically and in detail, what does
it show re your problem drive? When you right-click on the graphic for that
drive, is there an item "Change Drive Letter and Paths..." that can be
accessed?

Anna · Mar 6, 2005

OnCallDoc said:
thanks for your reply Anna. The answers to your questions are answered
below.

Doc:
You state that your problem began after a reinstallation of XP on your
primary HD. Can we assume that no hardware changes of any kind occurred at
this time? And that you're *absolutely* certain the second drive that
you're
having problems with is correctly jumpered and connected? And that there
were no problems with that drive prior to the reinstall of the OS?
------------------
Correct. There were no problems with the second hard drive nor were there
problems with the primary drive. I just formatted the C drive because I
could not get my iPod to work (OS would crash everytime I plugged in my
ipod
-- it was my last resort). Otherwise the hardware is intact and
unchanged.
------------------
------------------

Have you tried connecting the second drive to one of your motherboard's
IDE
connectors (making sure it's jumpered correctly, of course)? Are you using
the Promise controller card because your motherboard's BIOS doesn't
support
large-capacity disks? Even if so, try connecting the drive to one of the
MB's IDE connectors and see if at least a portion of the drive is
recognized
and can be accessed.
--------------------
I'll give it a try right after I answer this.
--------------------
--------------------

You mention that the drive's letter is "F". Is that a change from its
previous drive letter before you reinstalled XP?
--------------
yes and no. the drive is 200GB so i partitioned it into four 50GB drives.
Currently windows only sees it as one drive that is 128GB.
--------------
---------------

When you access XP's Disk Management utility (Start > right-click My
Computer > Manage > Disk Management), specifically and in detail, what
does
it show re your problem drive? When you right-click on the graphic for
that
drive, is there an item "Change Drive Letter and Paths..." that can be
accessed?
-----------------
It says: Disk 1. Basic. 128Gb Online (on the left hand side). In the
center it says "F: 128GB Healthy (Active)." right clicking I get the full
menu: Change Drive Letter and Paths and it is accessible, open, explore,
format, etc.

Doc:
I think I see the problem. When you formatted your primary drive you
installed a copy of XP that did *not* contain SP1 and/or SP2. Am I correct
about this? If I am, the problem is that your operating system (at that
point) will not recognize large-capacity disks, i.e., disks that are > 137
GB (translates into about 128 GB using the computation method employed by
the OS). There are basically two requirements for the XP OS to recognize the
full capacity of disks > 137 (128) GB. First, the motherboard's BIOS must
support this (or, there's a PCI controller card installed that supports
large-capacity disks, perhaps explaining why you have that Promise
controller card installed). Secondly, the XP OS must contain SP1 and/or SP2.
*Note that both requirements have to be met* for the system to recognize the
full capacity of a large-capacity disk.

Would you respond to the above before we go on?
Anna

Guest · Mar 6, 2005

hi thank you for your quick response. Ok.. I'm not an expert so I apologize
if I'm not answering your questions correctly or clearly. What i did prior
to formatting my primary drive was I unplugged the 200GB slave/2nd drive.

After that I formatted the C drive and installed the OEM XP version that
came with my dell in 2003. Once installed, I updated the windows OS,
downloading all new security updates as well as SP2 which is currently on the
the system. Once I felt XP was up to date with the latest updates, I plugged
the second hard drive in which is where I am now. Hope this helps and thank
you so much again for your patience and help!

Guest · Mar 6, 2005

Have you tried connecting the second drive to one of your motherboard's IDE

connectors (making sure it's jumpered correctly, of course)? Are you using
the Promise controller card because your motherboard's BIOS doesn't support
large-capacity disks? Even if so, try connecting the drive to one of the
MB's IDE connectors and see if at least a portion of the drive is recognized
and can be accessed.

hi anna-

i've done as you suggested. there was only one IDE slot/connector on the MB
so i connected it instead to the second IDE connector available (eg the first
IDE connector on the 1st drive, the second connector on the slave drive; all
consisting of one and only one cable, connected to the MB).

hope that made sense. once connected the computer would not boot up.

Guest · Mar 6, 2005

Hi Anna (and anyone else)-

Ok.. in a change of direction, I've upgraded the driver for the PCI card
that the second hard drive connects through. Having done that, windows now
recognizes the hard drive as larger. It says specifically in disk management
now:
__________
Disk 1. Basic. 186.31GB. Online.
F: 128.00GB Healthy (active)
58.31 GB Unallocated
__________

Any thoughts how I can regain my old partitions and more importantly the
data stored on them? Is it a western digital problem or a xp one?

Many thanks.

Anna · Mar 6, 2005

Anna said:
Doc:
I think I see the problem. When you formatted your primary drive you
installed a copy of XP that did *not* contain SP1 and/or SP2. Am I correct
about this? If I am, the problem is that your operating system (at that
point) will not recognize large-capacity disks, i.e., disks that are > 137
GB (translates into about 128 GB using the computation method employed by
the OS). There are basically two requirements for the XP OS to recognize
the full capacity of disks > 137 (128) GB. First, the motherboard's BIOS
must support this (or, there's a PCI controller card installed that
supports large-capacity disks, perhaps explaining why you have that
Promise controller card installed). Secondly, the XP OS must contain SP1
and/or SP2. *Note that both requirements have to be met* for the system to
recognize the full capacity of a large-capacity disk.

Would you respond to the above before we go on?
Anna

"OnCallDoc" <[email protected]> wrote in message

hi thank you for your quick response. Ok.. I'm not an expert so I apologize
if I'm not answering your questions correctly or clearly. What i did prior
to formatting my primary drive was I unplugged the 200GB slave/2nd drive.

After that I formatted the C drive and installed the OEM XP version that
came with my dell in 2003. Once installed, I updated the windows OS,
downloading all new security updates as well as SP2 which is currently on
the
the system. Once I felt XP was up to date with the latest updates, I
plugged
the second hard drive in which is where I am now. Hope this helps and thank
you so much again for your patience and help!

Doc:
When you open Windows Explorer, is not drive "F:" listed? And if so, are any
of your files/folders shown residing on that drive?
Anna

Guest · Mar 7, 2005

Anna said:
hi thank you for your quick response. Ok.. I'm not an expert so I apologize
if I'm not answering your questions correctly or clearly. What i did prior
to formatting my primary drive was I unplugged the 200GB slave/2nd drive.

After that I formatted the C drive and installed the OEM XP version that
came with my dell in 2003. Once installed, I updated the windows OS,
downloading all new security updates as well as SP2 which is currently on
the
the system. Once I felt XP was up to date with the latest updates, I
plugged
the second hard drive in which is where I am now. Hope this helps and thank
you so much again for your patience and help!

Doc:
When you open Windows Explorer, is not drive "F:" listed? And if so, are any
of your files/folders shown residing on that drive?
Anna

Anna-

F is listed in windows explorer. However when you click onto it says F is
not formatted and if I want to format it. Will not allow me to access it.

Guest · Mar 7, 2005