Can't Access Slave Hard Drive Moved to New Computer

[Guest]

I'm trying to move a 160-gig Western Digital hard drive with important data
already on it (not a boot drive) from one computer to a Compaq Presario
SR1820NX Athlon 64 3400 w/ 1 gig RAM, a 160-gig HD, and DVD-RW optical drive,
running XP Home, SP2. The destination computer sees the drive in the BIOS --
and in Disk Management as "DRV2_VOL1 NTFS Healthy (Active)" but without a
drive letter. The drive also does not appear in My Computer. This drive was
working fine as a slave in its previous computer (an eMachines 2.66 ghz
Celeron D 330 w/ 1 gig RAM, a 80-gig HD, and 2 optical drives, running XP
Home, SP2).

When I right click on the drive in Disk Management, all of the menu options
(Open, Explore, Format, Change Drive Letter, etc.) are ghosted and
unavailable, except for Delete Partition and Help.

The drive is attached to the slave connector of an 80-line IDE ribbon cable,
with the existing boot drive connected as the master. I have the jumper of
the new drive set to slave, with the boot drive set as "master with slave."
I've also tried setting both drives to "cable select," with the same negative
result.

I also:

--checked and re-checked all cable connections;
--reinstalled the drive in its previous computer to make sure it's working
properly. The previous computer recognized it, accessed it, and welcomed it
as if it had never left;
--tried "uninstalling" the drive in Device Manager. On rebooting, a "Found
New Hardware" alert displayed for five seconds, but the New Hardware wizard
never opened. I then tried "Add New Hardware" in Control Panel -- it couldn't
find the drive on its own, but included it in the list of already installed
hardware. No luck there. In subsequent repetitions of this whole procedure, I
no longer even get the "Found New Hardware" alert.
--ran Diskpart to see if I could assign a drive letter, but it couldn't do
it (hey, I'm desperate).
--would try sacrificing a chicken, if it would help.

I don't want to re-format the drive and lose all of the data; and there is
way too much data on it to make backing it up first practical.

What stupidly obvious thing(s) have I overlooked?

 

[GreenieLeBrun]

I'm trying to move a 160-gig Western Digital hard drive with important data
already on it (not a boot drive) from one computer to a Compaq Presario
SR1820NX Athlon 64 3400 w/ 1 gig RAM, a 160-gig HD, and DVD-RW optical drive,
running XP Home, SP2. The destination computer sees the drive in the BIOS --
and in Disk Management as "DRV2_VOL1 NTFS Healthy (Active)" but without a
drive letter. The drive also does not appear in My Computer. This drive was
working fine as a slave in its previous computer (an eMachines 2.66 ghz
Celeron D 330 w/ 1 gig RAM, a 80-gig HD, and 2 optical drives, running XP
Home, SP2).

When I right click on the drive in Disk Management, all of the menu options
(Open, Explore, Format, Change Drive Letter, etc.) are ghosted and
unavailable, except for Delete Partition and Help.

The drive is attached to the slave connector of an 80-line IDE ribbon cable,
with the existing boot drive connected as the master. I have the jumper of
the new drive set to slave, with the boot drive set as "master with slave."
I've also tried setting both drives to "cable select," with the same negative
result.

I also:

--checked and re-checked all cable connections;
--reinstalled the drive in its previous computer to make sure it's working
properly. The previous computer recognized it, accessed it, and welcomed it
as if it had never left;
--tried "uninstalling" the drive in Device Manager. On rebooting, a "Found
New Hardware" alert displayed for five seconds, but the New Hardware wizard
never opened. I then tried "Add New Hardware" in Control Panel -- it couldn't
find the drive on its own, but included it in the list of already installed
hardware. No luck there. In subsequent repetitions of this whole procedure, I
no longer even get the "Found New Hardware" alert.
--ran Diskpart to see if I could assign a drive letter, but it couldn't do
it (hey, I'm desperate).
--would try sacrificing a chicken, if it would help.

I don't want to re-format the drive and lose all of the data; and there is
way too much data on it to make backing it up first practical.

What stupidly obvious thing(s) have I overlooked?

Have you tried it on the secondary IDE bus? Some HDD's don't play well
with each other on the same bus.

 

[Mistoffolees]

I'm trying to move a 160-gig Western Digital hard drive with important data
already on it (not a boot drive) from one computer to a Compaq Presario
SR1820NX Athlon 64 3400 w/ 1 gig RAM, a 160-gig HD, and DVD-RW optical drive,
running XP Home, SP2. The destination computer sees the drive in the BIOS --
and in Disk Management as "DRV2_VOL1 NTFS Healthy (Active)" but without a
drive letter. The drive also does not appear in My Computer. This drive was
working fine as a slave in its previous computer (an eMachines 2.66 ghz
Celeron D 330 w/ 1 gig RAM, a 80-gig HD, and 2 optical drives, running XP
Home, SP2).

When I right click on the drive in Disk Management, all of the menu options
(Open, Explore, Format, Change Drive Letter, etc.) are ghosted and
unavailable, except for Delete Partition and Help.

The drive is attached to the slave connector of an 80-line IDE ribbon cable,
with the existing boot drive connected as the master. I have the jumper of
the new drive set to slave, with the boot drive set as "master with slave."
I've also tried setting both drives to "cable select," with the same negative
result.

I also:

--checked and re-checked all cable connections;
--reinstalled the drive in its previous computer to make sure it's working
properly. The previous computer recognized it, accessed it, and welcomed it
as if it had never left;
--tried "uninstalling" the drive in Device Manager. On rebooting, a "Found
New Hardware" alert displayed for five seconds, but the New Hardware wizard
never opened. I then tried "Add New Hardware" in Control Panel -- it couldn't
find the drive on its own, but included it in the list of already installed
hardware. No luck there. In subsequent repetitions of this whole procedure, I
no longer even get the "Found New Hardware" alert.
--ran Diskpart to see if I could assign a drive letter, but it couldn't do
it (hey, I'm desperate).
--would try sacrificing a chicken, if it would help.

I don't want to re-format the drive and lose all of the data; and there is
way too much data on it to make backing it up first practical.

What stupidly obvious thing(s) have I overlooked?

If the data is that important and there isn't a secondary
backup, try putting the HD into an external USB/Firewire
enclosure or dock. Windows XP might be able to access it in
this way. And, by definition, having a backup implies that
there are always at least 2 copies in existence.

 

[Tom Ferguson]

Use drive management to move the CD device down to, say 'X'. restart the
computer.

Check drive letter assignments. If it still does not show up, navigate
back to disk management and see if you now have an option to assign a
drive letter.

If not, shut the computer down. Set the machine up with the original HD
as Master and the DVD-RW as slave on the Primary IDE motherboard
connector. Connect the Wedtern Digital as Master with the jumper set for
Master without slave (I think WD calls it "single") and connect it to the
secondary IDE controller connection on the motherboard. Use a good,
80-wire cable.

Let us know.

Tom
MSMVP
Windows Shell/User

: I'm trying to move a 160-gig Western Digital hard drive with important
data
: already on it (not a boot drive) from one computer to a Compaq Presario
: SR1820NX Athlon 64 3400 w/ 1 gig RAM, a 160-gig HD, and DVD-RW optical
drive,
: running XP Home, SP2. The destination computer sees the drive in the
BIOS --
: and in Disk Management as "DRV2_VOL1 NTFS Healthy (Active)" but without
a
: drive letter. The drive also does not appear in My Computer. This
drive was
: working fine as a slave in its previous computer (an eMachines 2.66 ghz
: Celeron D 330 w/ 1 gig RAM, a 80-gig HD, and 2 optical drives, running
XP
: Home, SP2).
:
: When I right click on the drive in Disk Management, all of the menu
options
: (Open, Explore, Format, Change Drive Letter, etc.) are ghosted and
: unavailable, except for Delete Partition and Help.
:
: The drive is attached to the slave connector of an 80-line IDE ribbon
cable,
: with the existing boot drive connected as the master. I have the jumper
of
: the new drive set to slave, with the boot drive set as "master with
slave."
: I've also tried setting both drives to "cable select," with the same
negative
: result.
:
: I also:
:
: --checked and re-checked all cable connections;
: --reinstalled the drive in its previous computer to make sure it's
working
: properly. The previous computer recognized it, accessed it, and
welcomed it
: as if it had never left;
: --tried "uninstalling" the drive in Device Manager. On rebooting, a
"Found
: New Hardware" alert displayed for five seconds, but the New Hardware
wizard
: never opened. I then tried "Add New Hardware" in Control Panel -- it
couldn't
: find the drive on its own, but included it in the list of already
installed
: hardware. No luck there. In subsequent repetitions of this whole
procedure, I
: no longer even get the "Found New Hardware" alert.
: --ran Diskpart to see if I could assign a drive letter, but it couldn't
do
: it (hey, I'm desperate).
: --would try sacrificing a chicken, if it would help.
:
: I don't want to re-format the drive and lose all of the data; and there
is
: way too much data on it to make backing it up first practical.
:
: What stupidly obvious thing(s) have I overlooked?

 

[Guest]

Sorry, I should have mentioned that I did try the drive on the secondary IDE
channel as both master and slave, but it didn't correct the problem.

Thanks for the suggestion. I would welcome any more you can think of!

==========================

 

[Guest]

Your suggestion is certainly worth considering. If a fix can't be found for
the basic problem, I might try it.

Another work-around involving an external drive might be to copy the
contents of the problem drive (reconnected to its former computer) to an
external drive, then to reformat the problem drive on the new computer --
which would probably solve the no-drive-letter problem -- and then copy the
contents of the external drive back to the new drive.

Needless to say, I'd prefer to find the fix for the problem that doesn't
require all that shuffling and extra cost!

=====================

 

[Guest]

I tried what you suggested but it didn't help -- still have the same problem:

1. I changed the drive letter of the optical drive to 'X' and rebooted, but
the new hard drive still had no drive letter and the option to "change drive
letter" was still unavailable.

2. I then shut down the computer and set up the machine as follows:

--the original boot HD as master and the optical drive as slave on the
primary IDE channel;
--the new HD as master on the secondary IDE channel.

When I rebooted, the result was still the same -- the new HD still has no
drive letter, and all options but Delete Partition and Help are ghosted and
unavailable.

I appreciate your help! Is there anything else you can think of to try?

======================

 

[Guest]

I thought it might be helpful to give some additional information:

The boot drive of the system into which I want to install the new drive has
two partitions -- a C: partition (NTFS) and a small system recovery partition
D: (FAT32).

Since you are focusing on the existing drive letter assignments, could that
D: recovery partition on the main drive be a factor in the problem? I did try
assigning it a lower letter, but that didn't correct the problem.

=====================

 

[Guest]

There's been a new development which might provide a clue about why the
system won't make the new drive accessible:

I found an old 40-gig Western Digital HD and connected it as a slave on the
primary channel. The computer recognized it immediately and assigned it to
E:. I could read from it and write to it without problems!

Now, what can we conclude from this development? That there's something
particular to the drive I'm trying to install that the system deosn't like
and that makes it inaccessible?

======================

 

[Tom Ferguson]

Yes. That is useful to know. At this point it would also be useful to get
some information about the drive's partition table. For that, PartinfW
can be downloaded from http://www.bootitng.com free utilities section.
It's in the partinfo.zip download. From command prompt or run command
simply run

PartinfW >partinfo.txt

then copy and paste the contents of partinfo.txt back.

I've asked someone else (Walter Claton) to have a look and see what might
be usefully done.

Tom
MSMVP
Windows shell/User


: There's been a new development which might provide a clue about why the
: system won't make the new drive accessible:
:
: I found an old 40-gig Western Digital HD and connected it as a slave on
the
: primary channel. The computer recognized it immediately and assigned
it to
: E:. I could read from it and write to it without problems!
:
: Now, what can we conclude from this development? That there's something
: particular to the drive I'm trying to install that the system deosn't
like
: and that makes it inaccessible?
:
: ======================
: "Pherekydes" wrote:
:
: > I'm trying to move a 160-gig Western Digital hard drive with
important data
: > already on it (not a boot drive) from one computer to a Compaq
Presario
: > SR1820NX Athlon 64 3400 w/ 1 gig RAM, a 160-gig HD, and DVD-RW
optical drive,
: > running XP Home, SP2. The destination computer sees the drive in the
BIOS --
: > and in Disk Management as "DRV2_VOL1 NTFS Healthy (Active)" but
without a
: > drive letter. The drive also does not appear in My Computer. This
drive was
: > working fine as a slave in its previous computer (an eMachines 2.66
ghz
: > Celeron D 330 w/ 1 gig RAM, a 80-gig HD, and 2 optical drives,
running XP
: > Home, SP2).
: >
: > When I right click on the drive in Disk Management, all of the menu
options
: > (Open, Explore, Format, Change Drive Letter, etc.) are ghosted and
: > unavailable, except for Delete Partition and Help.
: >
: > The drive is attached to the slave connector of an 80-line IDE ribbon
cable,
: > with the existing boot drive connected as the master. I have the
jumper of
: > the new drive set to slave, with the boot drive set as "master with
slave."
: > I've also tried setting both drives to "cable select," with the same
negative
: > result.
: >
: > I also:
: >
: > --checked and re-checked all cable connections;
: > --reinstalled the drive in its previous computer to make sure it's
working
: > properly. The previous computer recognized it, accessed it, and
welcomed it
: > as if it had never left;
: > --tried "uninstalling" the drive in Device Manager. On rebooting, a
"Found
: > New Hardware" alert displayed for five seconds, but the New Hardware
wizard
: > never opened. I then tried "Add New Hardware" in Control Panel -- it
couldn't
: > find the drive on its own, but included it in the list of already
installed
: > hardware. No luck there. In subsequent repetitions of this whole
procedure, I
: > no longer even get the "Found New Hardware" alert.
: > --ran Diskpart to see if I could assign a drive letter, but it
couldn't do
: > it (hey, I'm desperate).
: > --would try sacrificing a chicken, if it would help.
: >
: > I don't want to re-format the drive and lose all of the data; and
there is
: > way too much data on it to make backing it up first practical.
: >
: > What stupidly obvious thing(s) have I overlooked?

 

[Tom Ferguson]

Could you tell me more about how the HD was set up when it was added to
the eMachine? Is it possible that WD's setup software was used and that
it installed Dynamic Disk Overlay (DDO) software to manage the drive? If
so, you will have to either set up the present machine to use the DDO or
(better) remove the DDO.

The latter will involve backing up the files the drive contains, removing
the overlay, setting up the HD without the overlay, writing the files
back.

Tom
MSMVP
Windows Shell/User


: There's been a new development which might provide a clue about why the
: system won't make the new drive accessible:
:
: I found an old 40-gig Western Digital HD and connected it as a slave on
the
: primary channel. The computer recognized it immediately and assigned
it to
: E:. I could read from it and write to it without problems!
:
: Now, what can we conclude from this development? That there's something
: particular to the drive I'm trying to install that the system deosn't
like
: and that makes it inaccessible?
:
: ======================
: "Pherekydes" wrote:
:
: > I'm trying to move a 160-gig Western Digital hard drive with
important data
: > already on it (not a boot drive) from one computer to a Compaq
Presario
: > SR1820NX Athlon 64 3400 w/ 1 gig RAM, a 160-gig HD, and DVD-RW
optical drive,
: > running XP Home, SP2. The destination computer sees the drive in the
BIOS --
: > and in Disk Management as "DRV2_VOL1 NTFS Healthy (Active)" but
without a
: > drive letter. The drive also does not appear in My Computer. This
drive was
: > working fine as a slave in its previous computer (an eMachines 2.66
ghz
: > Celeron D 330 w/ 1 gig RAM, a 80-gig HD, and 2 optical drives,
running XP
: > Home, SP2).
: >
: > When I right click on the drive in Disk Management, all of the menu
options
: > (Open, Explore, Format, Change Drive Letter, etc.) are ghosted and
: > unavailable, except for Delete Partition and Help.
: >
: > The drive is attached to the slave connector of an 80-line IDE ribbon
cable,
: > with the existing boot drive connected as the master. I have the
jumper of
: > the new drive set to slave, with the boot drive set as "master with
slave."
: > I've also tried setting both drives to "cable select," with the same
negative
: > result.
: >
: > I also:
: >
: > --checked and re-checked all cable connections;
: > --reinstalled the drive in its previous computer to make sure it's
working
: > properly. The previous computer recognized it, accessed it, and
welcomed it
: > as if it had never left;
: > --tried "uninstalling" the drive in Device Manager. On rebooting, a
"Found
: > New Hardware" alert displayed for five seconds, but the New Hardware
wizard
: > never opened. I then tried "Add New Hardware" in Control Panel -- it
couldn't
: > find the drive on its own, but included it in the list of already
installed
: > hardware. No luck there. In subsequent repetitions of this whole
procedure, I
: > no longer even get the "Found New Hardware" alert.
: > --ran Diskpart to see if I could assign a drive letter, but it
couldn't do
: > it (hey, I'm desperate).
: > --would try sacrificing a chicken, if it would help.
: >
: > I don't want to re-format the drive and lose all of the data; and
there is
: > way too much data on it to make backing it up first practical.
: >
: > What stupidly obvious thing(s) have I overlooked?

 

[Guest]

This may be a long shot, but have you checked to see if the Logical Disk
Manager Administrative Service has started..? Type Services.msc in the run
box.. I had a problem with a USB enclosure not seeing drives w/data only to
find my Logical Disk Manager Administrative Service was stopped and set to
manual..
May be worth a look, just to rule it out..
j;-j

 

[Tom Ferguson]

PS
Removing the overlay need not be as troublesome as I suggested it might.
See here.
http://tinyurl.com/zy9c9

Tom

: Could you tell me more about how the HD was set up when it was added to
: the eMachine? Is it possible that WD's setup software was used and that
: it installed Dynamic Disk Overlay (DDO) software to manage the drive?
If
: so, you will have to either set up the present machine to use the DDO
or
: (better) remove the DDO.
:
: The latter will involve backing up the files the drive contains,
removing
: the overlay, setting up the HD without the overlay, writing the files
: back.
:
: Tom
: MSMVP
: Windows Shell/User
:
:
: :: There's been a new development which might provide a clue about why
the
:: system won't make the new drive accessible:
::
:: I found an old 40-gig Western Digital HD and connected it as a slave
on
: the
:: primary channel. The computer recognized it immediately and assigned
: it to
:: E:. I could read from it and write to it without problems!
::
:: Now, what can we conclude from this development? That there's
something
:: particular to the drive I'm trying to install that the system deosn't
: like
:: and that makes it inaccessible?
::
:: ======================
:: "Pherekydes" wrote:
::
:: > I'm trying to move a 160-gig Western Digital hard drive with
: important data
:: > already on it (not a boot drive) from one computer to a Compaq
: Presario
:: > SR1820NX Athlon 64 3400 w/ 1 gig RAM, a 160-gig HD, and DVD-RW
: optical drive,
:: > running XP Home, SP2. The destination computer sees the drive in the
: BIOS --
:: > and in Disk Management as "DRV2_VOL1 NTFS Healthy (Active)" but
: without a
:: > drive letter. The drive also does not appear in My Computer. This
: drive was
:: > working fine as a slave in its previous computer (an eMachines 2.66
: ghz
:: > Celeron D 330 w/ 1 gig RAM, a 80-gig HD, and 2 optical drives,
: running XP
:: > Home, SP2).
:: >
:: > When I right click on the drive in Disk Management, all of the menu
: options
:: > (Open, Explore, Format, Change Drive Letter, etc.) are ghosted and
:: > unavailable, except for Delete Partition and Help.
:: >
:: > The drive is attached to the slave connector of an 80-line IDE
ribbon
: cable,
:: > with the existing boot drive connected as the master. I have the
: jumper of
:: > the new drive set to slave, with the boot drive set as "master with
: slave."
:: > I've also tried setting both drives to "cable select," with the same
: negative
:: > result.
:: >
:: > I also:
:: >
:: > --checked and re-checked all cable connections;
:: > --reinstalled the drive in its previous computer to make sure it's
: working
:: > properly. The previous computer recognized it, accessed it, and
: welcomed it
:: > as if it had never left;
:: > --tried "uninstalling" the drive in Device Manager. On rebooting, a
: "Found
:: > New Hardware" alert displayed for five seconds, but the New Hardware
: wizard
:: > never opened. I then tried "Add New Hardware" in Control Panel -- it
: couldn't
:: > find the drive on its own, but included it in the list of already
: installed
:: > hardware. No luck there. In subsequent repetitions of this whole
: procedure, I
:: > no longer even get the "Found New Hardware" alert.
:: > --ran Diskpart to see if I could assign a drive letter, but it
: couldn't do
:: > it (hey, I'm desperate).
:: > --would try sacrificing a chicken, if it would help.
:: >
:: > I don't want to re-format the drive and lose all of the data; and
: there is
:: > way too much data on it to make backing it up first practical.
:: >
:: > What stupidly obvious thing(s) have I overlooked?
:
:

 

[Bill Blanton]

I don't see the original message with the partinfo that Jaymon is replying
to, so I'll respond here..

The partition listed for HD1 (the second drive) is a GoBack type (44) partition
spanning ~160GB. Is HD1 the trouble drive from the original system? Do
you have Goback installed on that system? If so, you need to put the
drive back in the original machine, and uninstall GoBack. Then reconnect
the drive to the new system.

It should be relatively simple, but ..
back up your data!