Disappearing HD

[Guest]

The weirdest thing has occurred; I have 2 internal HD installed, a 40GB and a
20GB. Recently, the 20GB HD has simply disappeared as if I had uninstalled it
from the machine. It reappeared once but behaved as an unformatted drive, and
when formatted, it revealed it's capacity to be just 8GB.

After that one incident, it has now disappeared completely, and I have only
the 40GB HD. Luckily, I only had games installed on the 20GB.

Regardless, what has happened here? I haven't tampered with the hardware at
all, save for installing a FireWire PCI card, and replacing an external
modem. But after it is post-these events that the drive was seemingly
detected as an unformatted 8GB HD, before disappearing completely.

Anything I should check? I have very little space on the 40GB, so I'd like
to try and recover the 20GB before giving up and getting a new HD.

 

[Road Runner]

Hey there ... Have a view at these and see whether it will help

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/320553/EN-US/



http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314096&Product=winxp



http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;321641&Product=winxp

 

[Malke]

Hey there ... Have a view at these and see whether it will help

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/320553/EN-US/
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314096&Product=winxp
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;321641&Product=winxp

Unfortunately, all of the above links are about cd/dvd drives, not hard
drives.

You need to determine if the older 20GB hard drive has failed. First,
see if the drive is seen in the BIOS. If not, turn off the computer and
reseat the drive cables. Perhaps you dislodged something when you
installed the firewire card. If it is still not seen, the drive has
failed. If the drive is seen in the BIOS, run a diagnostic utility on
it that you will get from the drive mftr.'s website. Usually you will
make a bootable floppy. Boot with it and run a thorough test. If the
drive fails, replace it.

Malke

 

[lforbes]

Unfortunately, all of the above links are about cd/dvd drives,
not hard
drives.

 >> The weirdest thing has occurred; I have 2 internal HD
installed, a
 >> 40GB and a 20GB. Recently, the 20GB HD has simply
disappeared as if I
 >>had uninstalled it from the machine. It reappeared
once but behaved
 >>as an unformatted drive, and when formatted, it
revealed it's
 >>capacity to be just 8GB.
 >>
 >> After that one incident, it has now disappeared
completely, and I
 >> have only the 40GB HD. I haven't tampered with the
 >> hardware at all, save for installing a FireWire PCI
card, and
 >>replacing an external modem. But after it is
post-these events that
 >>the drive was seemingly detected as an unformatted 8GB
HD, before
 >>disappearing completely.

You need to determine if the older 20GB hard drive has failed.
First,
see if the drive is seen in the BIOS. If not, turn off the
computer and
reseat the drive cables. Perhaps you dislodged something when
you
installed the firewire card. If it is still not seen, the
drive has
failed. If the drive is seen in the BIOS, run a diagnostic
utility on
it that you will get from the drive mftr.'s website. Usually
you will
make a bootable floppy. Boot with it and run a thorough test.
If the
drive fails, replace it.

Malke
--
MS MVP - Windows Shell/User
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"

Hi,

Does the 20GB drive happen to be a Fujitsu Drive? Fujitsu has had a
massive problem with their 20 and 10GB drives especially the MPG3204AT
drives. The chip on the drive is bad and it loses connection with the
BIOS. I have 200 of these drives and everyone has failed the same way.
It shows up and then disappears for about a week and then it is gone
for good. Unfortunately Fujitsu did nothing but replace them with the
same faulty drives so now I have another 200 failing.

Cheers,

Lara

 

[Road Runner]

Yep , You're right Malke my mistake ....

Unfortunately, all of the above links are about cd/dvd drives, not hard
drives.


You need to determine if the older 20GB hard drive has failed. First,
see if the drive is seen in the BIOS. If not, turn off the computer and
reseat the drive cables. Perhaps you dislodged something when you
installed the firewire card. If it is still not seen, the drive has
failed. If the drive is seen in the BIOS, run a diagnostic utility on
it that you will get from the drive mftr.'s website. Usually you will
make a bootable floppy. Boot with it and run a thorough test. If the
drive fails, replace it.

Malke
--
MS MVP - Windows Shell/User
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"