Hard Disk Drive does not appear in My Computer

[Marc]

I just installed an 80 GB hard disk on my system (running Windows Server 2003 Std).
The problem is that, when I open "My Computer", the disk is not shown. But if I type
"H" (its drive letter) on the Address bar, then voila, the disk's contents *are*
shown in Windows Explorer (though I can't get it to be seen by the "Copy To" and
"Move To" tools, either). I can access it alright with the DOS prompt, too.

The disk is correctly recognized by the Disk Management tool; it is shown with its
unique drive letter ("H" in this case), with the NTFS file system, and with a
"Healthy" indication. Additional indications, on the left pane, include "Disk 0,
Basic, 74.52 GB, Online". This is an IDE disk. "H" has been setup as a Logical
Drive, but I had the same problem before I tried this move.

There are three other hard disks on this computer, all SCSIs. Disk 1 contains the
Windows 2003 installation, and is split into partitions C, D, E. Disk 2 contains my
Linux installation. Disk 3 contains the F partition. Everything is shown as "healthy"
under Disk Management. D, E, and F are also Logical Drives, but not C. All partitions
are fairly small, with sizes ranging from about 5 to 23 GB.

I performed a system repair installation -- it didn't help. I used registry cleaner
tools, but those didn't help, either. All updates shown by Windows Update have been
installed.

Any idea what might be going on? Any help would be gratefully appreciated!

--Marc

P.S.: I posted the same note on the server.general newsgroup, but since no one has
replied and I do badly need an answer, I decided to post it on the windowsxp.general
newsgroup as well. My apologies if this may seem like inappropriate newsgroup conduct.

 

[Chad Harris]

Marc--

What brand of hard drive? There could be special instructions to follow for
it and did you install the software for it *first*?

Chad Harris

_____________________________________

I just installed an 80 GB hard disk on my system (running Windows Server
2003 Std).
The problem is that, when I open "My Computer", the disk is not shown. But
if I type
"H" (its drive letter) on the Address bar, then voila, the disk's contents
*are*
shown in Windows Explorer (though I can't get it to be seen by the "Copy To"
and
"Move To" tools, either). I can access it alright with the DOS prompt, too.

The disk is correctly recognized by the Disk Management tool; it is shown
with its
unique drive letter ("H" in this case), with the NTFS file system, and with
a
"Healthy" indication. Additional indications, on the left pane, include
"Disk 0,
Basic, 74.52 GB, Online". This is an IDE disk. "H" has been setup as a
Logical
Drive, but I had the same problem before I tried this move.

There are three other hard disks on this computer, all SCSIs. Disk 1
contains the
Windows 2003 installation, and is split into partitions C, D, E. Disk 2
contains my
Linux installation. Disk 3 contains the F partition. Everything is shown as
"healthy"
under Disk Management. D, E, and F are also Logical Drives, but not C. All
partitions
are fairly small, with sizes ranging from about 5 to 23 GB.

I performed a system repair installation -- it didn't help. I used registry
cleaner
tools, but those didn't help, either. All updates shown by Windows Update
have been
installed.

Any idea what might be going on? Any help would be gratefully appreciated!

--Marc

P.S.: I posted the same note on the server.general newsgroup, but since no
one has
replied and I do badly need an answer, I decided to post it on the
windowsxp.general
newsgroup as well. My apologies if this may seem like inappropriate
newsgroup conduct.

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi Marc,

Not as familiar with 2003, but I would check for the "import foreign disks"
function in the disk manager, as it sounds like the drive is being detected
but not added.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[Guest]

Hey Marc,

Just for grins, have you tried formatting it through the disk management
plugin to see it it will show up then?

 

[Guest]

I had the same problem and I believe I solved it by going into Disk
Management and changing the disk to either "Basic" or "Dynamic" - I can't
remember which one. By changing the type of drive you will lose whatever is

 

[Marc]

Hello Chad,

This is a Western Digital Caviar 7200 rpm 80 GB hard disk. I downloaded the
diagnostic tools from the WD web site, which say the disk is fine. There is
no other software available on their web page that will run on my system...

--Marc

 

[Marc]

Hello Rick,

Thanks for the tip -- I'm ashamed to say I couldn't find such a function
in the Disk Management tool. Can you perhaps tell me a bit more about it?

--Marc

 

[Marc]

Hi William,

Yes, I did try this, with the "quick format" option activated first and then
disabled. It didn't help...

--Marc

 

[Marc]

Hello William,

I just followed your advice, and converted the volume to dynamic -- the change
was carried out *without* formatting the disk! Now Disk Management shows it
as a "simple volume", but the system still fails to properly recognize the disk
since it still isn't shown when I open "My Computer"...

--Marc

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi,

Try:
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/...Windows/XP/all/reskit/en-us/prkb_cnc_klvo.asp

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[Marc]

Hi Rick,

But I can't see any of my disks marked as "foreign" anywhere in Disk Management
(it seems, according to the instructions in the URL you pointed me to, that this
is needed before one can "import a foreign disk". Maybe I'm looking at the wrong
place -- where should I have expected to see the "foreign" indication?

Thanks,

--Marc

 

[Bob I]

There is a feature of TweakUI that "hides" drive letters? Perhaps this
is the cause?

 

[Marc]

Hi Bob,

But I don't use TweakUI...

--Marc

There is a feature of TweakUI that "hides" drive letters? Perhaps this
is the cause?

 

[Bob I]

All I can suggest then is to change it to different letter.

 

[Marc]

Bob,

But I've already tried pretty much the whole alphabet, to no avail!

--Marc

 

[Bob I]

Is this 2003 operating system or XP? And what drive letters do you see
and do they all work?

 

[Marc]

Bob,

I see all other drive letters, and all of them work just fine! (That's C, D, E,
F for hard disk partitions; A for the floppy drive; and I, J for CD/DVD drives.)
I'm running Windows 2003 Standard.

--Marc

 

[Bob I]

That has to be something peculiar with that drive. The only things I can
come up with are old NT server stuff(and the TweakUI issue) but for what
it's worth

Using System Policies to Hide Specific Drive Letters
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;220955

 

[Marc]

Bob,

Thanks for the suggestion, but indeed, there seems to be no system.adm
file in Windows 2003 Standard (at least there is none in my system).

I performed the tests on this drive with the Windows "Error-checking"
tool, which says the drive is fine. I performed low-level tests with
the Western Digital tools as well -- they also say the disk is fine.
Note that I can use the drive fine with the DOS prompt, and also in
Windows Explorer once I type the drive letter in the Address bar
(though I can't use the "Move To" and "Copy To" functions, since the
drive doesn't show up in the ensuing drive list). Therefore, it doesn't
really look to me like a problem with the drive.

--Marc

 

[Bob I]

Can you r-click the drive icon in Disk Management and select properties,
then look at security. make sure everyone, system etc. has permission.