Hard drive not recognized

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Guest

OK. I've reformatted my hard drive three times this week and this is the
first for this issue. I've got two hard drives, a 120G serial running off a
pci slot - my C: drive; and a 160G IDE. I disconnected my 160 during windows
installation because it wanted to format the disk. (It's where all my data is
stored.) Now that windows is up and running and I've upgraded everything that
can be upgraded, windows does not see my 160G drive. I've checked the cables,
they're tight. I called the hard drive manufacturer, they said to do a
diagnostics check on it. It passed just fine - nothing's wrong with it. My
startup files show it's there, as does my bios. Been all through the bios and
there's nothing to change regarding it. The troubleshooter said to look for
help elsewhere. What now? I'm frustrated, to say the least.

Thanks.

LJM
 
Did you reformat the HDD?

Are you certain that the jumpers are set properly for Master and Slave
drives?
 
If you mean the 160G (the IDE), no. That's where I backed up all my
information before removing the partitions in my c: (the serial). I had just
used the drive yesterday before I reformatted the c: drive. Haven't made any
changes to cables or jumpers, other than make sure they are in there solid. I
even took the cales out and put them back in. Also, the bios sees the 160G
drive when I boot up. It is Windows that isn't recognizing it. When I did the
diagnostic check through the software given by the hard drive manufacturer,
it says there is nothing wrong with the drive, which by the way is only a
week old.

Any other suggestions? Thanks.
 
The version I have is Windows XP Professional, 2002 release. I had installed
the hard drive (160G) before installing the 120G serial. It was fully
recognized and I used it for about a week before I had to reformat the 120G.
I have also used the 120G for a year, so I know that's not the problem.
 
XP Pro 2002 Release tells me that you installed the ORIGINAL XP, that did
NOT have the support for large HDDs. Over time, you quite possibly had
updated to at least SP1 from Microsoft's site. Then when you added the 160GB
HDD it was recognized (reference the MS KB article I referred you to in
prior response).

If you then did a "new installation" of XP on the smaller HDD from the "XP
Pro 2002" CD, unless you also did all the updates, there is a chance that
your system will no longer recognize the 160GB HDD under Windows.

From your responses, here's what I see as your scenario:
- XP 2002 (original) installed on 120GB HDD for a year. With numerous
updates probable over time.
- 160GB secondary HDD installed a short time ago. Works fine and you
moved/copied a lot of files to it.
- You re-install XP 2002 (original) on 120GB HDD and try to use the 160GB
HDD as a secondary HDD. Computer sees the 160GB HDD but Windows doesn't.

Is this right? If so, try installing SP1 or SP2 on the 120GB HDD and see if
the 160GB HDD now becomes usable.
 
I have the exact problem only two hard drives 120G and 80G full o
personal files. They show up in 'my computer' but clicking on the
prompts a 'the disk is unformatted - would you like to format now?
message. I chose to reformat my 'C' drive to clean install (bi
mistake). I would appreciate anyone out there with a solution to allo
me access to these drives that I was accessing on the same XP Pro Sp
version earlier today (before reformatting 'c'drive.

Thanks - zufo

*OK. I've reformatted my hard drive three times this week and this i
the
first for this issue. I've got two hard drives, a 120G serial runnin
off a
pci slot - my C: drive; and a 160G IDE. I disconnected my 160 durin
windows
installation because it wanted to format the disk. (It's where all m
data is
stored.) Now that windows is up and running and I've upgrade
everything that
can be upgraded, windows does not see my 160G drive. I've checked th
cables,
they're tight. I called the hard drive manufacturer, they said to d
a
diagnostics check on it. It passed just fine - nothing's wrong wit
it. My
startup files show it's there, as does my bios. Been all through th
bios and
there's nothing to change regarding it. The troubleshooter said t
look for
help elsewhere. What now? I'm frustrated, to say the least.

Thanks.

LJM
Click to expand...


-
zuf
 
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