Hard Drive Problem After Reinstalling XP

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I have two hard drives. I had an issue with my boot drive (c:) so I
reformatted it and reinstalled Windows. Windows recognizes my second hard
drive (f:) but cant read data from it. It only asks if I want to format it,
which I don't because I don't want to lose any data. Any help would be
greatly appreciated.
 
aertime said:
I have two hard drives. I had an issue with my boot drive (c:) so I
reformatted it and reinstalled Windows. Windows recognizes my second hard
drive (f:) but cant read data from it. It only asks if I want to format it,
which I don't because I don't want to lose any data. Any help would be
greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

It could be that your hardrive is simply dying. IF that’s the case (and
there is no way of telling is it – at least from details you provided) I
would strongly recommend “Spin Riteâ€. It cost $89, even so it saved my skin
numerous times and I can personally vouch for it that if data are recoverable
at all Spin Rite will recover it (saving you thousands of dollars trying
doing same with different approaches). Keep in mind that problems might have
different reasons, also data can be not recoverable at all, no matter what
you do.
http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm
Watch TV appearance (shown on link) in which Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte
stipulates what Spin Rite really does and how it works (Steve Gibson by the
way is creator of AdAware given away to Lavasoft for free – for promise of
providing it’s free version to users forever. Gibson created numerous free
utilities, where Spin Rite is in fact his only and sole source of income.
Both Norton and Intel attempt to unsucessfully purchase Spin Rite).
 
aertime said:
I have two hard drives. I had an issue with my boot drive (c:) so I
reformatted it and reinstalled Windows. but cant read data from it. It
only asks if I want to format it,
which I don't because I don't want to lose any data. Any help would be
greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...


aertime:
1. Was that second HDD installed & working without problems before you
reinstalled XP on your boot drive? Or did you just install that second HDD
after the XP install?

2. Is it a PATA or a SATA HDD?

3. Have you made any cable connects/disconnects that might affect the
secondary HDD?

4. Your boot drive boots without incident and functions without any
problems, right?

5. When you say that "Windows recognizes my second hard drive (f:)" what do
you mean? That it's listed in Device Manager? And I suppose it's not listed
in Windows Explorer, right?

6. What do you see when go to Disk Management re that secondary HDD? Is it
shown at all? If so, is a drive letter assigned to it? Can you assign a
drive letter if none has been assigned to that disk?

7. Do this if still no go...
a. Power off your PC and disconnect both the data & power cables to that
secondary HDD.
b. Boot only with your boot HDD connected.
c. Shut down the machine.
d. Reconnect the secondary HDD. Pay attention to your cable connections &
jumper configuration.

If still no go, try connecting the problem HDD to another IDE or SATA
connector depending upon its interface.

8. BTW, what are your D: & E: drives?
Anna
 
Anna said:
aertime:
1. Was that second HDD installed & working without problems before you
reinstalled XP on your boot drive? Or did you just install that second HDD
after the XP install?

2. Is it a PATA or a SATA HDD?

3. Have you made any cable connects/disconnects that might affect the
secondary HDD?

4. Your boot drive boots without incident and functions without any
problems, right?

5. When you say that "Windows recognizes my second hard drive (f:)" what do
you mean? That it's listed in Device Manager? And I suppose it's not listed
in Windows Explorer, right?

6. What do you see when go to Disk Management re that secondary HDD? Is it
shown at all? If so, is a drive letter assigned to it? Can you assign a
drive letter if none has been assigned to that disk?

7. Do this if still no go...
a. Power off your PC and disconnect both the data & power cables to that
secondary HDD.
b. Boot only with your boot HDD connected.
c. Shut down the machine.
d. Reconnect the secondary HDD. Pay attention to your cable connections &
jumper configuration.

If still no go, try connecting the problem HDD to another IDE or SATA
connector depending upon its interface.

8. BTW, what are your D: & E: drives?
Anna
Click to expand...

Hey Anna, thanks for your help.

1. Yes it was installed and working fine.

2. It is PATA.

3. None.

4. Right.

5. It is in both Device Manager and Windows Explorer.

6. It is shown and the letter f: was assigned earlier today when I installed
Data Lifegaurd Tools from Western Digital this morning. When I installed Data
Lifegaurd Tools the hard drive then started to show up in Explorer when
before it only showed up in Device Manager. f: wasn't the original letter I
had assigned the drive before I reformatted my boot drive. I don't know if
that matters.

7.I did these steps this morning before I posted for help but I'll go for it
again.

8. My D: drive is DVD-RW drive and my E: is a CD-RW drive.

Again, thanks for your help.

And X-Mannn thanks for the link I'll be sure to check it out if theres
nothing else I can do.
 
aertime said:
Hey Anna, thanks for your help.

1. Yes it was installed and working fine.

2. It is PATA.

3. None.

4. Right.

5. It is in both Device Manager and Windows Explorer.

6. It is shown and the letter f: was assigned earlier today when I
installed
Data Lifegaurd Tools from Western Digital this morning. When I installed
Data
Lifegaurd Tools the hard drive then started to show up in Explorer when
before it only showed up in Device Manager. f: wasn't the original letter
I
had assigned the drive before I reformatted my boot drive. I don't know if
that matters.

7.I did these steps this morning before I posted for help but I'll go for
it
again.

8. My D: drive is DVD-RW drive and my E: is a CD-RW drive.

Again, thanks for your help.

And X-Mannn thanks for the link I'll be sure to check it out if theres
nothing else I can do.
Click to expand...


aertime:
Do I understand you to say that the secondary HDD now *is* recognized by the
system since it now has a drive letter assigned to it? So there's no problem
any longer, is there? Or is there still a problem accessing its data, i.e.,
no folder/files are listed in Windows Explorer for this drive?

You can change the drive letter for that secondary HDD if you want. It's
generally unnecessary but it can be easily done in Disk Management. Assuming
you want it to be shown as the D: drive you would reassign another drive
letter to your optical drive that presently has the D: drive letter
assignment.
Anna
 
Anna said:
aertime:
Do I understand you to say that the secondary HDD now *is* recognized by the
system since it now has a drive letter assigned to it? So there's no problem
any longer, is there? Or is there still a problem accessing its data, i.e.,
no folder/files are listed in Windows Explorer for this drive?

You can change the drive letter for that secondary HDD if you want. It's
generally unnecessary but it can be easily done in Disk Management. Assuming
you want it to be shown as the D: drive you would reassign another drive
letter to your optical drive that presently has the D: drive letter
assignment.
Anna
Click to expand...

There is still a problem accessing the data. I can't explore the hard drive
without windows asking me to format it.
 
aertime said:
There is still a problem accessing the data. I can't explore the hard
drive
without windows asking me to format it.
Click to expand...


aertime:
You previously indicated that the HDD now "show(s) up in Explorer"
apparently with a drive letter assigned to it. Are you now saying that NO
files/folders are reflected there for that HDD and that's the reason you
cannot access its data?

In any event, redo the steps I listed in item 7. above.

Also, you may want to download a diagnostic utility from the manufacturer of
your HDD to check out the disk.
Anna
 
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