hdd problem

[Tcs]

I have two (2) drives that Disk Manager is reporting as both
"Unreadable & Unknown". ( Disk manager from my current XP Pro system
and my old w2k pro system reports the same thing. ) They're both
Western Digitals, which have always proven to be VERY reliable. One
is 160gb and the other 300gb. As best I can recall, they both had
been formatted and *should* contain data.

I'm wondering if I screwed them up somehow. My systems, all of which
I've built, prior to my current one, have only used PATA drives, even
though one or two mobos did have SATA connectors. I just stuck with
the PATA drives. ( I even have a Belkin USB external case, with a
limit of something like 160gb. ) In addition to the onboard hdd
controller, I had always added a SIIG Ultra ATA-133 controller.
Initally this was because I wanted drive support for drives larger
than 147gb. ( I think that was the old size limit. Whatever it was,
my mobo ctlr couldn't handle it, so I added the PCI card. ) This way
I could also have up to three (3) drives in the system. ( I've also
always used removable cartridges for my HDDs made by CRU. This allows
me to shut down and swap a drive, should I want/need to. )

Like I said, with my *new* system ( Asus P5WD2-E Premium ) I'm finally
using SATA drives. I have two SATA drives in it. My system drive,
with several partitions is an 80gb drive. And I just added a 500gb
drive.

The only way I've been able to get a PATA drive to work, is to plug it
into my Belkin external case. ( I also have a CRU frame mounted in
this case, so I can just "plug in" my CRU cartridge. ) When I try
plugging it into my frame which is connected to my SIIG Ultra-ATA
ctlr, the system boots up only so far. When it reaches the point of
booting XP, the cursor just sits in the upper left corner of the
screen. If I power off, unplug the PATA drive, then power up, it
comes up just fine, booting up normally all the way.

But if I now take this same drive that I just pulled from my SIIG
ctlr, and plug it into my SIIG ctlr in my old w2k pro system...it says
that it's "unreadable" and "unknown". I mean, I couldn't format the
bugger if I wanted to. And until I'm SURE that I won't lose anything
if I do format them, I'd rather not find out the hard way.

Anyone know how I might look at the drive and possibly even repair
it/them, if that's even possible? Might the Ultimate Boot Disk, for
either DOS or Windows allow me to do this? Does anyone know of some
*other* way?

Any help is appreciated. Thanks a lot in advance,

Tom

 

[Andy]

I have two (2) drives that Disk Manager is reporting as both
"Unreadable & Unknown". ( Disk manager from my current XP Pro system
and my old w2k pro system reports the same thing. ) They're both
Western Digitals, which have always proven to be VERY reliable. One
is 160gb and the other 300gb. As best I can recall, they both had
been formatted and *should* contain data.

I'm wondering if I screwed them up somehow. My systems, all of which
I've built, prior to my current one, have only used PATA drives, even
though one or two mobos did have SATA connectors. I just stuck with
the PATA drives. ( I even have a Belkin USB external case, with a
limit of something like 160gb. ) In addition to the onboard hdd
controller, I had always added a SIIG Ultra ATA-133 controller.
Initally this was because I wanted drive support for drives larger
than 147gb. ( I think that was the old size limit. Whatever it was,
my mobo ctlr couldn't handle it, so I added the PCI card. ) This way
I could also have up to three (3) drives in the system. ( I've also
always used removable cartridges for my HDDs made by CRU. This allows
me to shut down and swap a drive, should I want/need to. )

Like I said, with my *new* system ( Asus P5WD2-E Premium ) I'm finally
using SATA drives. I have two SATA drives in it. My system drive,
with several partitions is an 80gb drive. And I just added a 500gb
drive.

The only way I've been able to get a PATA drive to work, is to plug it
into my Belkin external case. ( I also have a CRU frame mounted in
this case, so I can just "plug in" my CRU cartridge. ) When I try
plugging it into my frame which is connected to my SIIG Ultra-ATA
ctlr, the system boots up only so far. When it reaches the point of
booting XP, the cursor just sits in the upper left corner of the
screen. If I power off, unplug the PATA drive, then power up, it
comes up just fine, booting up normally all the way.

Sounds like the bios is trying to boot from the PATA drive when it's
plugged in. You should check that the Boot Device Priority is set to
boot from the 80G SATA disk after you plug in the PATA drive.