hdd shows up in Found New Hardware wizard

  • Thread starter Thread starter dancer
  • Start date Start date
D

dancer

I have a w2k system that works great. I often unplug the
cd burner which is the master on the secondary to plug in
a hdd in order to fix it in some way. For the last few months,
every time I plug in a new hard drive, the found new hardware
wizard comes up. Often, if I ignore it and don't press any buttons,
I can still do what I want to do with the new hdd in My computer.

Now I have one that even though it did show once, I can't get to
see it again. Every time I restart the computer, the hardware wizard
comes up seeing the hdd and asking for a driver. so it is seeing the
hard drive.

How can I fix this stupid problem???

HELP!!!
 
Computer has primary and secondary IDE. Each IDE has master and slave
positions.
My primary IDE has my somewhat permanent hdd's on both the master and slave
of the primary.
I only have one cd burner as the master on my secondary. It is convenient
to disconnect that
burner data cable and substitute plug in another harddrive out of a
different computer to test it
(scan for viruses, spyware, fix sectors, pull data prior to formatting it,
etc.).

Since a hdd doesn't require a driver, I was always able to do this no
problems. But couple of
months ago, every time I plugged in a hdd as master on the secondary, the
found new hardware
wizard would come on. That was no big deal because I would just ignore it
and go to my computer
and there would be the hdd and I could still do what I want (and just cancel
new hardware found wizard).

But lately, it has become more trouble. Even though the found new hardware
comes on first thing and identifies the hdd (so I know the computer sees
it), I am unable to see it in My Computer, and if I try
to jump through the hoops of found new hardware wizard, naturally, it can't
find a driver for the hdd and if I cancel the wizard, I still can't see hdd
in My Computer.
 
dancer said:
Computer has primary and secondary IDE. Each IDE has master and slave
positions.
My primary IDE has my somewhat permanent hdd's on both the master and slave
of the primary.
I only have one cd burner as the master on my secondary. It is convenient
to disconnect that
burner data cable and substitute plug in another harddrive out of a
different computer to test it
(scan for viruses, spyware, fix sectors, pull data prior to formatting it,
etc.).

Since a hdd doesn't require a driver, I was always able to do this no
problems. But couple of
months ago, every time I plugged in a hdd as master on the secondary, the
found new hardware
wizard would come on. That was no big deal because I would just ignore it
and go to my computer
and there would be the hdd and I could still do what I want (and just cancel
new hardware found wizard).

But lately, it has become more trouble. Even though the found new hardware
comes on first thing and identifies the hdd (so I know the computer sees
it), I am unable to see it in My Computer, and if I try
to jump through the hoops of found new hardware wizard, naturally, it can't
find a driver for the hdd and if I cancel the wizard, I still can't see hdd
in My Computer.
Click to expand...
We are not dealing with a HD formatted in NTFS on this secondary IDE
cable, are we? If so, is the bootable HD (C) also formatted in NTFS?
 
We are not dealing with a HD formatted in NTFS on this secondary IDE
cable, are we? If so, is the bootable HD (C) also formatted in NTFS?
Click to expand...

Hi Ken and Johns, Thank you both for trying to help me.
Actually, yes, all the hdd's are NTFS although I have always been able to
see a hdd that I plugged into the secondary IDE master no matter what the
format.

I just changed my BIOS from a fast POST to normal and the drive does not
show in BIOS but I think that has always been the case. I changed the
secondary
master from Auto detect to specifying that it was a HDD and that didn't help
either.
I also tried jumpering the add in hdd to be CS but that didn't help. I
didn't know
all of the specs of the hdd to specify them completely when I changed the
detect
method from auto detect to manually specify so now I will try to find those
specs
for the BIOS just to see if that works.

Any help greatly appreciated,
jenny
 
old jon said:
suspect IDE cable ?..J
Click to expand...

It works perfectly to show the burner and I did actually replace the cable
with
no change. I picked an old cable out of my cable box so that isn't a great
test
but two bad cables is rather unlikely considering that both will see the
burner.

Thanks jon. I guess I will have to try and rig the hdd in place of my
primary slave.
That means I have to find a cable that has more distance between the two
drives.
May have to buy that.
 
dancer said:
Hi Ken and Johns, Thank you both for trying to help me.
Actually, yes, all the hdd's are NTFS although I have always been able to
see a hdd that I plugged into the secondary IDE master no matter what the
format.

I just changed my BIOS from a fast POST to normal and the drive does not
show in BIOS but I think that has always been the case. I changed the
secondary
master from Auto detect to specifying that it was a HDD and that didn't help
either.
I also tried jumpering the add in hdd to be CS but that didn't help. I
didn't know
all of the specs of the hdd to specify them completely when I changed the
detect
method from auto detect to manually specify so now I will try to find those
specs
for the BIOS just to see if that works.

Any help greatly appreciated,
jenny
Click to expand...
The reason I asked about the format, was that a NTFS format cannot be
read by a FAT type drive. Since both are NTFS, that should not be a
problem.

One thing I would do and have done, because I too swap HDs in and out
like you, is to designate your CD a drive letter that is higher than it
would assume even if the extra HD were installed. For instance: If
only one HD (C:) were installed, I would assign the letter E: to the CD.
That way when the second HD was installed, it would be assigned D: and
would not conflict with the CD.

There is one thing that might have happened to your second HD. NTFS
has a habit of assigning a letter to a HD if you allow it. This
normally happens after a detection of new hardware, and upon a REBOOT
with the HD still installed. I believe this is called a disk signature.
When it happens, you must clear the disk signature.

One example of this is if you clone a NTFS drive to a blank HD and want
it to be bootable. You must disconnect the second HD from the system
immediately after the cloning and use it as the C: drive once, because
if you keep it in the D: position and reboot, it will not be usable as a
bootable C: drive. I believe the signature is written on the reboot
after it has been detected as new hardware. After it has once booted as
the C: drive, it can then be put in the D: position without any problems.

Is it possible that you inadvertently have a disk signature written on
this drive??
 
There is one thing that might have happened to your second HD. NTFS
has a habit of assigning a letter to a HD if you allow it. This
normally happens after a detection of new hardware, and upon a REBOOT
with the HD still installed. I believe this is called a disk signature.
When it happens, you must clear the disk signature.

One example of this is if you clone a NTFS drive to a blank HD and want
it to be bootable. You must disconnect the second HD from the system
immediately after the cloning and use it as the C: drive once, because
if you keep it in the D: position and reboot, it will not be usable as a
bootable C: drive. I believe the signature is written on the reboot
after it has been detected as new hardware. After it has once booted as
the C: drive, it can then be put in the D: position without any problems.

Is it possible that you inadvertently have a disk signature written on
this drive??
Click to expand...

I took the hdd out of laptop and put as secondary master in one of my
computers. The found new hardware wizard came up but I ignored it.
I was able to see the laptop hdd as drive D: (which is always the
designation
when I add hdd's). Fortunately, I moved all the important stuff I could
think
of to a folder on my C: desktop.

Then I realized that I had not loaded spinrite 6 to my computer and couldn't
do it now because the cd burner was unplugged. I wanted to run spinrite 6
on this laptop hdd because I knew it had some bad sectors.

So I replugged the burner back into the system and unplugged the laptop hdd
from my system. I used my cd read/writer to read spinrite 6 and loaded it
onto
my desktop. Then I unplugged the burner once again and once again plugged
in the laptop hdd. But this time I could not get it to show up no matter
what I
do.

It doesn't show up in BIOS either. I can't remember if I have always seen
every hdd in BIOS or not. I'm not sure if that is a prerequisite.

But that's it. In trying to get my computer to see the laptop hdd again, I
have
tried making it a slave to primary and several other tricks all to no avail.
I'm ready
to give up - especially since I did get all the important stuff saved.

Now I am ready to try a repair via the OS cd. (I think)
 
dancer said:
I took the hdd out of laptop and put as secondary master in one of my
computers. The found new hardware wizard came up but I ignored it.
I was able to see the laptop hdd as drive D: (which is always the
designation
when I add hdd's). Fortunately, I moved all the important stuff I could
think
of to a folder on my C: desktop.

Then I realized that I had not loaded spinrite 6 to my computer and couldn't
do it now because the cd burner was unplugged. I wanted to run spinrite 6
on this laptop hdd because I knew it had some bad sectors.

So I replugged the burner back into the system and unplugged the laptop hdd
from my system. I used my cd read/writer to read spinrite 6 and loaded it
onto
my desktop. Then I unplugged the burner once again and once again plugged
in the laptop hdd. But this time I could not get it to show up no matter
what I
do.

It doesn't show up in BIOS either. I can't remember if I have always seen
every hdd in BIOS or not. I'm not sure if that is a prerequisite.

But that's it. In trying to get my computer to see the laptop hdd again, I
have
tried making it a slave to primary and several other tricks all to no avail.
I'm ready
to give up - especially since I did get all the important stuff saved.

Now I am ready to try a repair via the OS cd. (I think)
Click to expand...

You have a couple of things that look like problems. For one, the BIOS
should see the drive.

Second, and assuming you're on XP, the new hardware wizard does more that
just install a 'driver'. It also identifies the drive (the identity is
stored in the registry) and assigns a drive letter so your assumption you
can just 'cancel' it because no 'driver' is needed (actually, it is. It's
just that it's likely the same one that's there for the other drives) seems
premature. I can't say for sure what the symptom 'should' be as I've never
canceled it but I suspect it thinks the drive (partition, actually) is
'known' but that it has no drive letter assigned so it doesn't show in
Explorer (I.E. you didn't want it installed? OK, it's not 'installed').

That's just a guess but, to check it, go into Control Panel, Administrative
Tools, Computer Management, Storage, Disk Management and find the drive.
Then see if the partition has a drive letter assignment and, if not, assign
one.

The rest of your symptoms are consistent with that as moving the drive will
have no effect after it's partitions are identified. You can put it
anywhere and Windows will know it's 'that partition' with the same drive
letter, or not if it doesn't have one, and a reinstall may not 'fix' it
either as it will try to keep existing settings.
 
Ken said:
The reason I asked about the format, was that a NTFS format cannot be read
by a FAT type drive.
Click to expand...
Ken - The drives are read by the OS. Doesn't matter what the system drive
is formatted as. E.g., if you install Win 2K on a FAT formatted drive, the
OS can still read/write to NTFS drives.


Since both are NTFS, that should not be a
 
fj said:
Ken - The drives are read by the OS. Doesn't matter what the system drive
is formatted as. E.g., if you install Win 2K on a FAT formatted drive, the
OS can still read/write to NTFS drives.


Since both are NTFS, that should not be a
Click to expand...

I was not aware that it was OS dictated. I thought it was dictated by
the format. Thanks for enlightening me.
 
Hey David, Great info! Thanks, Everyone, as it turned out, the hdd was
going bad and apparent died (fortunately after I had moved all the important
files that I could think of into a folder onto my desktop). So that was the
reason that my computer would not see drive. I found this out by sticking
it
back in the laptop and trying to format and reinstall xp. That dog is dead.
Thanks again to all.
jenny
 
As it turns out, the hdd went bad at some point in the testing.
I know because I went to format and reinstall and no can do.
The dog is dead.
 
dancer said:
Hey David, Great info! Thanks, Everyone, as it turned out, the hdd was
going bad and apparent died (fortunately after I had moved all the important
files that I could think of into a folder onto my desktop). So that was the
reason that my computer would not see drive. I found this out by sticking
it
back in the laptop and trying to format and reinstall xp. That dog is dead.
Thanks again to all.
jenny
Click to expand...

Hehe. Yea, "dead drive" is a common cause of invisibility
 
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