How Do I Regain access To My Second Hard Drive ?

[Frank. B]

I recently had to re-install winxp home edition, so I backed up all my files
onto my second hard drive D: It all went well after installation. I was able
to access drive D: without any hickups. Due to some niggling problems I had
to RE-install it all over again. This time when I try to access the D: drive,
it says "The disk in drive D: is not formatted. Do You Want To Format It Now
?" I just hate to think I've lost all my files on there. Please help ! :-s

 

[JS]

Did you leave the second drive connected when
you re-installed XP?

Also try the drive on another PC.

 

[smlunatick]

I recently had to re-install winxp home edition, so I backed up all my files
onto my second hard drive D: It all went well after installation. I was able
to access drive D: without any hickups. Due to some niggling problems I had
to RE-install it all over again. This time when I try to access the D: drive,
it says "The disk in drive D: is not formatted. Do You Want To Format It Now
?" I just hate to think I've lost all my files on there. Please help ! :-s

The "second" reinstall was probably done with the D: drive connected
at the same time as the C: drive. Make sure that the XP reinstall is
correctly using the first hard drive and this it is correctly known as
C: drive. It has been noted that some XP reinstall will "move"
Windows XP onto another drive beside C: drive (Hard drive 0.)

If the install is correctly on hard drive 0 (Drive C then look at
disk recovery software as the XP reinstall might have clobbered the
file "table" and you need to access the file directly.

One possible tool is the open source TestDisk.

 

[Frank. B]

Yes JS the second drive was connected on both re-installs, thinking back I do
recall during the second re-installation I had to change the activation key
that was originally generated when I tried to activate winxp the second time
around. During activation the first time I just entered whatever activation
code I was given, but during the second activation I had to do it twice with
different activation codes. Could this be the problem ? If so how do I
overcome this ? Thanks.

 

[JS]

Not likely as activation in itself would
not cause the problem. You might try
disconnecting the second drive, reboot,
shut down and connect the drive and once
again reboot. Also check you BIOS.

 

[Frank. B]

JS, I've tried what you advised disconnected the drive d: rebooted, shut
down, reconnected drive d: and rebooted again, still no joy. What do I look
for in bios though ? Also what software would you recommend for recovering
files ?

Thanks
Frank. B

 

[JS]

Do you have a PATA or SATA drive?

 

[Frank. B]

Its a SATA Drive JS
Frank. B

Do you have a PATA or SATA drive?

 

[JS]

OK, now that I know it's SATA,
then here is what to look for in your
BIOS.

Since you are using XP, the BIOS should
have SATA mode settings that would be one
(depends on the motherboard and manufacture)
of the following:
1) IDE Mode/Legacy mode
2) Compatibility mode,
3) Enhanced Mode,
4) AHCI mode.

The most conservative/compatible mode for
XP would be #1 or #2 above. #3 may work.
#4 can be a problem.

 

[Frank. B]

Sorry JS , I was wrong about what drive it was, its actually a Parallel ATA
drive, and not a Serial ATA as I thought it was. I'm kinda new to all this
techy stuff....

 

[JS]

Hey, no problem.

Check the drive jumpers.

The drive with XP installed should be jumperd
as the 'Master' and the second drive as a 'Slave'.

You can also use the 'Cable Select' jumper setting
on both drives. In this case the drive with XP installed
will use the connector at the end of the cable
(usually black in color) and the second drive will use
the middle connector (gray). The Blue connector located
at the other end of the cable is connected to the motherboard.

Note: If you are using a Master/Slave jumper combination
then drives from different manufactures sometimes can be
finicky and you may need to try different jumper combinations
on the second drive.

Also note that Western Digital (WD) has a unique jumper
setting named 'Master with Slave' which is what you would use if both drives
are from WD.

 

[JS]

You're welcome, and thanks for the feedback