Loss of Hard Disk Enumeration in Windows XP

[Jason Sachs]

Over the last 3-4 years in which I have had 2 Seagate Sata 160GB identical
drives, one as the C: and the other as F: the Windows System looses track of
the F drive at no regular intervals. The F drive is used as a backup for the
C Drive, but the backup process must be done manually by a copy and the copy
is not done according to any schedule. When I check MY Computer the F drive
is not listed. Also other programs such as Seagate Drive Test do not list
it. It can not be found. It appears that it is not the disk's hardware and
appears to be software related. Has anyone ever noticed similar behavior?
Thanks, Jason Sachs.

 

[Thee Chicago Wolf [MVP]]

Over the last 3-4 years in which I have had 2 Seagate Sata 160GB identical

drives, one as the C: and the other as F: the Windows System looses track of
the F drive at no regular intervals. The F drive is used as a backup for the
C Drive, but the backup process must be done manually by a copy and the copy
is not done according to any schedule. When I check MY Computer the F drive
is not listed. Also other programs such as Seagate Drive Test do not list
it. It can not be found. It appears that it is not the disk's hardware and
appears to be software related. Has anyone ever noticed similar behavior?
Thanks, Jason Sachs.

Power off your computer. Open your case, unplug the cables from the
back of the drive and plug them back in. Also, unplug the SATA cable
from the motherboard and plug it back in again. See if that helps.

- Thee Chicago Wolf [MVP]

 

[Pegasus [MVP]]

Over the last 3-4 years in which I have had 2 Seagate Sata 160GB
identical
drives, one as the C: and the other as F: the Windows System looses track
of
the F drive at no regular intervals. The F drive is used as a backup for
the
C Drive, but the backup process must be done manually by a copy and the
copy
is not done according to any schedule. When I check MY Computer the F
drive
is not listed. Also other programs such as Seagate Drive Test do not list
it. It can not be found. It appears that it is not the disk's hardware
and
appears to be software related. Has anyone ever noticed similar behavior?
Thanks, Jason Sachs.

Run diskmgmt.msc via the Start/Run box, then assign a drive letter to your
second disk.

 

[Paul]

Over the last 3-4 years in which I have had 2 Seagate Sata 160GB identical
drives, one as the C: and the other as F: the Windows System looses track of
the F drive at no regular intervals. The F drive is used as a backup for the
C Drive, but the backup process must be done manually by a copy and the copy
is not done according to any schedule. When I check MY Computer the F drive
is not listed. Also other programs such as Seagate Drive Test do not list
it. It can not be found. It appears that it is not the disk's hardware and
appears to be software related. Has anyone ever noticed similar behavior?
Thanks, Jason Sachs.

Seagate has a DOS version of their diagnostic. It runs from a floppy.
By using that floppy, you avoid any WinXP issues.

Paul

 

[Andrew McLaren]

Over the last 3-4 years in which I have had 2 Seagate Sata 160GB identical
drives, one as the C: and the other as F: the Windows System looses track of
the F drive at no regular intervals. The F drive is used as a backup for the

Hi Jason,

If the F: drive disappears intermittently, at irregular intervals, then
it sure sounds like a hardware problem - perhaps a flaky cable
connection between the physical drive and the motherboard; or else the
BIOS is losing some its config settings (eg CMOS battery is low or flat).

It doesn't sound like any "well-known" problem in Windows; ie, of the
kind where we could say "Oh, the old disappearing drive problem! Install
this hotfix and that will solve it".

Probably we'd need more info to make a diagnosis; eg:
- is the drive PATA or SATA? Internal or external?
- what brand and model of drive is it?
- what leads you to think it isn't a hardware problem? What did you test?
- when the F: volume disappears, what do you do to recover it?
- what revision level of Windows are you using eg SP2? SP3
- how long has the problem been occurring? The whole 3-4 years?
- etc.

Some of the drive vendor utilities bypass the Windows system calls to
query their hardware directly, via their own device driver. If these
can't see the drive, then that would support the idea it is flaky hardware.

Hope it helps a bit,

Andrew