MISSING SATA HARD DRIVE

[Vista_is_the_new_ME]

I have a new pc w/ vista, 2 sata hard drives. Everything was fine, then a
week later the slave drive disappeared. The BIOS recognizes the drive, but
Vista doesn't. I've seen enough threads on here w/ no resolution. System
restore is not an answer.

Microsoft - Fix the problem.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

SATA drives are not master and slave. They each are on separate
controllers.

 

[Vista_is_the_new_ME]

you're splitting hairs....your response didn't fix the problem.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Is this a laptop or desktop? Is this "slave" drive internal or external?
What were you doing when it "disappeared"? Disappeared from where? How
about some details to work with.

 

[Anilu Regina]

I have a similar problem. Perhaps we can help each other. I have a Dell
with an Intel processor running XP. I recently bought a new Acer with an AMD
dual-core processor with Vista on it. I installed the old hard drive from
the Dell into an empty bay in the Acer. My new computer doesn't even show
the old hard drive under My Computer, even though it's connected properly and
Device Manager and CMOS say it's there. Any suggestions? I want the old HD
as is in the new computer--not to have to transfer all the files over and
waste space.

 

[Vista_is_the_new_ME]

Details: The computer is a desktop. The "slave" is an internal drive. I was
using the computer for a week and everything was functional. If you search
this forum, a lot of endusers are experiencing the same issue. I was
thinking of what changes occurred prior to to going missing. Windows
autoupdated....so, with that in mind, I did a system restore back to a point
prior to the updates. Bingo, the drive reappears. So, it's seams that
something in one of the patches/updates is the issue. I don't have the time
to do a tiral and error to isolate exactly what udate is causing the issue.

Aren't there any microsoft moderators in this forum to help trouble shoot
theses issues?...or report them to the quality team?

Thanks.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

No. The public newsgroups are not moderated by MS. The managed newsgroups
on the privatenews servers are moderated.

 

[Frank R.]

I have a somewhat simular problem with Vista. I have an external HD that is
not recognized in the My Computer window. Now, Vista doesn't recogniza my
DVD. What are some steps to look for to isolate where the problem is?

 

[theresekirchner]

I am having similar issues as above, but with a removeable hard drive (USB).
In disk management, it is not there. The disk is recognized in XP computers
but not in either of my Vista computers. Why? What can I do to solve it?

 

[apokon]

I'd like to join in too. My second SATA drive disappears from time to time.
It seems to be when it is being heavily used. I have to power off and up then
Vista sees it. This time, I donwloaded the Data Lifeguard rom WDC and ran the
Write Zeros test. No problem there. But, Vista wanted to format the drive
afterwards. OK, but in the middle of the format, the drive disappears. After
powering down and up, Vista does not see the drive but the Data Lifeguard
program does.

In my searches, this seems to be a consistent problem in Vista and so far,
no resolution exists, at least that I have found.

 

[Roy Ballew]

As i mentioned to the original poster, did you go into the Control Panel,
Administration Tools, Computer Mgt, then Select Disk Management.

Make sure you do NOT have any files on the disk that is giving you the
problem..

Now use the Disk Mgt to set up the disk...

See if this corrects the problem, and let us know...

I've not seen this myself.. So I'm very curious about this and if this will
fix it or not...

 

[apokon]

Roy, I have tried that many times, to no avail. Recently, I installed WDC'
Lifeguard and it runs all of its tests without a problem. However, after
writing zeroes, Vista wanted to format the drive, which I let happen. During
the middle of the format, the drive disappeared and I cannot get Vista to
recognize the drive at all now. My bios sees it and Lifeguard sees it but
Vista does not. Now I am really in a mess.
Rich

 

[apokon]

FWIW, I just finished installed SP1, initializing and formating the disk, and
running my test case that usually caused the failure in the past. It ran
successfully. Should I conclude that SP1 fixed the issue?
Rich

 

[OneDave]

Same problem & I have Vist SP1 installed, si I don't think it was fixed in
Vista SP1.

Frustrating

 

[Ken K]

I have very similar issues...My PCis a very souped up quad-core wtih 4GB RAM and an nVidia GTX card, an 800w power supply to handle all necessary accesories. I also have a 5 year old Compaq PC that I was about to throw out. However, the new PC which has Vista Ultimate has problem recognizing my external drives. I ave 2 internal drives, a Seagate 500GB and 1TB drives that are recognized and work like a charm. The problem is that I have 2 Lacie Mini External drives that Vista recognizes, but a few minutes after accessing the drives they disappear, sometimes together, sometimes one at a time. Once they disappear, they go to the 'unknown device' section in the control panel and when I click on them Vista asks for a 'driver update', but the problem is that these drives, like many other drives, do not come with drivers...once you format them, under XP and Vista, they automatically work. I used these drives for more than a year under XP and NEVER had a problem. and when I attach them to my Old PC, still no problem....I installed SP! for Vista, and still the same problem...I do see that all over the Internet other users are having the same problem too, but no on has come up with a concrete solution. Can anyone help?

 

[Malke]

some better find me a free program now to restore what was formatted i'm
sure there software out there to retreave it.

Or what? You'll post *again*?!! Please lose the dreadful "usenet gateway"
web interface you are using and set up a real newsreader so people want to
help you.

***
Since you are using a web interface, you may not realize that this is really
a newsgroup. You will get far more out of this resource if you learn to use
a newsreader. There are many good newsreaders for Windows, but you can use
Outlook Express (XP) or Windows Mail (Vista) since you already have it.
Here are some links to information about newsgroups:

About Usenet:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usenet
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/ - Usenet FAQs from the Internet FAQ Archives
http://www.usenetmonster.com/infocenter/
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Usenet - a brief explanation
of newsgroups

Outlook Express/Windows Mail as Newsreader:
http://michaelstevenstech.com/outlookexpressnewreader.htm
http://rickrogers.org/setupoe.htm
http://vistasupport.mvps.org/accessing_newsgrousp_with-windows_mail.htm

How to Post:
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Usenet
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/555375 - How to Ask a Question
http://users.tpg.com.au/bzyhjr/liszt.htm - How Not to Get Technical Help on
Usenet


http://aumha.org/nntp.htm - list of MS newsgroups
microsoft.public.test.here - MS group to test if your newsreader is working
properly
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/munad.htm - how to munge email address
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossposting - crossposting
http://www.blakjak.demon.co.uk/mul_crss.htm - multiposting

Other Newsreaders for Windows:
http://www.forteinc.com/main/homepage.php - Forte
http://www.mozilla.org - Thunderbird
http://gravity.tbates.org/
http://www.40tude.com/dialog/
http://xnews.newsguy.com/
*****

Malke

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Had to formate it I relabled it againto D: but had 14mb of a partition
of unlocated removed it then it came up with a format or non I chose
non and now it's formmatting the slave drive see just like the other
person of here it formatted with out us checking that box to do it.

Well, Dude, congratulations! I think you just wiped out the recovery
partition that the computer mfg put there so you could recover your computer
to factory condition should you ever need to. Good job!

Why did you think it was so hard to do? Because you weren't supposed to.
Contact the mfg for instructions for restoring it or for recovery media
because it doesn't sound like you knew what it was and therefore likely did
not make recovery disks yourself.

Keep up the good work!

 

[DL]

As posted on numerous occassions do NOT use winupdate for drivers, obtain
them, in your case, from HP, and then only if needed to cure a known problem
or add functionality

MS does not write/make sata drivers they are written by hardware
manufacturers

 

[DL]

An internal hd doesnt use a driver.
The sata controler is on the motherboard
HP lists sata controler drivers for winxp on this laptop, but not Vista, as
Vista has native support.
Maybe a firmware issue with you HD