Second hard disk is not visible in Explorer

[Guest]

Hi,

Following a computer crash yesterday I have re-installed Windows XP
Professional on a new C: drive in my computer.

All of my documents are safely kept on a second IDE drive in my PC. The
second drive is recognised in the BIOS, it can clearly be seen in Disk
Management but it cannot be seen in Explorer (although it does not have a
drive letter assigned to it).

I have a 160mb USB2 drive that has installed OK and all of my CD drives are
clearly visible.

I do not want to partition and re-install on my second hard drive. How do I
assign it a drive letter (D and have access to all of my documents when
most of the options that I click on in Disk Management are greyed out?

Regards,


Phil

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi Phil,

Sounds like the partition entry is lost, try one of these to aid in
recovering it:

mbrwork from the free utilities of www.terabyteunlimited.com
testdisk from www.cgsecurity.org/index.html?testdisk.html

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi Phil,

Troubleshooting invalid CD key error message during Windows XP setup
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=310637

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hmm, somehow I grabbed the wrong thread when posting this. Sorry, this has
nothing to do with the problem at hand.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[Anna]

Hi,

Following a computer crash yesterday I have re-installed Windows XP
Professional on a new C: drive in my computer.

All of my documents are safely kept on a second IDE drive in my PC. The
second drive is recognised in the BIOS, it can clearly be seen in Disk
Management but it cannot be seen in Explorer (although it does not have a
drive letter assigned to it).

I have a 160mb USB2 drive that has installed OK and all of my CD drives
are
clearly visible.

I do not want to partition and re-install on my second hard drive. How do
I
assign it a drive letter (D and have access to all of my documents when
most of the options that I click on in Disk Management are greyed out?

Regards,


Phil

Phil:
Assuming the drive is not defective, the likelihood is your second HD has
been incorrectly configured/connected. You didn't indicate how this drive
was installed, i.e., on what IDE channel and how it is jumpered.
Double-check to determine that the drive is indeed jumpered correctly and
that its IDE cable is securely seated to the drive and the motherboard's IDE
connector.
Anna

 

[Ron Sommer]

Phil:
Assuming the drive is not defective, the likelihood is your second HD has
been incorrectly configured/connected. You didn't indicate how this drive
was installed, i.e., on what IDE channel and how it is jumpered.
Double-check to determine that the drive is indeed jumpered correctly and
that its IDE cable is securely seated to the drive and the motherboard's
IDE connector.
Anna

The Bios would not detect the drive if not jumpered or connected correctly.

Take ownership of the drive.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308421

 

[Guest]

Hi Rick,

At the moment I'd like to work on the basis that the HDD is OK and that it
has not lost it's partition table. There is simply too much of my "work" on
there to consider that it might be lost.

I can see the drive in Device Manager which tells me that the device is
working properly. This I assume means that it is connected and jumpered
properly. It was installed as the secondary HDD and the onlt change I have
made to the PC is to swap the primary drive and re-install the OS.

Thank you very much for your interest in my plight and for your quick
response.

Regards,



Phil

 

[Guest]

Hi anna,

Thank you very much for your interest and your prompt reply.

The second drive is connected through the primary IDE cable exactly as it
was until the PC crashed on Saturday. The only thing I have done physically
to the PC is to remove the drive bay so that I could swap primary hard drives.

So I've not changed any jumpers. The second IDE drive is recognised in BIOS,
it can be clearly seen in Device Manager which reports that the drive is
working normally. I have an external USB2 drive of the same size which is
recognised OK.

I'll try checking jumpers and re-seat the IDE cable.

Regards,



Phil

 

[A Walker]

if you cant see it in explorer, then I would not assume the jumpers are
rite, device manager would not check that tbh. as im aware the second drive
needs to be on the middle connector of the ribbon with the master at the
end, and the second drive to be set to slave.

as far as I know, and what I have done, this is all you need to do. If the
drive is working rite.

 

[Guest]

Hi Ron,

Thank you for the reponse.

I've not made any changes to the second hard drive. Unless the jumpers fell
off when I removed the drive bay then the only other thnigs I have done is to
remove the power leads and IDE cables to the HDD's.

The second drive is correctly listed in BIOS, is correctly listed in Windows
XP Device Manager, which reports the drive as working correctly, but cannot
be seen in Adminstrative Tools nor in Explorer

Regards.



Phil

Reg

 

[Anna]

Hi Ron,

Thank you for the reponse.

I've not made any changes to the second hard drive. Unless the jumpers
fell
off when I removed the drive bay then the only other thnigs I have done is
to
remove the power leads and IDE cables to the HDD's.

The second drive is correctly listed in BIOS, is correctly listed in
Windows
XP Device Manager, which reports the drive as working correctly, but
cannot
be seen in Administrative Tools nor in Explorer
Phil

Note to Ron Sommer...
Ron:
I can assure you that based upon my experience working in a PC repair
facility for many years we encountered *numerous* instances where a hard
drive that had been misconfigured (incorrect jumper settings) was recognized
in the BIOS but could not be accessed in the operating system. Actually it
was a rather common occurrence. The fact that the drive is listed in Device
Manager is *not* an indication that the drive has been configured/connected
correctly for access purposes. Similarly (although much more infrequently)
we came upon instances where the IDE data cable was not securely seated in
the drive's connector, and once again the BIOS might recognize the existence
of the drive, the OS would not, for accessing purposes.
Anna

Phil:
In your latest comment, you state that the drive "cannot be seen in
Administrative Tools...". I assume by that you're referring to the Disk
Management utility in AT. However, earlier you stated it *was* reflected in
DM. Could you clarify? And have you rechecked your jumper settings and cable
connections?
Anna

 

[Keith]

Hi anna,

Thank you very much for your interest and your prompt reply.

The second drive is connected through the primary IDE cable exactly as it
was until the PC crashed on Saturday. The only thing I have done
physically
to the PC is to remove the drive bay so that I could swap primary hard
drives.

So I've not changed any jumpers. The second IDE drive is recognised in
BIOS,
it can be clearly seen in Device Manager which reports that the drive is
working normally. I have an external USB2 drive of the same size which is
recognised OK.

I'll try checking jumpers and re-seat the IDE cable.

Regards,

The fact that you have not changed the jumpers is where your problem lies

 

[Guest]

Phil / Anna / Ron, et al,
Did you ever find out what was going on here?
I added a 2nd hard drive that I can see in BIOS and Device Manager, but not
in explorer, my computer, etc. I checked and rechecked cables, jumpers, etc
and all look correct.
Seems like a an XP set up issue or too many IDE devices issue?

Thanks,
Wes

 

[Ron Sommer]

Is the drive formatted?
--
Ron Sommer

Phil / Anna / Ron, et al,
Did you ever find out what was going on here?
I added a 2nd hard drive that I can see in BIOS and Device Manager, but
not
in explorer, my computer, etc. I checked and rechecked cables, jumpers,
etc
and all look correct.
Seems like a an XP set up issue or too many IDE devices issue?

Thanks,
Wes

 

[Guest]

You know Ron, I don't know. I do know that I'm not at the same level as you
guys though! I bought the hard drive as an OEM drive.
Can I format it now at home without XP recognizing it (but device manager
does)?

Thank you.
Wes

 

[Malke]

You know Ron, I don't know. I do know that I'm not at the same level
as you
guys though! I bought the hard drive as an OEM drive.
Can I format it now at home without XP recognizing it (but device
manager does)?

The easiest way to format the drive is by booting with a Win98SE boot
disk and doing the format from there. Just make sure you format the
right drive! Then XP should see it and you will be able to reformat the
drive NTFS if so desired from within Windows.

Malke

 

[Anna]

The easiest way to format the drive is by booting with a Win98SE boot
disk and doing the format from there. Just make sure you format the
right drive! Then XP should see it and you will be able to reformat the
drive NTFS if so desired from within Windows.

Malke
--
MS MVP - Windows Shell/User
www.elephantboycomputers.com
In Memoriam - MVP Alex Nichol
The world is diminished without him.

Malke:
The OP's previous query was...
(snip)
"I added a 2nd hard drive that I can see in BIOS and Device Manager, but not
in explorer, my computer, etc. I checked and rechecked cables, jumpers, etc
and all look correct.
Seems like a an XP set up issue or too many IDE devices issue?

Thanks,
Wes"

So the likelihood is he never partitioned/formatted the drive. As you know,
it's a rather common error. So if this is so, I would think the most
straightforward thing to do at this point is to use XP's Disk Management
utility (note to OP: Start > right-click My Computer > Manage > Computer
Management > Disk Management) and simply partition/format it through that
utility. Would you not agree?

Anna

 

[Malke]

So the likelihood is he never partitioned/formatted the drive. As you
know, it's a rather common error. So if this is so, I would think the
most straightforward thing to do at this point is to use XP's Disk
Management utility (note to OP: Start > right-click My Computer >
Manage > Computer Management > Disk Management) and simply
partition/format it through that utility. Would you not agree?

It is unclear from the OP's postings whether the drive can be seen in
Disk Management. He never actually said. He did say he couldn't see it
in Explorer but that it shows in Device Manager. So we really don't
know if Disk Management would work. It certainly couldn't hurt to
check. However, we know that formatting that drive outside of the
operating system will work. So either way, it's something to look at.

Malke

 

[bumtracks]

Following a computer crash yesterday I have re-installed Windows XP
I had that same deal happen here.
usb drive had D: already in explore & everywhere else too.
Showed 2 D:'s in disk management but #2 hdd not showing in explore
Changed drive letter on usb drive and all was well.