Second Hard Drive Failure

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Guest

I have two hard drives in my XP Pro system. Drive C and drive G. When
clicking on 'My Computer', the dialog box periodically lists only drive C and
not drive G. This happened once before and an 'IT specialist' told me that
that I had to re-install Windows XP Pro as the data was corrupt. PLEASE, I
cannot go through this NIGHTMARE again! Is there any way I can 'see' the G
drive again? I know that the drive is OK because when I re-boot, I sometimes
see the G drive, but it gradually gets worse. Shortly I will not be able to
see the drive at all. Any help???
 
The advice you where given is "Knowledge-Gap BS". Re-installing
Windows doesn't fix vanishing drives/volumes from Explorer. First
thing to know is whether G: is separate physical disk from C: or just
a partition of a single hard drive. Knowing the physical layout helps
to give you more focused help.
 
Anton Jansen said:
I have two hard drives in my XP Pro system. Drive C and drive G. When
clicking on 'My Computer', the dialog box periodically lists only drive C and
not drive G. This happened once before and an 'IT specialist' told me that
that I had to re-install Windows XP Pro as the data was corrupt. PLEASE, I
cannot go through this NIGHTMARE again! Is there any way I can 'see' the G
drive again? I know that the drive is OK because when I re-boot, I sometimes
see the G drive, but it gradually gets worse. Shortly I will not be able to
see the drive at all. Any help???
Click to expand...

1. Use Start - Run - DISKMGMT.MSC
Does that list both hard drives or just the one.

2. Determine the make of the second hard drive (G) and go to the
manufacturer's web site. Download their free diagnostic testing
utility and run that to check the drive for possbile hardware faults.

If you only see the G drive "sometimes" when you reboot then that is a
pretty good indication of a hardware problem with that drive. A
properly functioning drive will *always* be detected by the computer's
BIOS and reported at startup.

Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2006)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca
Syberfix Remote Computer Repair

"Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference
has never been in bed with a mosquito."
 
Anton said:
I have two hard drives in my XP Pro system. Drive C and drive G. When
clicking on 'My Computer', the dialog box periodically lists only drive C and
not drive G. This happened once before and an 'IT specialist' told me that
that I had to re-install Windows XP Pro as the data was corrupt. PLEASE, I
cannot go through this NIGHTMARE again! Is there any way I can 'see' the G
drive again? I know that the drive is OK because when I re-boot, I sometimes
see the G drive, but it gradually gets worse. Shortly I will not be able to
see the drive at all. Any help???
Click to expand...

Are C: and G: two distinct drives or two partitions on the same drive?
Make sure you have a complete backup of all important data on the G:
drive, then download a drive diagnostic utility from the drive
manufacturer's web site. This should create a bootable floppy or CD.
Boot from that and run the diagnostics.

Reinstalling Windows should not be a nightmare, but it's also not what
is needed to fix a failing hard drive. Whoever gave you that advice is
someone you should avoid in the future.
 
Hi, thanks for getting back to me. The C and G drives are two indepent
drives. I have found something interesting since my first post. The 'Device
Manager' only shows the C drive, but using a Nero utility, this shows both
drives C and G.
On both the Primary and Secondary IDE channels, both drives show up as the
Master drive, drive C has DMA on and Drive G has DMA off, this is the missing
drive.
I hope this sheds some light on the issue.
 
Hi Ron, thanks for getting back to me.
1. I used DISKMGMT.MSC but only shows one drive which is C
2. It is a Seagate 400GB drive and the diagnostic software could not find
the missing G drive.
I have found something interesting since my first post. The 'Device Manager'
only shows the C drive, but using a Nero utility, this shows both drives C
and G.
On both the Primary and Secondary IDE channels, both drives show up as the
Master drive, drive C has DMA on and Drive G has DMA off, this is the missing
drive.
I hope this sheds some light on the issue.
 
Hi Rock, thanks for getting back to me. Please see my replies to R.McCarty
and Ron Martell.
 
Thanks - The fact that your G: volume is not using UDMA mode
would indicate the drive has experienced errors causing it to drop
from UDMA mode to PIO ( significantly slower ). XP uses this to
attempt to resolve I/O errors.
You need to check Device Manager, Disk Drives category. Make
sure both drives are shown ( usually as Vendor ID Strings ). It may
be that the drive has gone to "Phantom" status.
I would also use DiskMgmt.Msc to check the drive's status. It will
show the drive parameters and all it's structures.
 
Anton said:
Hi Ron, thanks for getting back to me.
1. I used DISKMGMT.MSC but only shows one drive which is C
2. It is a Seagate 400GB drive and the diagnostic software could not find
the missing G drive.
I have found something interesting since my first post. The 'Device Manager'
only shows the C drive, but using a Nero utility, this shows both drives C
and G.
On both the Primary and Secondary IDE channels, both drives show up as the
Master drive, drive C has DMA on and Drive G has DMA off, this is the missing
drive.
I hope this sheds some light on the issue.
Click to expand...

"On both the Primary and Secondary IDE channels, both drives show up as
the Master drive" --
Do you mean that
(A) on the primary IDE channel, both C: and G: are reported as masters
and on the secondary IDE channel, both C: and G: are reported as masters

OR

(B) on the primary IDE channel, C: is reported as master and on the
secondary IDE channel, G: is reported as master

(B) is OK. (A) sounds as if something is seriously mis-connected and/or
misconfigured.
 
It could be the motherboard that is failing instead of the drive. I'm
assuming that the drives are EIDE and not SATA. You could try swapping the
cables on the motherboard (C: to secondary and G: to primary). You may want
to see if your motherboard has a booting option also. Greg T
 
I have an "off the wall" question for you. What is the wattage rating of the
computer's power supply. Also, some drives have a jumper selection that can
be used to "improve" startup current drawn by the drive. In fact, the drive
may actually be bad. Backing up data on it should be a high priority.

The fact that it is not running in a DMA mode is an indication that the
error rate is higher than desired, regardless of the cause. Oddly enough, I
ran into a similar problem with a new model Sony multi layer do everything
DVD/CD burner. It would work properly occasionally as an ATA/IDE drive, all
the time if installed into a USB drive adapter, and occasionally as an ATA
drive that seems to have UDMA capability. Back to the store it went.
 
Is this a new problem on an old computer, or a new problem on an new
computer, or configuration? I'm thinking the dip switches are configured
wrong. Master slave relationship.

Gazoo0
 
Anton Jansen said:
Hi Rock, thanks for getting back to me. Please see my replies to R.McCarty
and Ron Martell.
Click to expand...


I saw them. You should still download a drive diagnostic utility and run
it.
 
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