Vanishing disk drive

[Holz]

Hi all,

I had to reinstall XP SP2 and afterwards (besides updates not working
due to a registry problem...got that fixed) my slave drive will come
up in the BIOS and Disk Managment, but won't be assigned a drive
letter (nor can I do it manually...selection greyed out) Disk
Managment says its active and healthy but after many disconnects,
uninstalls and reboots I'm still right where I started. Any ideas?
Could it be the registry again?

Thanks,

Rob

On the left side of the disk there is a little button that says import?
dynamic? basic?

 

[Lupo]

Hi all,

I had to reinstall XP SP2 and afterwards (besides updates not working due to
a registry problem...got that fixed) my slave drive will come up in the BIOS
and Disk Managment, but won't be assigned a drive letter (nor can I do it
manually...selection greyed out) Disk Managment says its active and healthy
but after many disconnects, uninstalls and reboots I'm still right where I
started. Any ideas? Could it be the registry again?

Thanks,

Rob

 

[Lupo]

Nope. It says: Disk1, Basic, 111.81 GB, Online

On the left side of the disk there is a little button that says import?
dynamic? basic?

 

[Gerry]

You might look at TweakUi.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/powertoys.asp

In TweakUi select My Computer, Drives.


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Hi all,

I had to reinstall XP SP2 and afterwards (besides updates not working due
to a registry problem...got that fixed) my slave drive will come up in the
BIOS and Disk Managment, but won't be assigned a drive letter (nor can I
do it manually...selection greyed out) Disk Managment says its active and
healthy but after many disconnects, uninstalls and reboots I'm still right
where I started. Any ideas? Could it be the registry again?

Thanks,

Rob

Try this:
1. Click Start / Run / cmd {OK}
2. Type the following commands:
mountvol{Enter}
* Make a note of the volume name that does NOT have a drive
* letter in the line following it. The volume name looks like so:
\\?\Volume{5b21c8e0-b18f-11dc-afb6-806d6172696f}\
mountvol | find "\\" > mount.bat{Enter}
notepad mount.bat{Enter}
* Delete all volume names except the one you previously
* made a note of. Modify this name like so:
mountvol G: \\?\Volume{d2b72b61-db71-11d8-aef3-806d6172696f}\
* Save & close the file.
mount.bat{Enter}

What do you see on the screen?

 

[Lupo]

Hi,

Thanks for the info but when I do as you described all the volumes come back
with a drive letter. A: (floppy) C: (system volume) and E and F (dvd
drives). The missing drive D does not show on the list. I did exactly as
described in your instructions. Any other ideas?

 

[Anna]

Hi,
Thanks for the info but when I do as you described all the volumes come
back with a drive letter. A: (floppy) C: (system volume) and E and F
(dvd drives). The missing drive D does not show on the list. I did
exactly as described in your instructions. Any other ideas?

Rob:
We'll assume, of course, that prior to the reinstall of your OS, the
secondary HDD functioned without any problems. And that you haven't changed
its connection and/or configuration since the OS reinstall.

If you haven't already tried this - give the following a try...

Disconnect the secondary HDD from your system and boot *only* to your
primary HDD. After shutting down the system reconnect the secondary HDD
making sure you've properly connected/jumpered it.

If still a problem, connect it on the secondary IDE channel (either as
Master or Slave) and see if that works. (I'm assuming you're working with
PATA, and not SATA HDDs. If it's a SATA HDD, try another SATA connector on
the motherboard).

You might also want to download the HDD diagnostic utility from the disk's
manufacturer and check it out (notwithstanding that the drive is listed in
the BIOS and Device Manager/ Disk Management.)
Anna

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Thanks for the feedback. By the way, it would be a good
idea to fix your clock or your time zone. You're consistently
posting in the future.

 

[Lupo]

Hi Anna,

I had done all you described with no results. Then at 4 am I came upon a
Symantec article saying that if you have Go Back installed it does something
to the MBR to make it not seen by windows. I made a boot disk from an image
they supplied and it fixed the MBR instantly..Didn't even have to
reboot...there was drive D again!

Thanks all for your help. I am breathing easier now.

Rob