ide driver not recognized in xp

[mlc]

friends xp machine had to be recovered /rebuilt....uses sata 0 for primary os and loads fine.. However, when he adds an IDE drive to his config that worked prior, it does not show up in My Computer .... System does recognize it at post, and it does show up under drive manager....

Computer Management shows the drive , but I didn't see any way of adding/assigning a drive letter to it... any suggestions ?

[Steve R Jones]

Make sure its jumpered as Master or CS and on the end connector of the ribbon cable.

[mlc]

thanks... it was working prior.. but just in case we switched it trying master as a setting as well... but no luck..

its a seagate 7200.7

[bruceb]

Try replacing the IDE cable .. it may be bad ... or try the drive in another
pc to see if the drive itself is ok or not ... also check the power connection
cable to the drive

[mlc]

thanks...

...did try a new cable... same problem....

.. also tried the drive in another pc with same symptom.. it's recognized during post, but not shown in MY COMPUTER..

ran some diagnostics via SEAGATE site.. and shows up ok with no errors.. Now trying some utilities to see if we can extract any data on the drive.. as it would appear that this drive is on the way out

[BipolarBill]

You need to look in Disk Management (DISKMGMT.MSC). Disk Management is well hidden. The easiest way to get to it and other consoles is to right-click My Computer and select "Manage".

Here, you can import a drive, partition, format and reletter it. You *may* need to delete the partition and then recreate it, but just try assigning a letter.

http://www.theeldergeek.com/disk_management.htm


__________________

[mlc]

thanks Bill...

I suspect a virus at this point .. as we did try working through Disk Management earlier to assign the letter, but were not able.. it only showed the drive as Unallocated.. and it seems the only option was to run through a disk wizard to reinitialize it.. which is not an option as we need to save this data....

we then tried an external drive via USB and had a similar problem... and this one we didnt care about the data, so we reinitialized it.. and it then showed a drive letter, etc... Then as soon as we tried to clone the data over from the IDE to the external... it would no longer display with the assigned letter.. So I assume the data being moved back and forth between the 2 is causing the problems...

Now.. how would one go about trying to remove a virus against the drive , it we can not display it via My Computer ?

[BipolarBill]

I doubt it's a virus. If it were, it's not on the drive, but on the system it's mounted on. A virus is just another file until it's opened. You haven't opened any files on the drive yet. In other words, a virus is PC-specific. That's why you can safely scan a virus-infected drive on a second PC without a problem. It's not "installed" yet.

If your drive shows as unallocated, the partition table is shot. You may be able to save it with this:

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

[mlc]

thanks again......... i should clarify (as my other posts were written in haste)...

1) the original problem he had was with external USB/Firewire drive not being recognized. He had the manufacturer walked him through it and they said it was a windows xp problem, and probably required a rebuild/recover to repair...
2) with that in mind, he contacted me, and I suggested that he backup all of his critical data files from his C drive (RAID 0 SATA config) onto an IDE drive he also had mounted on the system...
3) he then used his DELL recovery disks to rebuild his system....
4) after booting up, we then noticed that the IDE drive was detected during post, but no longer displayed within MY COMPUTER. Nor did the recovery fix the problem with his external drive not displaying within MY COMPUTER as well.. (i.e not seen in my computer,... but does show up under disk mgmt)
5) He actually has 2 of these external drives, and neither of them would display.
6) We then tried them on a second PC he had, and the same problem..
7) we then tried the IDE drive (Seagate 7200.7) in his second PC as well, with the same problem...

at that point we then tried to reinitialized one of the external drives using the wizard within disk managment ..and that did allow it to display within MY COMPUTER, but the drive was now empty.. so that was NOT an option to try with the IDE drive.. as the data is critical and must be saved.....

The reason i asked about a virus, is that when he then used a disk utility he had to move the data from the "bad" IDE drive to the reinitialized external drive, then that external drive once again would no longer dispaly within MY COMPUTER...

Bill... does the partition table you mention live on each drive? If so, it wouldn't get moved from one drive to another when copying via a disk utility , would it ?
If not, then would a damaged partition table still cause this type of problem ?

In the meantime, my friend is going to purchase a data extract utility and try to salvage any data from the IDE drive...

[BipolarBill]

does the partition table you mention live on each drive? If so, it wouldn't get moved from one drive to another when copying via a disk utility , would it ?Yes it would. It has to be repaired on the source drive first.

[mlc]

ah.. that makes sense then....

thanks again.. .you're a wealth of info.. You've saved me several times in the past as well.. and I appreciate the insight you provide