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#1
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Help! WinXP can't tell that my 2nd hard drive is already formatted
I recently bought a "bare bones" computer (Asus A7n8X Deluxe mobo,
Athlon XP 2500+ CPU, 512MB RAM, WinXP Home) and transferred my existing hard and optical drives into it, from a much older computer, where they had been working just fine (the drives themselves are much newer than the other parts of the "old" computer). I have 2 hard drives: my C drive (primary IDE Master) is a 20GB drive with the OS and apps; the Slave drive is a 120 GB IBM Deskstar with documents only. (Spare me the anti-IBM hard drive stuff, I know I should have gotten a WD.) As noted, they worked fine for a long time on my old system. But after transferring the drives, I couldn't get the new computer to boot up, I kept getting a screen where the nice people at Microsoft apologized for my inconvenience and offered to launch Windows in Safe Mode, or the last known good configuration, etc. None of the choices worked. I thought the problem might relate to the D drive: the BIOS recognized the drive's existence but misreported its size as 33821 MB (way less than its true 120 GB). Specifically, I thought the problem might be caused by the software I had previously installed on the C drive in order to make the D drive work--in my old computer, it had been necessary to run a "Drive Overlay" program from IBM's web site to fool the old computer's BIOS into thinking the drive was a lot smaller than it really was, as the BIOS couldn't otherwise recognize the drive. I figured this software might be both unnecessary, and perhaps harmful, to the new computer. Since I couldn't uninstall the Drive Overlay, I reformatted the 20GB C drive. But the clean reinstall of Windows didn't solve the problem: the BIOS still doesn't see the entire D drive, and Windows XP can't access the data: it sees the drive, and Device Manager says the device is working properly, but Windows thinks the drive is unformatted! I upgraded my computer just so I could install a DVD burner to back up my data, and now I can't access it at all. Any advice that would involve me keeping all my data? The drive is nearly full of stuff I value very highly, and I have no reason to believe it is truly faulty... I tried other cables; don't really have access to another computer to try the drive in. If I bought an external enclosure and tried to connect the drive as a USB device, could that help?? My eternal gratitude to whoever can help me... Joel |
#2
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I have 2 hard drives: my C drive (primary IDE Master) is a 20GB drive
with the OS and apps; the Slave drive is a 120 GB IBM Deskstar with documents only. (Spare me the anti-IBM hard drive stuff, I know I should have gotten a WD.) As noted, they worked fine for a long time on my old system. But after transferring the drives, I couldn't get the new computer to boot up, I kept getting a screen where the nice people at Microsoft apologized for my inconvenience and offered to launch Windows in Safe Mode, or the last known good configuration, etc. None of the choices worked. You *CAN'T* just move a hard drive from one computer and put it in another and expect it to work. It *MIGHT* work for some, but definately a bad idea to depend on it. Back you data up to another location, move your drives an reformat/install. |
#3
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"FitPhillyGuy" wrote in message om... : I recently bought a "bare bones" computer (Asus A7n8X Deluxe mobo, : Athlon XP 2500+ CPU, 512MB RAM, WinXP Home) and transferred my : existing hard and optical drives into it, from a much older computer, : where they had been working just fine (the drives themselves are much : newer than the other parts of the "old" computer). : : I have 2 hard drives: my C drive (primary IDE Master) is a 20GB drive : with the OS and apps; the Slave drive is a 120 GB IBM Deskstar with : documents only. (Spare me the anti-IBM hard drive stuff, I know I : should have gotten a WD.) As noted, they worked fine for a long time : on my old system. : : But after transferring the drives, I couldn't get the new computer to : boot up, I kept getting a screen where the nice people at Microsoft : apologized for my inconvenience and offered to launch Windows in Safe : Mode, or the last known good configuration, etc. None of the choices : worked. : : I thought the problem might relate to the D drive: the BIOS recognized : the drive's existence but misreported its size as 33821 MB (way less : than its true 120 GB). Specifically, I thought the problem might be : caused by the software I had previously installed on the C drive in : order to make the D drive work--in my old computer, it had been : necessary to run a "Drive Overlay" program from IBM's web site to fool : the old computer's BIOS into thinking the drive was a lot smaller than : it really was, as the BIOS couldn't otherwise recognize the drive. I : figured this software might be both unnecessary, and perhaps harmful, : to the new computer. : : Since I couldn't uninstall the Drive Overlay, I reformatted the 20GB C : drive. But the clean reinstall of Windows didn't solve the problem: : the BIOS still doesn't see the entire D drive, and Windows XP can't : access the data: it sees the drive, and Device Manager says the device : is working properly, but Windows thinks the drive is unformatted! I : upgraded my computer just so I could install a DVD burner to back up : my data, and now I can't access it at all. Any advice that would : involve me keeping all my data? The drive is nearly full of stuff I : value very highly, and I have no reason to believe it is truly : faulty... I tried other cables; don't really have access to another : computer to try the drive in. : : If I bought an external enclosure and tried to connect the drive as a : USB device, could that help?? : : My eternal gratitude to whoever can help me... : : Joel MY guess is Xp sees the 120gb drive as a 32gb fat32 type drive and that you will need the overlay software to make it recognizable to XP XP thinks anything over 32 gigs is formatted NTFS and acts accordingly. I would search the MS knowledge base and see what you can find also the IBM (now Hitachi I think) data base for tips. XP has a how to move from your old computer help file which might give you some pointers. Don't panic the data is most likely ok. Just be patient and approach the problem logically. Once you get into reformatting your into big money to recover the data You might also consider one of the many disk utility packages around. I don't know any of them so I can't say which does what but there's lots out there many as free demos. claus |
#4
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The Overlay that you have installed on that second drive, might be causing
problems, my suggestion is to use a boot disk with fdisk on it, and when it boots, switch to the big hard drive, and run this command fdisk /mbr. that will erase the master boot record and get rid of the overlay, then xp more than likely can find it, and the bios might be able to as well. |
#5
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Update WinXP to the first update and that might help with the larger
drive. Hopefully you do not have a drive overlay on the old drive. Make sure you have also updated the motherboard with the Nforce2 Chipset Drivers. Check the BIOS to see if LBA is turned on. Large Block Addressing. Try running the drive overlay program again for it to copy the data over to the other drive. You should go to the Hitachi Site and get the drive utility to write Zeros to the entire drive. This will allow you to get rid of the overlay program. On Tue, 16 Sep 2003, FitPhillyGuy wrote: I recently bought a "bare bones" computer (Asus A7n8X Deluxe mobo, Athlon XP 2500+ CPU, 512MB RAM, WinXP Home) and transferred my existing hard and optical drives into it, from a much older computer, where they had been working just fine (the drives themselves are much newer than the other parts of the "old" computer). I have 2 hard drives: my C drive (primary IDE Master) is a 20GB drive with the OS and apps; the Slave drive is a 120 GB IBM Deskstar with documents only. (Spare me the anti-IBM hard drive stuff, I know I should have gotten a WD.) As noted, they worked fine for a long time on my old system. But after transferring the drives, I couldn't get the new computer to boot up, I kept getting a screen where the nice people at Microsoft apologized for my inconvenience and offered to launch Windows in Safe Mode, or the last known good configuration, etc. None of the choices worked. I thought the problem might relate to the D drive: the BIOS recognized the drive's existence but misreported its size as 33821 MB (way less than its true 120 GB). Specifically, I thought the problem might be caused by the software I had previously installed on the C drive in order to make the D drive work--in my old computer, it had been necessary to run a "Drive Overlay" program from IBM's web site to fool the old computer's BIOS into thinking the drive was a lot smaller than it really was, as the BIOS couldn't otherwise recognize the drive. I figured this software might be both unnecessary, and perhaps harmful, to the new computer. Since I couldn't uninstall the Drive Overlay, I reformatted the 20GB C drive. But the clean reinstall of Windows didn't solve the problem: the BIOS still doesn't see the entire D drive, and Windows XP can't access the data: it sees the drive, and Device Manager says the device is working properly, but Windows thinks the drive is unformatted! I upgraded my computer just so I could install a DVD burner to back up my data, and now I can't access it at all. Any advice that would involve me keeping all my data? The drive is nearly full of stuff I value very highly, and I have no reason to believe it is truly faulty... I tried other cables; don't really have access to another computer to try the drive in. If I bought an external enclosure and tried to connect the drive as a USB device, could that help?? My eternal gratitude to whoever can help me... Joel |
#6
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"Phrederik" wrote in message news:abS9b.642$8D4.641@pd7tw1no... I have 2 hard drives: my C drive (primary IDE Master) is a 20GB drive with the OS and apps; the Slave drive is a 120 GB IBM Deskstar with documents only. (Spare me the anti-IBM hard drive stuff, I know I should have gotten a WD.) As noted, they worked fine for a long time on my old system. But after transferring the drives, I couldn't get the new computer to boot up, I kept getting a screen where the nice people at Microsoft apologized for my inconvenience and offered to launch Windows in Safe Mode, or the last known good configuration, etc. None of the choices worked. You *CAN'T* just move a hard drive from one computer and put it in another and expect it to work. It *MIGHT* work for some, but definately a bad idea to depend on it. Of course you can, if it's a slave drive (Not housing the OS). I've done it dozens of times with no problems. Back you data up to another location, move your drives an reformat/install. Whatever. Everybody here seems to be missing the point that the BIOS isn't ID'ing the drive correctly. Either the drive was damaged (It wasn't dropped was it?) or maybe the BIOS might need updating. Getting the BIOS to ID the drive correctly seems to be the answer. I assume the drive is jumpered correctly to slave? (if it is in fact slaved on the primary IDE channel). Check your jumpers, check your cables are seated correctly. If the drive is primary slave try moving it to secondary master. Check the jumpers on your optical drives as well. Then get back to us. -- ~misfit~ --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.518 / Virus Database: 316 - Release Date: 11/09/2003 |
#7
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On Thu, 18 Sep 2003 15:47:02 +1200, "~misfit~"
wrote: Everybody here seems to be missing the point that the BIOS isn't ID'ing the drive correctly. Either the drive was damaged (It wasn't dropped was it?) or maybe the BIOS might need updating. Getting the BIOS to ID the drive correctly seems to be the answer. I assume the drive is jumpered correctly to slave? (if it is in fact slaved on the primary IDE channel). Check your jumpers, check your cables are seated correctly. If the drive is primary slave try moving it to secondary master. Check the jumpers on your optical drives as well. Then get back to us. Sounds to me like the drive has it's capacity jumper used. Dave |
#8
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"kony" wrote in message ... On Thu, 18 Sep 2003 15:47:02 +1200, "~misfit~" wrote: Everybody here seems to be missing the point that the BIOS isn't ID'ing the drive correctly. Either the drive was damaged (It wasn't dropped was it?) or maybe the BIOS might need updating. Getting the BIOS to ID the drive correctly seems to be the answer. I assume the drive is jumpered correctly to slave? (if it is in fact slaved on the primary IDE channel). Check your jumpers, check your cables are seated correctly. If the drive is primary slave try moving it to secondary master. Check the jumpers on your optical drives as well. Then get back to us. Sounds to me like the drive has it's capacity jumper used. Good point, could be that. As I said to the OP, check jumpers, cables. -- ~misfit~ --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.520 / Virus Database: 318 - Release Date: 18/09/2003 |
#9
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Sorry it's taken me so long to read the replies to my own posting. I
was experiencing unrelated technical difficulties. The idea that this is an overlay-related problem sounds plausible to me (which is a really stupid thing for me to say, considering how pathetic my tech knowledge is). There definitely WAS overlay software being used in my old system; when I transferred the drives, I reformatted the master drive (the 20GB C drive with Win XP on it) and did not reinstall the overlay software because I thought that the whole idea of the overlay was to compensate for limitations in the BIOS (rather than in Windows XP itself), which shouldn't be an issue if you have a fairly new computer with an up to date BIOS. I really don't fully understand how this overlay stuff works so an explanation would help. Charles, You suggest running the overlay software again, is there any danger that this will aggravate my problems? Is this risky? FYI, I am running XP with ALL the critical (and not-so-critical) updates, so my OS is truly up-to-date. And the BIOS is not perfectly current but it's pretty darned current (it's a very new model of motherboard, BIOS dates from spring 2003). I am running the current nForce 2 drivers. Also, as recommended by someone else, I did indeed try hooking up the big drive as a master drive on the secondary IDE channel, with no luck. (Good suggestion, though.) Thanks for the suggestions, any further advice will be duly appreciated. Joel Charles Hammond wrote in message ... Update WinXP to the first update and that might help with the larger drive. Hopefully you do not have a drive overlay on the old drive. Make sure you have also updated the motherboard with the Nforce2 Chipset Drivers. Check the BIOS to see if LBA is turned on. Large Block Addressing. Try running the drive overlay program again for it to copy the data over to the other drive. You should go to the Hitachi Site and get the drive utility to write Zeros to the entire drive. This will allow you to get rid of the overlay program. |
#10
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Sounds to me like the drive has it's capacity jumper used. Dave Dave, what's a "capacity jumper"?? I of course have it jumpered as a slave; without pulling the drive out of the case (I screwed it back in there) I can't recall what the sticker on the drive showed as far as other jumper positions but I remember there were many options (not just M, S or CS). What is the capacity jumper? Oh, and just to be clear, I never dropped it...I treat my drives with tender loving care... Joel |
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