Why has XP suddenly stop recognizng my 2nd internal hard drive?

[pstokely]

I have two internal hard drives installed in ATA configuration. Suddenly, the 2nd internal hard drive, normally assigned :I:" has gone missing from my configuration There's something in device manager simply labeled "Disk drive". Has my hard drive gone bad, has my motherboard gone bad, or is it something else. Nothing important is/ was on that drive, but it will take time reinstalling the stuff on another drive.

[lizziegrace]

1. Have you tried doing a system restore

and choosing a point in time when the system recognized the drive? Restore has saved me several times...

[Richardo]

2. It's wearing a fake nose and glasses?

[PeaceNikki]

12. .

:rofl:

[mwooldri]

3. What boot messages are you getting...

... before Windows even starts? Or does your computer hide it from you?

Some PCs allow you to see the BIOS boot sequence - with those that hide it like Dell and such you can go into the BIOS and enable viewing of it.

If the BIOS is registering the hard drives just fine then it's Windows.

Again, as Lizziegrace stated, if you have a system restore point try that. It could be a multitude of things, could even be a virus.

If the BIOS isn't registering it, then it could be as simple as a connector not pushed all the way in somewhere. Open it up, make sure all wires are pushed in correctly. If that doesn't work then it can get real interesting.

Good luck!

Mark.

[pstokely]

5. Sometime it shows up in the BIOS booting up

But it shows it being a 0MB drive when it does show up on boot

[eshfemme]

8. Yeah... sounds like something got corrupted

I'm sorry, this should have been the automatic question. Is there any way for you to list what kind of drive your hard drive is? What model is your motherboard? Since these are the two hardware components involved, that information might be useful to know.

The company and the model number can be extremely useful as sometimes, certain lines of hard drives are notorious for failing (I remember the first time I had a hard drive failure-- it was a Hitach Desk Star, which in those days was known as a Death Star).

[pstokely]

9. The hard is a Samsung, don't know what model

Over 3 years old. How can I find out what model my motherboard is?

[eshfemme]

10. Um... your computer... where did you get it?

Is it a HP or a Dell? I'm assuming you didn't put it together yourself... The motherboard model number is also usually found written somewhere on the motherboard. I'm not sure where to point you to since it's different on every motherboard... Does it at least have some bigass logos on it besides the usual AMD or Intel?

The hard drive should have the model number printed on it somewhere-- there's usually a big white sticker with all the pertinent information on the top of the hard drive.

But it does look like a corruption at first glance, so I'd recommend you look at trying to see if you can still retrieve data from it using recovery software.

[eshfemme]

4. You could try running cmd and using chkdsk to see if it has gone bad.

But it does look like your hard drive got corrupted or something...

You can also use a data retrieval software, which usually can detect hard drives, even ones that have gotten corrupted and can't be recognized by the OS.

If your 2nd internal hard drive is installed using the same IDE cord as your first one, then it's probably not the IDE port on your motherboard that's gone bad. If not, you should test the IDE port using another drive if you can to see if your motherboard has a problem. But from the looks of it, it's not your motherboard.

Hope this helps.

[pstokely]

6. Would you recommend as a USB to IDE adapter?

Both hard drives are installed on the same IDE cord? I've tried taking them out and replugging the cable, didn't fix it. How could it suddenly go bad? At least I didn't have anything that can't be reinstalled or replaced. Is there any free data retrieval software out there? Could it be the IDE cable?

[eshfemme]

7. If your 1st hard drive is still working and it's installed on the same IDE cable as the 2nd

then it's not the IDE cable. If you are also receiving an error with the first hard drive, then it's possible that it is the IDE cable and/or the IDE socket on the motherboard.

What people don't know is that hard drives have a certain length of time before they fail or corrupt. This is why regular scheduled backups of data is recommended. There are a few actions that can be taken to try to relieve the strain on a hard drive to delay the day a hard drive will go bad but generally, it is unavoidable. So, this is a common story-- there's so many ways for a hard drive to fail that it's hard to determine (at least for me with my level of expertise-- this is a question better suited to a specialist). However, hard drive failure can be divided into roughly 2 camps: hardware or software. If it's hardware, you will basically need to get it sent back to be fixed because it is a mechanical failure within the drive unless it is something that is easily replaceable. If it's software, it's fixable by a simple re-format (usually).

It's easier to diagnose the problem if we first assume that it is a simple data corruption as that would be easier for you to fix and thus, eliminate if it does turn out to be a mechanical failure. As for data retrieval software, there is freeware and trial software you can use. Here's a couple you can try:

R-Studio: http://www.r-studio.com/?betan001
GetDataBack: http://www.runtime.org/data-recovery-software.htm
EASEUS Data Recovery Wizard: http://www.easeus.com/datarecoverywizard/

You can also search on snapfiles for trials and freeware disk recovery software. I don't have any particular recommendation as some software is more effective in some situations. There is no best software here.

Hopefully, this helps you out. Good luck!

[NJmaverick]

11. Go inside and make sure all the cables and cards are firmly seated

[pstokely]

13. Did that, didn't fix it

[NJmaverick]

15. Did you try running the add hardware utility?

force the system to search for new devices

[pstokely]

18. I think it's detecting it

something is called "Disk Drive" is showing up in Device manager

[NJmaverick]

24. try to uninstall it using the device manager

then run the hardware install. That might work

[pstokely]

30. didn't that, didn't work

[NJmaverick]

37. hmmm It's sounding like the HD may have gone bad

do you have a different computer you could try it in?

[pstokely]

38. I'm going to try hooking it up to another PC with an IDE-USB adapter

nt

[pstokely]

39. Did that, no better

It sounded like it was struggling to spin

[EstimatedProphet]

14. delete

[TreasonousBastard]

16. I had a similar problem years ago and the fix...

amazed me. The jumper on the drive was set to auto-select. I moved it to slave and it worked again.

(You don't want to know how long I jerked around before I thought to check the jumpers)

[pstokely]

19. I've had this for over 3 years, and this problem only begun like Monday

[TreasonousBastard]

20. I should have mentioned that in my case it was...

working for years, too. I have no idea why the jumper change was needed after all that time, but I do know that Windows fools around with "fixing" things in the background.

Oh, and if you have any spare cables lying around, try a new one-- I had problems with bad cables over the years. It's another one of those things you just don't think about.

[pstokely]

21. How much is a new cable?

Would Best Buy or Office Depot have them?

[TreasonousBastard]

22. Best Buy and Radio Shack should have them

but you never you what's in stock.

I got some at a super discount joint, and saved the good ones from old computers, so I don't know what retail is. I'm guessing 10 bucks or so. Thing about cables is that most of them will last forever, but it's tricky getting those 40 pin connectors lined up properly so a few will eventually get intermittent breaks or shorts from the slight vibration from the drive.

And, the more you fool around with them changing drives (even just once or twice) the more you increase your chances of cable failure-- it doesn't take much.

[av8rdave]

17. Because XP is a Microsoft product

[DS1]

23. pound sand

[av8rdave]

25. You have a nice day too!

Sorry, I don't care for Microsoft products.

[hunter]

26. I confess to using Microsoft XP quite a lot this week...

Google's chrome was too shiny for me to resist.

But yeah, reflexive anti-Microsoft blather is sand-in-the-underpants irritating -- most especially from the Apple Cultists.

(I'm Debian, btw, so I'm not irritated by fellow Debian cultists quite so much... and we know by long experience that a software glitch in Debian is just as likely as a hardware glitch.)

[av8rdave]

27. Actually, I'm not an "Apple cultist"

Just many, many years of frustration dealing with MS operating systems. My latest? Why just this morning, XP became unsure of the location of one of my CD/DVD drives. Now, thankfully, one of the CD trays opens and closes on its own every 10 seconds.

Last week, MS decided I needed Service Pack 3 for XP, and proceeded to install it for me, overwriting system files as it did so. Of course, well into the process, the whole install routine stalled and locked up the computer, with no means of escaping the routine or even soft rebooting. Thank goodness for a recovery disk...I was able to restore the system to an earlier configuration. But of course, MS STILL wants that service pack to try to install again.

Guess I should just call their fast, free, friendly, accessible tech support for help.

Oh, that's right...

[hunter]

28. Well then, you really are pounding sand!

Try Ubuntu maybe. With that at least you don't have to pay Microsoft to pound the sand.

http://www.ubuntu.com

You'll want to do these things too:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=766683

If you get hooked on Open Source software you'll hate Microsoft even more when you must use it.

[av8rdave]

29. I'm not sure I'm smart enough, but I'll check them out

Thanks!

[struggle4progress]

31. Had a problem some years ago with my work computer not correctly identifying the hard drive

It was a low battery problem that corrupted settings: I had to run set-up and fix settings after every boot until the battery was replaced

[pstokely]

33. CMOS battery?

?

[struggle4progress]

34. IIRC, yeah, the BIOS was getting messed

[Monk06]

35. Jesus that's like having to make a new set of tires for your car, by hand, every morning

[struggle4progress]

36. Yah. It war a frackin PITB. Stinkin hunka junk war brandspankin new , too: still unda

warranty & the vender didn't really care:

"Oh, it must have been something you did to the harddrive" (Said in a curiously disbelieving and accusatory tone -- as if I'd been doing something indecent to the machine in my very public office)

"Oh, it must be a defective harddrive: we can get you a new one in six months" (They finally did come through on that one: Buncha people really did finally get new harddrives, but of course it wasn't the problem)

I tried never to shut the mofo down, but of course that really wasn't a possibility: so I kept a list of settings in my desk drawer

[Orrex]

32. Consider yourself lucky

Some people lack drive altogether.