HD Drive missing after new install

bloodline76

bloodline76

bloodline76

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Joined
7 Feb 2004
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After upgrading my cpu I have discovered that one of my HDs is unavailable.

I have tried to activate it but it does not come online.

When I go into manage it shows up but it is offline.

I have checked that everything is plugged in, could this be a power issue as I have plugged another device into a cable that shares the power?

Or just have to unplug and replug in?

THanks
 
If it's showing up in Disk Management [albeit as offline] then it must be getting power. I would break/make all connections (power/data cable) then use the manufacturer's Disk Utility first to check if there's a problem with it. If that gives it a clean bill of health the problem is in Windows. In Device Manager I would uninstall it then scan for hardware changes and let it install again. If none of that works come back for an update!
 
ChrisLX200 said:
If it's showing up in Disk Management [albeit as offline] then it must be getting power. I would break/make all connections (power/data cable) then use the manufacturer's Disk Utility first to check if there's a problem with it. If that gives it a clean bill of health the problem is in Windows. In Device Manager I would uninstall it then scan for hardware changes and let it install again. If none of that works come back for an update!
Click to expand...

If I uninstall will that lose the data?

And do you mean select delete volume?
 
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No - don't delete the volume! That would lose the data. In Device Manager look under Disk Drives and hopefully you should see the drive listed there. Right-click and choose Uninstall. That's harmless to the data, and when you choose 'Action / Scan for Hardware changes' the OS will find it again and re-install it. It may do something and prompt you to 'activate' the drive again and put it back online, or it may do nothing...

Edit - it actually asks you to re-boot, [just tried it myself to see] it will find it again on re-boot.

Edit 2 - well it finds it on re-boot but asks you to re-boot a second time to complete the install! On my machine that takes a while (far too many USB devices attached to it)
 
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ChrisLX200 said:
No - don't delete the volume! That would lose the data. In Device Manager look under Disk Drives and hopefully you should see the drive listed there. Right-click and choose Uninstall. That's harmless to the data, and when you choose 'Action / Scan for Hardware changes' the OS will find it again and re-install it. It may do something and prompt you to 'activate' the drive again and put it back online, or it may do nothing...

Edit - it actually asks you to re-boot, [just tried it myself to see] it will find it again on re-boot.

Edit 2 - well it finds it on re-boot but asks you to re-boot a second time to complete the install! On my machine that takes a while (far too many USB devices attached to it)
Click to expand...

Tried that. Uninstalled rebooted. Then I select to reactivate but it says:

Specified disk can not be located
 
rpstewart said:
This isn't a case of trying to access a Dynamic Disk with an OS that doesn't support them (Vista HP etc)?
Click to expand...

No this is XP Pro 32bit.

I have just unplugged everything to fit a new fan and now it doesnt recognise the drive. Not sure which drive it is tho, so I will need to search through them to see which is which.
 
ChrisLX200 said:
Have you checked the drive's health yet using the manufacturer's util? Sounds like it may be faulty to me.
Click to expand...

Crap now the other drive isnt working after unplugging and replugging in.

Both of these are dynamic drives, does that help any?

How do I do manufacturers test?

They are coming up as unreadable now.

All show up in device manager and all show up in bios

They are all WD HDs
 
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bloodline76 said:
Crap now the other drive isnt working after unplugging and replugging in.

Both of these are dynamic drives, does that help any?

How do I do manufacturers test?

They are coming up as unreadable now.

All show up in device manager and all show up in bios
Click to expand...

Ah, OK. It sounds less like physical HD failure and more like an OS thing. However, for re-assurance it would be good to check the drives can be read using that utility (you haven't said what drives these are, if Seagate/Maxtor go to the Seagate website and download SEATOOLS.EXE, the equivalents are on Samsung and WD wepsites). A drive can show up in BIOS yet be unreadable (it reports basic information to the system using data stored in the firmware), but for windows to get details of partitions it needs to read what's on the disk. If it shows in Disk Manager and you can see the partition info then (likely) it's corrupt data on the drive rather than physical failure. I'm guessing here of course but you got to start somewhere!

You need to work with one drive at a time, remove one of those giving you problems and just work with the other one.

I've never done much with Dynamic disks so I can't address specific problems there, but if was working OK in your system before then the partiton type should make no difference.
 
ChrisLX200 said:
Ah, OK. It sounds less like physical HD failure and more like an OS thing. However, for re-assurance it would be good to check the drives can be read using that utility (you haven't said what drives these are, if Seagate/Maxtor go to the Seagate website and download SEATOOLS.EXE, the equivalents are on Samsung and WD wepsites). A drive can show up in BIOS yet be unreadable (it reports basic information to the system using data stored in the firmware), but for windows to get details of partitions it needs to read what's on the disk. If it shows in Disk Manager and you can see the partition info then (likely) it's corrupt data on the drive rather than physical failure. I'm guessing here of course but you got to start somewhere!

You need to work with one drive at a time, remove one of those giving you problems and just work with the other one.

I've never done much with Dynamic disks so I can't address specific problems there, but if was working OK in your system before then the partiton type should make no difference.
Click to expand...

They are Western Digital, I put that at the bottom. WD HD's
 
ChrisLX200 said:
Then you need this:

http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=606&lang=en

It might not be your exact HD, but the Diagnostic programs are the same for all.
Click to expand...

If it is corrupted which would be strange for both to go at once. Is there any way of recovering the information as a lot of them are very important to me.

And stupid me back up the same data on each of them, thinking only one woud fail.

Could it be something to do with the cable or which sata port i plug them into?
 
Sounds maybe the controler drivers then rather than hardware. Identify the controler the drives are attached to in Device Manager, make a note of the driver version then look on the web to see if there's an updated version. If not, carry on and un-install the controler itself (like you did for the drive) and let Windows re-install it on re-boot. This will put fresh copies in place and re-write the registry entries. It could be that the driver file/s are corrupted, or there is some other problem associated with the driver installation. [are there any other drives attached to this controller that are still working correctly?]

At least you know the drives are OK, and with a bit of luck the data should be recoverable too. Be careful not to write anything to the drive whilst it's in a 'delicate' state like this - chkdsk for example, if you run it _before_ ensuring the driver installation is good then it will screw up the data on the drive when it attempts to correct the errors.
 
ChrisLX200 said:
Sounds maybe the controler drivers then rather than hardware. Identify the controler the drives are attached to in Device Manager, make a note of the driver version then look on the web to see if there's an updated version. If not, carry on and un-install the controler itself (like you did for the drive) and let Windows re-install it on re-boot. This will put fresh copies in place and re-write the registry entries. It could be that the driver file/s are corrupted, or there is some other problem associated with the driver installation. [are there any other drives attached to this controller that are still working correctly?]

At least you know the drives are OK, and with a bit of luck the data should be recoverable too. Be careful not to write anything to the drive whilst it's in a 'delicate' state like this - chkdsk for example, if you run it _before_ ensuring the driver installation is good then it will screw up the data on the drive when it attempts to correct the errors.
Click to expand...


What would the controller be called in device manager?

It looks for the SCSI/RAID host controller on bootup but I cant find it anywhere, doesnt find it automatically.

Would it be to do with my motherboard?
 
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