Hard Drive Alive, But Windows XP Refuses to See It.

[Ryan]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware (More info?)

Hi,

I posted yesterday thinking the second hard drive in my PC had died
and asking for opinions.

Last night, I downloaded diagnostic software to look at the drive.
Sure enough, the drive is alive. The software was able to immediately
look at the drive and show me every folder and file that it is on it
as if nothing had happened. I even previewed some files and it appears
all the info is exactly where I left it.

However, Windows still says the drive is either "no accessable" or
"needs to be formatted" and refuses to use it or access it.

Now that I know the drive is not dead and the data is still there, I
am stumped as to how to proceed. What seems to be wrong? One night the
drive was fine, the next morning Windows claimed it didn't exist and
still refuses to let me use it.

Sorry, I have never had this happen to a drive and have no idea how to
proceed without accidently erasing the data that is there.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware (More info?)

"Ryan" <welziak@snet.net> wrote in message
news:189b1c22.0408170633.3aeea1c@posting.google.com...
> Hi,
>
> I posted yesterday thinking the second hard drive in my PC had died
> and asking for opinions.
>
> Last night, I downloaded diagnostic software to look at the drive.
> Sure enough, the drive is alive. The software was able to immediately
> look at the drive and show me every folder and file that it is on it
> as if nothing had happened. I even previewed some files and it appears
> all the info is exactly where I left it.
>
> However, Windows still says the drive is either "no accessable" or
> "needs to be formatted" and refuses to use it or access it.
>
> Now that I know the drive is not dead and the data is still there, I
> am stumped as to how to proceed. What seems to be wrong? One night the
> drive was fine, the next morning Windows claimed it didn't exist and
> still refuses to let me use it.
>
> Sorry, I have never had this happen to a drive and have no idea how to
> proceed without accidently erasing the data that is there.

Here's what I'd do: Copy all the data to another drive or other backup
media. Make sure that's readable and accessible so you won't lose anything.

Run a checkdisk on that drive, and let Windows fix errors. If that doesn't
work, try deleting the partitions and/or formatting the drive and see if
Windows sees it.

For what it's worth, I had a drive that Windows XP would sporadically not
see properly, but Win 98 and all the drive utilities said it was fine. Until
it suddenly died. It's something to consider. XP is very finicky about
having good hardware.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware (More info?)

Hi, Ryan.

Wow! FOUR identical posts!

What does Disk Management say about that HD?

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
rc@corridor.net
Microsoft Windows MVP

"Ryan" <welziak@snet.net> wrote in message
news:189b1c22.0408170633.3aeea1c@posting.google.com...
> Hi,
>
> I posted yesterday thinking the second hard drive in my PC had died
> and asking for opinions.
>
> Last night, I downloaded diagnostic software to look at the drive.
> Sure enough, the drive is alive. The software was able to immediately
> look at the drive and show me every folder and file that it is on it
> as if nothing had happened. I even previewed some files and it appears
> all the info is exactly where I left it.
>
> However, Windows still says the drive is either "no accessable" or
> "needs to be formatted" and refuses to use it or access it.
>
> Now that I know the drive is not dead and the data is still there, I
> am stumped as to how to proceed. What seems to be wrong? One night the
> drive was fine, the next morning Windows claimed it didn't exist and
> still refuses to let me use it.
>
> Sorry, I have never had this happen to a drive and have no idea how to
> proceed without accidently erasing the data that is there.