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OS on drive D sees drive C, OS on drive C does not see drive D??

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  • Hard Drives
  • Windows Vista
  • Storage
Last response: in Storage
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June 2, 2008 2:55:32 AM

I've got a very weird problem that started recently occurring. I originally had two disks, main disk running Vista and second disk as a storage drive with no operating system. One day I noticed an unplugged cable inside my case and plugged it in while the computer was running (power to DVD-rom), and after rebooting the second hard drive no longer showed up anywhere in Vista.

Suspecting some kind of corruption to the second disk (drive D: ), I pulled all the data off successfully using a boot disk program and reformatted it. It still would not appear in vista, which I had installed on drive C:. Still not knowing what to do, I tried to repair the MBR for D:, but it still would not show. Finally to test the disk I actually just ran a clean install of Vista onto D:, and it boots up and works fine. When I'm running my new install of Vista on D, I can see the C drive just fine.

However when I go back to my original install on drive C, it still does not see drive D! I've tested the hard drive and I don't think theres anything physically wrong with it, but I can't imagine what else is the problem.

Also another weirdness that may have something to do with it, when I am on drive C with the second harddrive now plugged in, it also does not see the DVD rom that shares the PATA cable with drive D. (Drive C is on a SATA connection, D is on PATA).

What can I do to get Vista to recognize the drive? I've seen other issues that say to check for the second drive in the device manager, but it doesn't show up there either.

More about : drive sees drive drive drive

a c 353 G Storage
June 2, 2008 3:09:26 PM

Sense your Drive D and DVD drive are on the same IDE Channel (Assuming you only have one IDE connector on the MB) - Check your Master/ Slave settings. Also You can download a HDD utility from the Manf. Erease track zero on Drive D. Then boot Vista and In disk management check to se if you can now see drive, Will net to partition it.
June 3, 2008 1:11:33 AM

Yeah the master slave settings are fine, it has always worked before, it just recently quit and I hadn't made any changes to the jumpers. (DVD master, HD slave)

Honestly I just came home today and turned on the computer and it is now showing up again (not having done anything new). Guess ill never really know what the problem was.
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a c 353 G Storage
June 3, 2008 1:25:59 PM

Forgot to mention, I would change the IDE cable. It may have and intermitent open in one of the wires, normally at the connector end. I have had several bad cables. Question what "wire" did you hot plug back in.
June 3, 2008 2:32:38 PM

I hot plugged the power cable. If I ever lose the hard drive again I'll consider switching the IDE cable though.
!