Can't assign drive letter in LDM

The partition may be assigned as hidden.
Change that option in a partition program.
GParted is a free one.

Where did these drives come from? Were they internal SATA drives on this computer or one of the computers you tried the external USB device on?

One thing I'm thinking of is Permissions. If they come from another computer, they could have all the files locked to a user on that computer. Not sure that would keep them from getting drive letters tho.

If they come from a Vista computer, then that's the problem. XP won't read them and they'll need re-partition and format.

Can you try removing the partitions from one and re-formatting?

is the drive formatted, the drive will show raw or corrupted but you can only assign a drive letter to healthy formatted partition

If there is no data on them just delete the partitions and make new ones and format (quick format is ok)

that should fix it.

If there is data on them that you need.. you need to provide more detailed info.

Thanks for the suggestions.

quoting from my original post:

"In Logical Disk Manager the drives are listed, they are marked as healthy, active, have the number of partitions expected, are formatted as NTFS or FAT32 as expected. "

These are internal SATA drives from a WinXP machine with boot problems.

I would expect an issue with the system drive but not the same from both.

I'm aware that deleting the partition(s) on the drives then making new ones and formating etc. will make the drives usable.

There is data on the drives, I'm successfully recovering the data using recovery software.

After I've recovered the data, I will try an in place reinstall of WinXP (if setup "sees" the existing installation).

I may try fixmbr or fixboot at that point.

Thanks again for any other suggestions.

Howie

Sounds to me like the boot problems on that XP computer may be corrupted partitions or basic read/write info. So the partitions may be themselves corrupted and that explains what's happening in the external holder.

If you're able to access them to get the data off using that computer, I'd stick with that and get everything you can off. And of course make sure the data is readable afterwards on the target before moving on. You've got a rare 2nd chance right now to get that info off - I wouldn't worry about using the external unit at all, take the opportunity you've been offered.

Since you know the XP and these drives have problems with "something" I wouldn't even consider repairing the installation. I'd wipe them, re-partition and format then run tests to make sure they work afterwards. Including working in the external unit.

You didn't mention whether some other SATA drive worked properly in the external unit - I'd try that if one's available to make sure the unit is working.

Good Luck!

BTW, that Duet unit sounds pretty nifty - and at a good price too. It's going on my list of gadgets I don't need but like!