HD suddenly stops working....

[crazydude]

Hello! I am having a little bit of trouble here... I have a 40 GB IDE drive that I added to this system (windows is installed on a 4.3GB SCSI disc). It worked fine for a long long time until just now... I installed AutoCAD 2000 and now the disk doesn't show up in My Computer!!!

In the device manager, it shows up as "Generic IDE Disk Type46". I checked in fdisk and it says there is still an Extended DOS partition that takes up the whole drive. It used to be F: but now it just isnt showing up in My Computer the current lettering is: C and D are SCSI HD's, G and H are SCSI zip and Jaz drives, I: is an IDE CD drive, W: is a SCSI CDRW, and A: is a floppy drive.

I didn't change any of the configurations at all when it suddenly dissapeared; I beleive it is configured as the primary slave if that is important. Anyone know what might be messed up?

Thanks,
Andrew Pullin

 

[Lars_Coleman]

The extended partition isn't what is assigned the drive letter. It's the logical partition created within the extended partition. So check to see if it shows a logical partition. It should tell you when you access option "4" if there are any logical partitions and if you want to view them?

<font color=red>People and hard drives are like bandwagon fans and sports!</font color=red>

 

[crazydude]

I checked in fdisk and this is all it says for my IDE drive:

Current fixed disk drive: 3

Partition Status Type Volume Label Mbytes System Usage
1 EXT DOS 42902 100%

Total disk space is 42909 Mbytes (1 Mbyte = 1048576 bytes)

And when I went to select the drive in fdisk it lists this:
Disk Drv Mbytes Free Usage
1 4134 100%
C: 4134
2 4134 100%
D: 4134
3 42909 7 100%

Any ideas?
Thanks!

 

[Lars_Coleman]

You need a logical partition. Some how it's not there anymore ... I would run diagnostics on the drive.

<font color=red>People and hard drives are like bandwagon fans and sports!</font color=red>

 

[crazydude]

How do I 'run diagnostics' on the drive? You mean I need to get something like Norton Utilities or is there a windows diagnostics deal somewhere?

 

[Spdy_Gonzales]

You need to know the manufacturer of the HD so that you can go to their site and download the utility. Just look for their download area on the site.

"If it weren't for the last minute, alot of things wouldn't get done"

 

[crazydude]

Ok, it is a Western Digital 45GB HD. I downloaded the Western Digital diagnostics tools but now I am only more confused: When I try to do the diagnostics scan, it says that it cannot detect and IDE disks! And I did a BIOS check and I got out this log file:
========= Data Lifeguard BIOS Check Log File ==============

Int 13h Devices: 3
ATA Devices: 0
ATAPI Devices: 1

============================================================

No IDE drives detected. BIOS test was not performed.

============================================================
Standard Legacy Controller - 1st IDE Port - Master Device = None Detected


=========================================================================
Standard Legacy Controller - 1st IDE Port - Slave Device = None Detected


=========================================================================
Standard Legacy Controller - 2nd IDE Port - Master Device = ATAPI

Model: TOSHIBA DVD-ROM SD-M1202
Serial: 9800908627
Firmware: 1020

=========================================================================
Standard Legacy Controller - 2nd IDE Port - Slave Device = None Detected


=========================================================================
Interrupt 13h Function 8 Data

Device # | Cyls | Heads | Sec/Track |Total Sectors| Capacity
---------|-------|-------|-----------|-------------|-------------
80h | 1024 | 255 | 63 | 16450560 | 8422 MB
81h | 527 | 255 | 63 | 8466255 | 4334 MB
82h | 527 | 255 | 63 | 8466255 | 4334 MB

=========================================================================
Interrupt 13h Function 48h Data

Device # | Cyls | Heads | Sec/Track |Total Sectors| Capacity
---------|-------|-------|-----------|-------------|-------------
80h | 5473 | 255 | 63 | 87923745 | 45016 MB
81h | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8467199 | 4335 MB
82h | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8467199 | 4335 MB


=========================== End Of File =================================

Sorry about the messy formatting, thats is how it pasted. Anyway, I have no idea what is going wrong!!!! I mean, it detects the other IDE drives, just not the HD! BUT when I go into the BIOS setup, it will detect the 45GB HD AND in windows it is showing up under the Device Manager.

In fdisk, it says the drive has an extended DOS partition but no logical drives defined. Total Extended DOS Partition size is 42902 Mbytes. I have no clue what is going on here. In the log, the diagnostic tool says that one of my devices has a capacity of "8422 MB"... I dont have an 8 GB hard drive, asnd hte other two things listed are assumedly my two 4GB SCSI disks.

Any ideas? I desperately need help!

Thanks.