Computer people, help me figure this out.

[DarkEntity]

Ok, so I found an old hard drive in my closet. I figured I'd stick it in, and use it for storage.

I changed the jumper settings to slave, hooked it up like it's supposed to, etc.
Turned my computer on, went to BIOS settings to make sure that computer sees it,
looked in there - everything looks good. I boot up the computer, launch windows.

Right off the bat, Windows XP tells me that it sees new hardware, and identifies it.
I go to My Computer, and here is what I see:

The second hard drive I just installed, is not showing up!
So I go to my hardware properties to see WTF is up, and see this:

Windows sees the hard drive (highlighted), it's identified, and on the list! So I go to the drive's properties:

"This device is working properly" my ass. I go to the Volume tab.

I click on Populate, and get slammed with this:

If Windows sees this hard drive, it's "working properly", then why does it not appear as a drive I can access (G: or something), and why is it populating it 0 mb copacity? I thought that maybe it's not formatted right, but how am I supposed to even format it, if I can't access it in any way?? Help?

 

[DJItalianICE]

Alex, check to see that your C:\ drive is set to 'Master' the default setting for some companies is Cable Select.

If your C drive is on cable select and the other on slave then you could have the drive recgonized, but not usable.

i could be wrong tho, if you had win 98 i could help alot more since i dont know XP

 

[TOI]

If u are familiar with the term creating a partition u can do it easy.actually xp has tools in it for this purpose.

what happens here is that your computer recognizes your hardware but somehow all the info in the disk is gone with the partitioning table.u do have to create a partition (at this stage u can divide your hard drive by assigning different sizes of partitions limited to your hard drive capacity) and then format the hardrive either with NTFS file system or FAT32 file system.

If it is knda confusing letme know i will try to write it step by step.

 

[Kuplex]

Okay, Alex. Try this.
Go to Administrative Tools -> Computer Management
Select Disk Management

Is the drive appearing there?

If so, right click on it, select "Format"
Create a primary partition the entire size of your drive.
After it's done, reboot.
Now you have a storage drive.

Have any problems with this, just post or pm me.

 

[GuRu]

Okay, Alex. Try this.
Go to Administrative Tools -> Computer Management
Select Disk Management

Is the drive appearing there?

If so, right click on it, select "Format"
Create a primary partition the entire size of your drive.
After it's done, reboot.
Now you have a storage drive.

Have any problems with this, just post or pm me.

Exactly (You can also get to Computer Management by right clicking on My Computer and selecting Manage).

This may also be an unreadable partition (such as a dynamic drive or part of a raid array). Just use Disk management to format the mother.

 

[Ashentep]

If the above doesn't work, you may want to try a low level format and see if it helps.

 

[DarkEntity]

The above didn't work. The drive is not showing up in the Disk Managment

What do I do?

 

[nikko]

Maybe it was buried in your closet because it was broken?


Double check all IDE device settings and what not first.

Then, go to western digital's site and download their disk diagnostic tools and run them. That should give you an idea if the disk is even good or not.

 

[DarkEntity]

Maybe it was buried in your closet because it was broken?

That's what I was thinking, but would Windows even see it if it was **** up?

 

[Kuplex]

That's what I was thinking, but would Windows even see it if it was **** up?

It may see that it's there, but it doesn't mean it can access it. All it knows at this point is a IDE drive is connected.

 

[nikko]

That's what I was thinking, but would Windows even see it if it was **** up?

Yeah, it's entirely possible that the controller electronics work fine but the platter motors or something like that are fried.

In that case, windows would "see" the drive but wouldn't be able to access it or do anything to it.

 

[Kuplex]

But try the diagnostics tools that Nikko talked about. The drive's only use might be as a paper weight.

 

[DarkEntity]

How do I check the IDE device settings in XP?

 

[nikko]

How do I check the IDE device settings in XP?

Open case, double check jumpers and cables.

 

[Kuplex]

Also, make sure that since you set the storage drive to slave that you set your main drive to master. Most computers come with the HD default on the third setting (can't remember what it's called.....damn you tv...)

 

[DarkEntity]

Open case, double check jumpers and cables.

oh, doh...

Yeah, I already checked that.

Looks like this thing has had it. :thumbdown

 

[SlickV6]

Go into DOS, see if you can pull up the drive letter. If yes, then format that drive letter. If you cannot... put in a bootable floppy, run the FDISK command, and see if it sees the new HD. If yes, partition it and go from there. One thing to keep in mind... YOU MUST RESTART AFTER YOU FORMAT AND/OR PARTITION.

 

[DarkEntity]

Also, make sure that since you set the storage drive to slave that you set your main drive to master. Most computers come with the HD default on the third setting (can't remember what it's called.....damn you tv...)

I built this computer from scratch myself, the C: drive's jumper is set as Master.

 

[Kuplex]

I built this computer from scratch myself, the C: drive's jumper is set as Master.

Just checkin'

 

[DarkEntity]

Go into DOS, see if you can pull up the drive letter. If yes, then format that drive letter. If you cannot... put in a bootable floppy, run the FDISK command, and see if it sees the new HD. If yes, partition it and go from there. One thing to keep in mind... YOU MUST RESTART AFTER YOU FORMAT AND/OR PARTITION.

That was one of the first things I tried. I booted it up using a boot disk,
and looked for it from A:. The computer wouldn't assign it a letter... I saw
all the other drives, (A:, C:, D:, E:,) but the new HD wasn't there. Looks like it's fried...

Well, thanks for the help everyone.