Can't access 2nd hard drive

[Scotus]

i got 2 hard drives on my computer. one is the primary master the other is

the secondary master. they are set up as follows:

Primary Master=HDD #0(the C: drive)
Primary Slave=N/A (nothing conected)
Secondary Master=HDD #1(what was my D: drive before the xp reinstall and has all the backup data on it)
Secondary Slave=CD-ROM (the CD burner)

all the jumpers are set to cable select as this is how the system was setup before the xp reinstall. before i reinstalled windows XP pro everything worked fine but after XP pro was reinstalled nothing. the BIOS can see the   second drive. widows can see the second drive in the device manager and in the disk manager but i cant access the drive in windows explorer. it doesnt have a drive letter and the disk manager wont let me give it one. if it helps this is a basic disk the disk manager says its online, healthy and active the file system is NTFS the whole hard drive is a single partition. the disk manager will only let me delete the partition thats on the disk but that is something that i just dont want to do because it is a back up drive. the drive was my d: drive and was a single NTFS partition before i reinstalled windows xp and was used as a backup for all the important info on my computer. i have tried different IDE cables and the power cables are good too. this drive has all my back up data on it and would hate to have to format it to get widows to access it. if anyone has ideas that would help i would be thankful.

[Redeyes_Gambit]

}{'lo scotus!

I just have a few basic suggestions and you prob'ly know more about this than I do so humor me ok .

try setting the jumpers on your hard drives as slave and master accordingly instead of cable select.

I've never seen a secondary master when there was no secondary slave and no primaray slave. I think your second HDD needs to be set to primary slave NOT as secondary master wich the BIOS is seeing right now. Hopefully that will be solved when you set the jumpers to slave and master and not cable select. After you have set the jumpers go back into BIOS and check to see if it still thinks the second HDD is a secondary master. If it does try to change it in BIOS to a primary slave.

I could be wrong, I've only slaved HDD's twice now but its always been just that, a slave HDD not as a secondary master.

HTH! Signed,
Red.

[Eric R]

I just reinstalled XP and have the same problem.  It was fine before, now it does't hane a directory letter or appear in the "my computer" folder.  Let me know if you find a fix.
-Eric

[Rob_Williams]

I have the same problem. Please let me know if you find a fix.  Thanks  Rob Williams

[Scotus]

as of now (april 19/2005) i have still not found a sollution, but i have tried a few different file/format recovery appz. the one that looks the most promising is recover my files. catch is you need to buy the software to save files and the search is rather lengthy to save all the lost files. ie. my 80 gig drive set to find all files types takes about 5 days. yes i said days.  but im not sure if the saving of the files will work in the process of scanning and then im going to save the files since i purchesed a copy of the software. will post with the results.  only other thing i can think of this being is a configuration problem but i dont know of what type. or maybe the mbr was wiped out some how. im not sure how though

[ojas25]

Hi Have you gone into disk management and formatted the new hard drive. Right click my computer go to manage and in the computer management window go todisk management and you will see all the drives listed hard as well CD right click on the new drive and format it to your computer.

[Ash]

In Disk Management, are you able to right-click on the drive and select Change Drive Letter? Does it show up as having a drive letter?

[Scotus]

Hi Have you gone into disk management and formatted the new hard drive. Right click my computer go to manage and in the computer management window go todisk management and you will see all the drives listed hard as well CD right click on the new drive and format it to your computer.

Its not a new drive its a backup drive with all my files saved on it from before the xp pro reinstall...

In Disk Management, are you able to right-click on the drive and select Change Drive Letter? Does it show up as having a drive letter?

there is no drive letter nor will it let me change that but the drive does show up in disk management  it also shows up in the bios and the post when i start the computer. the only place i cant see the drive is windows explorer because it doesnt have a drive letter.  this is quickly becoming a frustrating problem  but its something id like to try and get fixed so all the files that are saved on the drive are not lost...

[Bryan M]

I have the same problem, I just started another thread to find out about this problem and happened to come upon yours after going through the previous threads. Did you ever get this fixed or does anyone know how to fix this?

[Computer_Commando]

I suspect that Windows still sees the 2nd drive as a bootable drive.  Try renaming boot.ini on 2nd drive.  When you reinstalled Windows on your primary drive, was the 2nd drive installed at the time?  What does boot.ini on primary drive say?
http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000492.htm
http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000648.htm

[Bryan M]

How would I rename the boot.ini? Yes the second drive was installed when I installed XP. How would I be able to check the boot.ini on the main drive? Thanks for giving your advice, its greatly appreciated.

[Computer_Commando]

...
1.  How would I rename the boot.ini?
2.  How would I be able to check the boot.ini on the main drive?...

1.  http://www.computerhope.com/renamehl.htm

2.  Instructions in links provided above.

[Bryan M]

Ok the boot.ini on the primary drive is    
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi<0>disk<0>rdisk<0>partition<1>\WINDOWS
[operation systems]
multi<0>disk<0>rdisk<0>partition<1>\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional        
Thanks for the links, but im a little lost at that point. I am not sure still on how to edit the boot.ini, which command should I use if any? The way I read the articles I think the setting is right, is it? Thanks again for all this help.

[Computer_Commando]

Try to get it to "dual boot"
Multibooting with Windows XP

Add what is shown in bold.  Make the names whatever you like so you'll know which you are booting to.  Be real careful, if you make a mistake, it might not boot at all.

You can also do this from Windows.  Right-click My Computer---Properties---Advanced---Startup and  Recovery--Settings--System Startup--Edit

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi<0>disk<0>rdisk<0>partition<1>\WINDOWS
[operation systems]
multi<0>disk<0>rdisk<0>partition<1>\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional HDD #0" /fastdetect
multi<0>disk<0>rdisk<2>partition<1>\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional HDD #1" /fastdetect

[Bryan M]

Would it be alright to change the timeout from 30 to 10 without any problems? Im checking into the links now, I just checked boot loader and saw that on the last line it has this  multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect    I didnt see that before. Should I still add the bold line?