external SATA HD problem

WinXP Home, SP2

I'm using an Internal SATA HD with an External enclosure. The HD is from my
previous system and when removed, it was in perfect working order.

This HD was found by the system and in device manager its OK. Its the same
model and size as my internal SATA HD.
I wanted to format it and modify the amount of space in the partitions. The
partitions were already there (from previous system). The partitions were
defined as 1 primary and 3 extended partitions.

In Disk Manager, i formatted the primary partition and then deleted it. Its
free space now. At this point, I started to get a "Bad Block" error.
Now, this HD dont show up in my computer, explorer or disk manager yet,
it still shows in Device Manager as OK. Trying to do anything with this HD
uner disk manager is impossible, since it dont show up.

Did i mess up by deleting the primary partition (like deleting the FAT for the
disk)???
Is FDISK what is needed to be able to get back online and operational?

thanks,
clif

 

More info - under device manager both disk show up as being in Location 0.
How would i do a FDISK on a SATA HD if windows shows them as having the
same location number? The new HD does show up in the BIOS.

clif

 

If you're afraid that windows can't differentiate the disks, try putting it inside the case, connected to the mobo temporarily, while you delete all the partitions and repartition it.

 

sparrow,

I dont think that would do anything........
It is connected to the motherboard now. I have a SATA pass-through bracket
(same as a plug-in card but it has no card, just a bracket with a SATA plug
on both sides of the bracket.

External Enclosure (SATA HD inside) ---->Bracket with SATA plug----> MB.

(----> = SATA cables).

I can only get it to showup in the BIOS and the device manager.
It does NOT show when i use My Computer or Windows Explorer or Disk
Management. Since it dont show in disk management, i cant select it to
format (or anything else).

 

Do you have a machine running windows on an IDE disk? I was thinking maybe connect the disk internally there and hope that the OS can see it. You wouldn't have the problem of the OS confusing one disk for the other and possibly partitioning the wrong one.

Otherwise, maybe replace the other SATA disk temporarily and start putting XP on it, partitioning it in the process. Once that's done you don't need to continue putting XP on it.

I'm assuming you're not averse to opening your case and disconnecting the two cables from the good disk and connecting them to the problem disk. And I assume you have an XP installation disk. You also may need the mobo SATA drivers on a floppy and hit F6 when asked for drivers. Check your manual. The drivers should be on a CD that came with your mobo.

 

No IDE disk available.

I can replace the HD and do as you said. I do have a winxp install cd to use.
May have to go to intel and get the chipset (i think this will include the F6
stuff). I've never had much luck with the F6 tho. System just seems to ignore
whatever is on the floppy. I think the SATA files are built into the ich6core.cat
file.....

Will see what happens......

thanks,
savagcl

 

well that didnt work. got a msn saying no HD found. guess its bad.

thanks for the help.
savagcl

 

Still trying -

How do i get to fdisk under sp2? For that matter, how do i get to DOS mode?
DOS Mode didnt show when i use the F8 key. Doing a search for DOS or MS_DOS
didnt show the DOS program either .......

thanks,
savagcl

 

Agree with Pete; fdisk is not an option. If you have a friend or a shop nearby, they may be of help. A mobo with a working IDE drive and a SATA connection should have the drivers already installed and should see the disk if anything will. That's your best bet if you can't load the drivers from a floppy. The drivers you want are the RAID drivers for the mobo, even if you're not using RAID.

BTW, what machine are we talking about? I've wondered if it's home built (the ideal 'cause you'd have all the things you need for this sort of problem).

Another thought; wonder if the XP CD would see the drive if you tried a parallel install on it ( directions ) - just long enough to partition it and format the partitions. What do you think,Pete?

 

I cant believe MS took away the fdisk!

No friends around here have a SATA system. Bestbuy is closest and may be
able to do something about the formatting or at least confirm the bad spot.
Whatever happened to flagging a bad spot and ignoring it in the future....

Since it worked when i put it in, windows saw it and the partitions. In my
lack of wisdom in formatting the primary partition (windows still saw it) but
then i deleted that (primary) partition (making it unallocated free space).
Thats when windows couldnt find it anymore.
I'm sure whatever control blocks, MFT, etc is gone but there are still 3
extended partitions on it. So i can kinda understand why windows would get
confused and say "bad block ".

Went to seagate and pulled their utility - nogo, it just hangs on Caldera Dr
Dos.

I'll go to bestbuy tomorrow, if thats a nogo, i can get another HD.

Thanks for the assist,
savagcl

 

Don't know much of anything about SATA but since the primary partition was removed... actually didn't know you could do that without removing partitions under it... would a low level format of the whole drive be a possibility? If can get the drive recognised...

 

According to Seagate fdisk is alive and well. Do a search for "fdisk" on the page. I was surprised; don't know if it's any help though - haven't tried it.

Also have a look at this page. It explains which drivers you need (not the chipset drivers) during an install of the disk by itself. Was hoping that the win CD was looking at the BIOS (and maybe installed XP wasn't (???). Hate to give up on a HDD that was working until you deleted a partition.

Check the disk manufacturer's site for any utilities like those seagate mentions.

 

Hello Clif,
More drive problems?

I think we are talking about your Gateway machine here. I found the Gateway harddrive utilities (hope this link works):
http://support.gateway.com/support/...latform=10021&model=10027&os=10394&type=10093

Me, I think that because the "bad blocks" only showed up when the primary partition was removed AND both drives show as Drive 0, there is some sort of RAID configuration (or RAID drivers are running)...or a RAID setup has been corrupted (maybe because one drive is set for RAID, but the other isn't). Anyway, those are my speculations.

Matt

 

I have the gateway GWSCAN utility already on my HD (the good one). It calls
for a floppy disk that was not formatted by win2k or winxp! How else would
one format a floppy? Catch-22?
It also calls for a drivers cd which i dont have (just a recovery cd that i cant
get browse access to) another catch-22.

The seagate diskwizard 2003 i ran and it just hung, the window opened but after
20 minutes, nothing, same window..

Note: I dont have RAID, just 2 HDs (well, one really for now).

thanks for the input. Still trying,
savagcl

 

Latest:

Bestbuy has a program (PC Verify?) that will do a reformat, write zeros
when all the control blocks/FAT/MFT are missing or fouled up. Of course, there
is a cost - 59$ but its better than buying a new HD.

Should have it back in a couple hours.

Anyone ever heard of PC Verify? Supposedly it a management level program
whatever that means....

One other tidbit - supposedly the SATA plugs on the motherboard (i have 4)
are setup as Master(1), Slave(2), Master(3), Slave(4). Anyone ever heard of
that?
Makes sense, because when i added the external SATA, the system gave it
the same designation as the original (Location 0). When i get the HD back,
i'm going to put it into number 3 plug and see if it gets a different
designation.... Will let you know.

Thanks for the help, folks,
savagcl

 

Its back and it works.
Shows in BIOS, Device Manager and Disk Manager. XP has access to it. I
dont see a System Volume Information folder or a Recycler folder...... Not
sure why that is....

BUT (there's always a but), its formatted in FAT32. When i tell Disk Manager
to format, it says all data will be lost, continue (Y or N). Well, once burnt,
twice shy!

There is actually no data on the drive now, just whatever it needs to be
reconized by XP.
So, is it better to create then format the Extended logical partitions into
NTFS and then format the primary partition into NTFS?
Or
Format the complete disk into NTFS and then make the extended\Logical
partitions? Will this mess it up again?

Apparently, the thing about Master, Slave, Master, Slave is true.
The 2 HD's are showing up with their own Location (0 and 1)
Sorry to bug, but i'm having a senior day,
savagcl

 

Great news! Congrats!

I use mostly FAT32 and like it better than NTFS.

Re formatting: you don't need to make any extended partitions; you're allowed 4 primary partitions per drive, up to 32G in XP or any size in fdisk.

That's a common way to make disks: write an image to the disk, which image contains the formatting as well as the program(s). Really don't think it matters whether the disk is formatted or not; everything on it is overwritten.

A followup on matt's url (gateway): from their

Sounds like there's a BIOS setting we're missing to enable the problem SATA drive? Then F6 wouldn't be necessary for the XP install disk. However, checked the gateway 9310s user manual and found no help.