Xp Pro HD missing after re-install of OS?

Tried several searches (missing HD, Missing Hard drive, etc) lots of hits but not
what i was looking for exactly.

Trying to help my brother via long distance phone. Here is what happened:

He couldnt get into XP at all, nothing worked thinks he had someone from a
chat room mess up his pc.

He has 2 hard drives installed, 1st = Primary "C ", logical "D ", 2nd HD was "G "
and "H" (i dont know how they were created (Primary/logical).

He re-installed XP Pro including a format C. His "D" partition is missing and the
second HD does not show anywhere. I'm assuming he can recreate the "D"
partition ok but i have no idea why the 2nd HD was not picked up by windows.
Its not in device manager.

What do i need to tell him to do about getting his 2nd HD "seen" by XP?

thanks, (and i'll keep searching),
savagcl

 

Hello Clif,

Maybe the first thing is to start checking. Check how the drive shows up in the BIOS. If there is "Identify Hard Drives ", run that.

Get the drive manufacturer's utilities, they will sometimes tell you immediately if there is a problem.

I have a sneaking suspicion...the second HDD was partitioned as an extended partition of the first. Now that the first HDD has been repartitioned the second drive has now been "lost ". I could be way out though.

A slim chance. Try running Add New Hardware.

Matt

 

Another possibility would be that he formatted the C drive in FAT32 and the other partition/drive are NTFS format, which would require him to convert the C partition to NTFS (instructions can also be found in XPs Help and Support section) to see them. If the other drive does show in the BIOS, and the C partition is NTFS, right click My Computer and select Manage, then Disk Management. If the 2nd drive is present, right click it in the lower right pane (Disk 1) and make sure it's enabled or initialized (option may be in properties........don't remember for sure). A reboot may be required for the changes to take effect.

 

Hi Dave,

Not clear why you think XP wouldn't be able to see either file system.

For the record, I have a FAT32 XP installation able to see NTFS drives/partitions and a NTFS installation able to see FAT32 drive/partitions.

Regards - Charles

 

Thanks, folks, I'll pass this on and wait for his phone call.

Not real sure of his experience in this area.

clif

 

If it shows in bios, does it show in disk management but not device manager (Admin tools/ disk management or go to start/ run and type diskmgmt.msc)
If so , right click on it and choose initialize (or may be under actions when drive is selected) it will probably be listed as HD1

 

savagcl

This has obviously not eliminated the problem. Suggest a clean re-install, starting with deletion of ALL partitions, followed by re-making them, followed by formating them either FAT32 or NTFS as desired. Feel this is necessary because simply formatting doesn't clean the system areas, and sounds like they've been affected.

All this presumes the advice about the BIOS has corrected drive recognition there.

 

Charles, I'm sure glad to have folks like you around to point out my brain cramps. That's what I get for trying to think in the wee hours of morning after an all-nighter

Clif,

Disregard everything I said about FAT32 and NTFS file systems.........I had my own comp in mind, which has a FAT32 C drive and several other NTFS partitions and drive. Did it occur to me that I can't see the NTFS partitions from the FAT32 partition because it's got Win 98 installed? Not at the time............hehehe The part about Disk Management, which oshwyn also echoed via a different path, is correct.

 

noahdfear,

noahdsweat (sorry, couldnt resist this little pun).
I spotted that.

clif

 

Hehehehehe ROFL

 

Just rereading this. I am unclear is th C: missing or D: or both?
I am beginning to be inclined to believe that he did not realize tha tin XP format is not just a formatting tool, but is also a repartitioning tool. Did he by any chance delete the partitions and then format the drive as a single one?
Did he just format one of the partitions?
Did he delete one and not the other and try to format the remaining one?
It is possible that by deleting C: but not D: and formatting C he corrupted the partition table?

 

oshwyn5,

All good questions.
If he ever gets in touch, i'll ask him.
I know he had a short trip scheduled might have to wait until he's home.

His comment (to me) was, he formatted "C" but i can double check.

Thanks for the input,
clif