Slave HDD shows in disk manager but cannot assign driver letter

Can anyone help me?

I have recently installed a new motherboard, processor and RAM into my computer with a new hard drive. It is all working fine except when I connect the old HDD as the slave (correctly with the ribbon and jumper setting) it shows in the BIOS and in the disk manager but I cannot access it through windows explorer.

That's not the only problem:

It is a 60GB disk in 3 partitions and in disk manager if shows as one basic online partition. It's status is 'Healthy (Active)' but no drive letter is assigned.

When I try to assign a letter the only action available to me is to delete partition, something I don't want to do because there is loads of my work and information backed up on it. It will also let me convert to a dynamic disk but I'm not sure whether that will make any difference or even if it is a sensible option.

 

GoBack is part of Norton System Works and you may not have been aware GoBack was installed, (heard the other day that Norton have at last dropped GoBack).

Perhaps you have a Dynamic Drive Overlay on the old drive. Was it bigger than the machine it was in could natively handle? Did you use any apps from the drive’s makers to get it working when it was first set up?

 

GoBack was my first thought Christer, but then I’m not sure it would show all three partitions as one. To remove GoBack it’s best to use the uninstall utility from Norton.

Meant to say Mark, DON’T convert to dynamic disk. Also meant to put this link in my first post http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/bios/over_DDO.htm

 

Should have said, but I was just off to bed at the time. It's the boot CD or floppy uninstall tool he will need.
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPOR...sf&view=docid&pid=2001101713193807&pkb=goback

 

Yes, that is correct.

There is an alternate method that can be use when the drive is connected as a slave that I have used. It is handy for those times when swapping drives is too much of a hassle or when the GB_prog.exe tool is not readily available. It is also useful for removing other software's code from the first sector of the HD. It involves using the MBRWORK tool that is available for free.

Just put MBRWORK on a MS-DOS STARTUP DISK and run it from a dos boot. By default it will open the Primary drive. Run option 7 to change to the drive you want to address. That's the key feature, drive selection! Then run option 1 to store a backup of the present first track code to the floppy. Now you can proceed with a degree of safety knowing that you can reverse anything you do.

Then run options 3 > 4 > A > 5 > 6 in that order. It will wipe the MBR and Extended MBR and rewrite the partition table; install a new standard MBR; and mark the drive active.

I have tested that method many time and it has always worked without fail.

I'm not suggesting this for the weak of heart or the beginner user but as an option to those who are fairly adept and can save themselves some drive swapping or having to buy or borrow the GoBack program to get the GB_prog.exe tool. I know the GB tool is available for free but sometimes access is a problem.

 

It’s certainly the smart way Christer to have only the affected drive in the machine while running the uninstall, but I don’t know if it is essential. Only done this myself once and that was a couple of years ago. With it being a slave drive now it would not matter if the MBR is restored, all that really needs doing is the partition descriptors changed back to 07 (for ntfs) which can be done manually if you know how. But I still don’t think it is GoBack that is the issue here, because there should be 3 partitions showing.

Surferdude….That’s a bit drastic, wiping the partitions and then relying on mbrwork to restore them successfully?

 

I suppose it may seem so but it's not all that dangerous if you know how to manage the risk. It's not really "wiping the partitions" but merely changing the code that points to them. I don't say there isn't a degree of risk but I consider it minimal so long as the drive is in a condition to be written to on the first track. Actually, if the first track is not writable, the disk is probably hosed anyway.

The first line of defense is to copy down (pencil and paper) the drive geometry parameters as displayed by mbrwork or ptedit or any other reliable drive partition info tool. Then run the mbrwork backup option #1 to place a backup copy of the first track onto the floppy. Then, if you are like me, you will already have a backup image of the drive using Acronis True Image or equal. I have never had to resort to deploying any backup image as a result of mbrwork manipulations but it's comforting to know it's there.

With all those things for risk management, I feel very comfortable using mbrwork in any manner it offers. I have even entered the drive partition numbers manually for testing and it works fine to restore the partition table. The "A" option offered does it much faster though.

As I said, it's not for the faint of heart or beginner but is another tool for those who are willing to do the necessary steps to ensure a reasonable degree of safety. Sometimes there are no alternatives if one is to recover the drive data when the boot code has offset the PT information.

 

Wow - thanks for all your help guys - I've been doing some odd shifts at work and have come back to a barrage of quality advice.

Some replies:

The old disck is NTFS and Norton GoBack IS installed. In fact, when I try to boot from the old disk now with the new one disconnected the GoBack screen shows then Windows fails to load. It gives me the safe mode options but none of them work.

One question regarding this though - If I can't get the disk to engage with the machin how can I uninstall GoBack?

I don't think there were any strange Apps loaded to make the drive work, it was only 60GB anyway.

I'm about to try disconnecting the new drive and booting though the floppy to see what happens...

I'll let you know.

Mark

 

That's the best place to start and the safest.

Good luck.

 

A million thanks.

MBRWorks sorted the whole thing out. When I carried out option A it found the partitions like magic! All partitions still with the data intact - time to do external backup!

BTW - the operation system is still installed on the old disk - do you recommend removing it? if so, what is the best method.

Mark

 

You can manually delete anything on that drive once you get it slaved properly. If you don't need anything it has and considering its shady past, I'd suggest using XP Disk Management and deleting the partition. Then create a new one and format it. It'll be a belt and suspender type of move but it will put your mind at ease about anything carrying over to cause problems.

I'm always over cautious and generally use the manufacturers disk install tool to thoroughly clean and reinstall any old drive that I have reservations about. That's just me though so take that with a grain of salt.


EDIT: I just re-read your thread from the beginning and I see there is data that you need. Then you can just manually delete the Windows folder and leave the rest until you make a case by case check to see what is not valuable to you. Be cautious or have backups, or BOTH!