Harddrive Missing In WinXP ?!

[longboneslinger]

Ok, here goes..... I installed Halo on my second hard drive, a Seagate Barracuda 80Gb 7200rpm ata 100. After about 20 minutes of play, the game dropped into super slow-mo. It got real jerky, pausing like it was gonna hang up. A few minutes later, it did lock up. I had to shut off the power at the UPS. After I rebooted, all my shortcuts from the extra drive were screwed, no icons.

I went into "My Computer" and the extra HD wasn't listed. Gone! I rebooted, nothing. I tried system restore, and it reported that it couldn't restore any thing on the F: drive because it wasn't hooked up. I tried using the Seagate install cd and it couldn't find the drive. I uninstalled/re-installed the Seagate software and it still couldn't find the drive. I created a Seagate diagnostic floppy and rebooted and ran both a full Seagate drive and a generic drive test. It listed only my Seagate drive. All tests came back perfect.

Any ideas? Isn't a new HD supposed to default to the next drive letter regardless of optical drives, in this case, D:? Is XP diff in that it doesn't do this?

Addition: After I came home today, I turned on the PC and Voila! The HD was back like it never left. Like a dumbass!!!!! I tried to play Halo again. Boom! Crash and the HD is gone again. I shut it down for an hour or so and it's still gone. This drive is only 3 weeks old!

I'm running XP Home with a P4 2.6, 512MBs of PC3200 DDR and a nVidia FX5200 graphics card on the Wifes comp. (my comps down with a bad power supply )

[TheFilePirater]

1.) running a game off another hdd is down right stupid

2.) disconnect the hdd, then connect again

3.) does it start up, like u hear it grind?

[tesco]

try going into the bios and check if the hard drive is listed there, also make sure that the ide cable is plugged in correctly and that it isnt twisted or 'broken' is any way. you could also try using a diffferent ide cable, oh and make sure that teh power cable is hooked up to it also.

if it does show up in bios and all that then right click my computer, go to manage then click device manager on teh side and check if the drive is listed there. if not then there is something worng with the drive.

next click on disk management, it is around where device manager was, and check to see if the drive is listed there, if it is then check what partitions it is has and make sure they arent showing as corrupt or raw data.

after you check these things post back.

[longboneslinger]

I disconnected and reinstalled the HD twice. No luck. No noises. I left the case off when I powered up and the HD is running. I can't hear any activity that indicates read/rights, but it is spinning.

[tesco]

Originally posted by TheFilePirater@11 February 2004 - 22:18
running a game off another hdd is down right stupid

why is it stupid? maybe he is trying to keep free space on his main drive or maybe his second drive has better performance (which it probably does seen as it is brand new)

[longboneslinger]

Hmmm.....this is down right weird. BIOS says OFF. Divice manager is listing the Barracuda ST380013a (as I said, this my wifes comp, it's a Dell, and I"m not positive what HD thay intalled. It is a 80Gb like mine,but the odds are against it being the same model as the one I installed). Disk manager lists 2. 1 is 39MB and the other is 80GB (74.46 actual). I"m new to XP so I'm assuming that the 39mbs is the FAT backup.

Actually, the Dell is new and is using a HD thats about the same as my Barracuda. As for stupid, I install my stuff on my HD and hers on hers. I've been using 2 HD's in my PC's for years. It's an effective way to seperate software, .mp3's and videos that eat up HD space. I also have less fragmentation on the 2nd drive cuz the swap file was on the C: drive (Win98 SE).

[tesco]

in the bios do you mean that its showing it as having NO drive on that channel or that it is disabled? if disabled reenable it and put it on auto. if its showing NO DRIVE then try a different ide cable.

[longboneslinger]

BIOS lists the Primary Slave as OFF. No other listing. Just off. I've already been in BIOS with a Dell tech. It's new and I don't want to Bork the warrenty so I'm hesitent about getting too carried away. Dell won't go any farther than a basic BIOS check because it's not their drive. I'm tired of waiting in quoe at Seagate so I'm trying here.

I'm considering just pulling it and sticking it my main comp when I get the power supply in and just reformatting it there if I can. The prob is, I don't want to lose my data. Not to mention the fact that it's gonna be a pain in the ass to uninstall the software on the Dell with no uninstall files available. A good example is Alcholhol 120%. It's on the F: drive. I'm still showing the virtual CD/DVD ROM but I can't use it. I also have a ton of graphics along with some mp3s and music vids I haven't bothered to back up .

[tesco]

hmm why dont you try it in your computer and then if it can read the files then it is a problem with the dell computer. and you will also be able to copy the files over from teh hard drive to your own hard drive for safe keeping incase you return the drive or something. have you tried hooking it up to a different ide channel?