Re: Second hard drive needs formatting after XP reload


"Roy" <Roy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:DEB49EDA-B7BB-48FB-9BB6-A44DC4CA4E52@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Due to an unknown problem with my bootable hard drive, I had to
reinstall
XP.

Since then, when I try and access my second hard drive - which
worked
perfectly before the reinstall - I know receive this message:

The disk in drive F is not formatted.

This has all of my video edited files on it and I'd hate to think I
need
to
reformat to get this working again.

Can anyone please help?

It is a Seagate 400Gig drive

Cheers and fingers corssed

Roy


"Anna" wrote:
Roy:
There are a number of things to try...

1. We'll assume your secondary HD is non-defective since it was
working
just
fine prior to your reinstall of the OS on your primary boot hard
drive.
But
it still may be a good idea to check it out with a HD diagnostic that
you
can download from Seagate's site after you've tried the following...

2. When you say you get the message about the drive being unformatted,
you're referring to that message in Disk Management? And in DM there's
no
drive letter assignment to that HD and you're unable to assign one?
Tell
us
precisely what you see in DM re that drive.

3. Is there any possibility that when you reinstalled XP you
inadvertently
deleted the Seagate's partition and/or reformatted that drive?

4. After powering down your machine, disconnect the Seagate - both
data &
power cable connectors - and boot with only your primary HD connected.
Then
power down and reconnect the Seagate - making sure, of course, that
it's
correctly connected & jumpered. (I'm assuming this is a PATA HD
although
you
didn't say). If still not detected by the system, again access DM to
see
what you can see.
Anna


"Roy" <Roy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:B3F3575C-C6D0-4B0F-BA11-B92BC82E566D@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Anna

My answer back to Paulibus answers your first question.

As far as I know, I didn't touch the F Drive (2nd HDD).

It is a SATA drive - and you will see above that it is being detected
by
the
system - it's just not working!

By the way and to answer someone else's question, I have installed SP2
and
all of the latest updates.

Any other suggestions GRATEFULLY received.

Roy

(Roy later adds)...
"Roy" <Roy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:B3F3575C-C6D0-4B0F-BA11-B92BC82E566D@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Anna

My answer back to Paulibus answers your first question.

As far as I know, I didn't touch the F Drive (2nd HDD).

It is a SATA drive - and you will see above that it is being detected
by
the
system - it's just not working!

By the way and to answer someone else's question, I have installed SP2
and
all of the latest updates.

Any other suggestions GRATEFULLY received.

Roy

(And still later he adds...)
Something else I've just noticed when in Computer management

Whereas the C HDD is showing NTFS under File System, there is nothing in
this field for the F HDD

Roy


"Anna" wrote:
Roy:
Now that you mention that the problem HD is a SATA HD, any possibility
that
a SATA driver issue is involved since you did a fresh install of the XP
OS?

Do I understand you to say that the HD is listed in Disk Management and
has
been assigned a F: drive letter, but no File System is shown - it's
blank?
Is its Status shown as "Healthy" and its Capacity is correctly indicated?
And is its Type shown as "Basic"?

Assuming the drive is listed in DM -- if you right-click on its listing
under the Volume tab, is Open and/or Explore listed as menu items. If so,
can you click on each?
Anna


"Roy" <Roy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:B4086E5E-591C-4690-9C8B-BB02EF727AB3@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Anna

First of all, it's a pity that this workgroup tool will not allow you to
paste a screen scrape of exactly the configuration. It'd be a lot easier
to
show the settings.

To answer your first question about the driver. When I click on Device
Manager, the same driver is shown for the F HDD Seagate drive as the
working
C HDD Maxtor drive. It is a MS driver. A message in each of their
Properties says they are both working correctly.

I can't remember loading a separate driver when I originally installed the
drive when new. And I can't find a CD now.

The following settings are shown:
Volume = (F:)
Layout = Partition
Type = Basic
File System = (this is blank)
Status = Healthy (Active)
Capacity = 372.60GB
Free Space = 372.60GB
% Free = 100%
Fault Tolerance = No
Overhead = 0%

these settings are very similar to the bootable C drive with the
differences
being the capacity and the Status shows Healthy (System) and the File
System
shows NTFS.

When I right click on the F drive under 'Volume' the File system on the
General tab shows as RAW. The C drive shows (as you would expect) NTFS.

As suggested, when I right click on the F drive under 'Volume', Open and
Explore are there - but the same error message saying the disk in drife F
is
not formatted appears. C works fine.

Thanks for the perseverence - I hope I've answered your questions

Roy


Roy:
I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings, but from your most recent
description it seems that the former data on your HD is gone. How it
happened I can't tell but it may have something to do when you performed a
fresh reinstall of the XP OS on your boot drive. (Whenever an OS is being
installed it's always wise, if possible, to disconnect all storage devices
from the system before the installation process is undertaken. But that's
water over the dam, I know.)

I guess your only course of action at this point is to use one or more
(so-called) data recovery programs and hope for the best. And failing that,
engaging a commercial data recovery entity - a most expensive proposition as
you can imagine.

Here's some links to a number of data recovery programs. Frankly, for the
most part, I've never had a great deal of luck with any of them, but many
users report success with this or that program. Some of them have demo
versions available. And, of course, you can do a Google search for others.

Perhaps others perusing this thread will have other suggestions.

http://www.undelete.com/undelete/undelete.asp
http://lc-tech.com/index.html
http://www.ontrack.com/
http://www.r-tt.com/
http://www.active-undelete.com/
http://www.easeus.com/download.htm
http://www.diydatarecovery.nl/irecover.htm

Anna


.

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