"The parameter is incorrect" on HARD DRIVE (not CD/DVD)

Tech-Archive recommends: Repair Windows Errors & Optimize Windows Performance

From: Jeff Heikkinen (oh_at_s.if)
Date: 05/28/04 

Date: Fri, 28 May 2004 22:43:41 GMT

I can't read from one of my three hard drives, which is currently drive
E. This deive shares my secondary IDE channel with a DVD burner, which
I had thought might be defective but now seems to be fine. (My primary
channel has the other two hard drives on it.) The error message I now
get when I click on the hard drive in question in Explorer is "E:\ is
not accessible. The parameter is incorrect." I have no idea what
parameter it's talking about - that's the entire message.

However, I ONLY have this problem in Windows XP. The same computer
dual-boots with Windows 98, and when I boot into 98 I can see the drive
just fine!

It doesn't seem to matter whether the drive in question is the master or
the slave. I've only tried it on the secondary channel. I've tried it
without the burner at all, jumpered to both Master and Cable Select, and
it doesn't seem to make a difference. I have replaced the IDE cable and
that didn't make a difference either.

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