Windows HD wont show in explorer, Help

Hello,

I have 2 win2k PCs, the C drive on one of them broke. This PC had C and D drives, both the same model and size (Maxtor dimond something8). I wanted to transfer the data from the good D drive to my other PC and then use that as my new C.

I accidently installed the broken C drive in the other PC and it showed up in windows but it wouldnt transfer any data to the other drives in this system.
I shut down the PC and removed it and then put in the D drive and restarted the PC.

Now the perfectly good D drive wont show up in windows, appart from in device manager.
I have tried removing it from the system and putting it back in and instaling it in different IDE ports to try and get it going but it aint happening.

I think that because the broken C and working D drives are identical windows is thinking that the good D drive is the bad C drive and wont allow access to it.

If anyone understands what I just said I hope you can help because I need it.

Thanks
Mark

 

Have you tried asking the BIOS to autodetect all drives fitted?

Or remove all drives in Device Manager, reboot, and let Win find them again.

If that fails to sort it, look here.

 

I have tried removing the HD many times from Device manager, nothing seems to work and yes its in the bios as well, i have removed it from the PC many times completly and put it back in then out then back in etc. no joy.

Thanks, I will have a look at that link you posted
Mark.

 

I did it, I did it I can see my harddrive now in My computer
I had to add it using Computer Management/Disk management tools.

I find it strange that when I put in my broken drive that it showed up straight away in My computer and the good drive didnt.

Anyway, one more question, in disk management under 'Layout' the 2 hard drives allready in this PC are labled Partition and the drive I just installed is labled Simple, what does this mean?

Thanks again
Mark.

 

Did you put it in Master?

Because it's your 2nd drive of your old computer.

OW never mind dont read this

 

New drive isn't formatted perhaps. Or a different format type.

 

Its definatly formatted as its been used in the broken PC for ages and it has data on it and windows says its NTFS.

Thanks guys
Mark.

 

I don't know W2k but in 98SE & XP the drive label is whatever the person who formatted the drive fancied, it's easy to change. Device manager may identify the drive by brand & model.

 

Hello,

thanks to everyone that helped before, now I have a new problem.

I was about ready to get my PC up and running again after cleaning my pc with a hover to get rid of the dust when i turned it on to find out the bios had reset its self back to its default settings, bit strange i thought but anyway poop happens.

I went and installed a new bios ( yes the correct one ) because it added 1 or 2 new features that may of been usefull. all good so far.

now i can get win2k to install and work ok with the basic instalation, but every time I install updates something goes wrong and the windows wont boot.

It has broken after installing .NET 1.1 update on one occasion, after SP4 instalation on another and a couple of other times as well, ( roughly 5 times i think i have reformated the HD and installed windows).

I reflashed back to my old bios to see if it was that at somepoint too but windows broke again.

I think there might be something wrong with my ram, are there any programs around that can test the ram that dont need windows to run on?

Anyone have any ideas? My system has been excelent for over 3 years, baring the odd HD breaking.

Thanks
Mark.

 

Golden rule is to never use a hoover near a computer, you may have broken something.

As usual, take everything out and leave the computer with the bare minimum to see if it boots. Make sure all the connectors are secure, you may have dislodged something.

 

I always take everything out except the graphics card and network card when i install an OS. the pc was prety mush dismantled when bits of it were cleaned. everything is hooked up as it should be.

would a PC boot or install an OS if the ram was at all slightly broken?

anyway, im going to give it another go to see what happens.

Thanks

 

Did you suck the CMOS clear jumper off the board when you vacuumed inside?

Yes. You'll just get instability or corruption.

 

Using a vacuum cleaner inside a pc is an easy way to damage some or all of the components. The static build-up can send as much as 10-15,000 volts through the various bits of your pc. Often the damage from static dosent happen straight away, and can sometimes take several months before anything starts going wrong. If you want to clean the inside of the pc, use a can of compressed air, or remove *everything* from the case.

A good program to test RAM is Memtest86
Download the iso image and burn to a cd. you can then boot from this, and it will run several tests to check you RAM. run it with 1 stick at a time to see which is bad.