HDD not seen by OS

[eliasd]

Hi all,

I currently have 2 HDD on my computer. A small crash forced me to reboot without shutting windows down. On the re-boot, I ran scan disk on both my c: and d: drives.
When windows restarted (windows 98) I tried accessing my d: drive and I got the error message 'disk not formatted' or something like that...
I then restarted in DOS and ran a scandisk d:.
Scandisk found an error with the FAT of the d: drive and according to it corrected them.

When windows then restarted, I tried to access my d: drive only to see that it was no longer there.
Checking the device list, I see HDD one of which is assigned as c: while the other one has no letter assigned to it.
I then restarted and checked my CMOS/BIOS and found that it too detected my second HDD with all the correct data...

Can this be a software problem or a hardware one? If my HDD is fried, how come the BIOS and windows detect it but I am not able to access it ?

I tried removing the drive (in the device list, CMOS and physically) and re-installing it with no success.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Elias

 

[gargouille]

Hi elias:
You've given us so little info...with an approximation of the error message it's a lot harder to nail down.
If something like this happens to you again, get the error message and give it to us verbatim: word for word. (write it down)
Was this a drive with a game on it? (we had a similar situation the other day when Dad was doing the troubleshooting)
There are indications the drive is failing...you need to download the hard drive diagnostics from the manufacturer's web site and run them. Any data on the drive is apparently lost.
Not a boot drive, tho, so it could have been worse.

 

[eliasd]

Hi gargouille,

The most info I have right now is :

When I boot up, there's is no d: drive. The only way that I know that my second drive is actually connected is to check the BIOS settings (when i set the primary slave to AUTO and reboot, the BIOS detects it and gets the right info for it (i.e. size, etc). Also, when in windows, I check the device list in the system option of the control panel and I see a second HDD connected but when I check it's properties there is no letter assigned to it.

YEs, there were games on the drive along with other programs that I used for work and lots of data on it.

I will check the quantum website for any diagnostic software and run it.

Thanks,

Elias

 

[gargouille]

We get reminded every so often of chinks in our armor...like not having stuff backed up. I've, of course, been caught like that, too.
With the drive not even being seen you may have suffered some data loss.
You might try booting to dos and check the drive with:
fdisk(space)/status
(shoulda' had you do that earlier, my bad)
Anyway, that'll pretty much tell the tale as far as data recovery...
Might try accessing it in dos, too (d: and then do dir), and if there's any recognizable data there, dump it to the primary hard drive.
But it looks like there's still problems with the fat...or the drive geometry generally....

As for the BIOS seeing the hard drive even if it's fried...do you have SMART in there...and was it turned on?
(just for my own reference)

 

[eliasd]

I don't think I have SMART on my MainBoard since it is a pretty old one (I will actually check for it again).
As for accessing it from DOS, that doesn't work either (doing a d: on the command promt simply resolves in a 'Invalid drive specification')
So, that rules out running fdisk on that drive and I am guessing that the drive is most probably fried.

As for the backing things up, yea, this taught me a very good lesson...

Any other recommendations ? (I was thinking of removing the hard drive and trying it on another PC, or reformaating my main drive and re-installing the OS to see if it's an OS problem...but, I am guessing if it was an OS problem that the drive should have been visible in DOS.)

Thanks for the help

Elias

 

[gargouille]

fdisk /status isn't ruled out...it should show the status of ALL drives mounted on your system.
If it doesn't see it, then at least the data is hosed.

You keep asking for ideas and it's apparent you haven't gone to the trouble of doing the troubleshooting steps.

You can choose to ignore my advice: "you need to download the hard drive diagnostics from the manufacturer's web site and run them" and go on playing your "I guess" game...I prefer better answers than that before reaching any conclusions.

 

[eliasd]

Hi gargouille,

Ok, I did exactly as you said.
fdisk /status shows my 2nd HDD and I ran the manufacturers diagnostic tool and that shows that the drive is OK (pfffeeww).
So, I am guessing that scandisk never did repair my FAT correctly and they're lost and my drive looks like its unformatted.

Any idea if there is any way to do a 'raw' read of it and recover the data ? Or is the data gone and unrecoverable and I should just accept it and just format my drive and start over ?

Thanks for all the help and putting up with my guesses


Elias

 

[wolluf]

http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/UK/welcome.htm

can find data on lost partitions - but I realise it might not be any use for you as drive seems to be invisible from the operating system.

PS. There are other (not freeware) data recovery programs which might be able to find your lost stuff - try Google.

 

[gargouille]

Look for (FREE) test disk on this page...haven't used it but it purports to be a recovery scheme for sichiations like this...if you're that intent on getting the data.

http://lists.gpick.com/pages/System_Maintenance_Tools.htm

Gotta' have guesses...even with answers.
Now you can guess how it happened :>)

Good news is always gratifying tho...