Secondary Master Drive: Can't detect label nor data. WIN2KPRO 1

[syrup]

Problem 1) system refuses to shutdown, keeps restarting. This just started to occur out of the blue :/

Problem 2) After disconnecting the pc and moving it to a different location, secondary hdd only detected after manual complete shutdown then restart. If a simple restart is executed, the secondary master isn't detected at all. I mentioned the moving of the pc to a different location in case something became loose inside... don't laugh, I'm just being descriptive

Problem 3) When the secondary hdd is detected, access is denied due to "I/O device error". In the MY COMPUTER panel, this drive seems to have lost the label I had given it and its properties information.

Notes: Just prior to the drive failure, a physical memory dump occured. I had enqued a dir in winamp and things went straight down-hill from there. It ran extremely slowly so I tried to close winamp. It took minutes to shutdown winamp. I restarted the pc and the physical memory dump blue screen reared it's horrible face. Part of the msg mentioned something about a corrupt driver.

If somebody could try & help it'd be great. Single mum paying rent finds it a little out of the question to have to spend Xmas money on pc repairs right now instead of on a 4 year old..

 

[Accessdabbler]

Restart the computer and go into the CMOS (hit DEL usually). Are both Hard Drives seen in the BIOS?

If not, it's most likely a cabling problem. Wouldn't hurt to open up the case and have a peek inside. If you don't have a static strap, be very careful and touch the metal case with your other hand to dissipate static electricity. Make sure the cables are snug in the connectors.

 

[syrup]

AccessDabbler, thanks for replying so quickly

I went into CMOS and discovered that only the primary hdd had any info next to it. The other drives e.g cd/rw etc did't have anything next to them at all. Odd to say the least since the cdrom functions ok.

Anyways, the odd thing is that after shutdown and upon proceeding start up, before windows loads, it recognizes the secondary hdd telling me the make and model etc. Too bad that's all it does.

Other weird thing is that after a complete shutdown and restart, which as I mentioned is the only time it shows any iconic detection of the secondary master, windows takes that long to load that it seems like it's crashed. Painful patience allows it to eventually load.

.... Anyone seen that duck holding a hammer to "hit any key" to continue? 'Tis I in disguise. :/

 

[Accessdabbler]

Older BIOS programs will not show the CD ROM in the CMOS since it's not a "true" IDE device (there are no cylinders, sectors, etc to set up). Since you didn't see it in there, I'm assuming you have a relatively old machine (I suppose some current CMOS programs don't see the CD either but I'm not aware of them).

Next step would be to boot into Safe Mode. See if there are any troublesome hardware devices in the Device Manager (right-click My Computer > Properties > Hardware Tab > Device Manager button).

Next you can try booting using the "Last Known Good Configuration" option.

Finally, you can boot to "Enable Boot Logging". You can read through the NTBTLOG.TXT file to see if there are any troublesome listings in there.

 

[syrup]

Thanks once more AccessDabbler

The weirdest thing happened. I shutdown the pc for the night (rare event this but anyways..) Around mid-morning I turned it on again, and miraculously enough, the secondary drive was detected *and* the label and properties. Most importantly all of the data was there. I did absolutely no fiddling with it. It just reappeared! Extremely odd. Anyways, I intend on backing up everything on zip before I commence checking out the problem further. I'll be posting whatever I come up with in case anybody else encountered/encounters a similar problem.

cheers..

 

[nvb]

Lukcy devil! I wish my problems were this easily solved... Never too old to learn...
Nico