W2k: 2nd hd not recognized, asks me to format

[prophotodx]

I have a W2K box with all updates, I was having issues with it rebooting on startup every time. That is fixed, it was a BIOS issue.

Now when I boot, the 2nd hard drive is named "local disk" which is windows default, and when I try to view the files it asks me if I want to format it. Is this a problem with the MBR? If so how/what is the safest way of restoring the MBR without destroying the data?

I have tried rebooting/safe mode/minimum drivers/etc. Thank You, I await your quick and educated response!!

DBX
(Try it my way, it might work...)

 

[GWilsonRFK]

This may not be an issue with your OS at all. Have you checked the jumpers on your 2nd harddrive and made sure it is set as the slave? If you do not do this and the 2nd harddrive has no OS on it, you will get this problem. I would look at this as possibly more of a hardware issue first.

Are both these harddrives IDE? -If one is IDE and one is SATA you will have a very hard time making this work. On an assumption one may be SATA, Windows does not have the drivers on the initial install on 2000 to recognize SATA and you therefor need third party drivers.

If both are IDE, then I think this may just be a jumper issue(this is very common)

Is one a USB external? If this is the case, you will have to set your BIOS not to load from USB first. Most BIOS are set to load from USB first.

I would look over these things and give me an update. If it still doesn't work after all my suggestions, then get back with me and we will troubleshoot further.

Greg Wilson
RFK Technologies
866 837 1007

http://www.rfktechnologies.com

"What an Information Technology Business Partner Should Be

 

[jrbarnett]

Hi

I've had this before. It was caused because the BIOS had different geometry settings to the actual hard drive (auto detect wasn't used).
Easiest way to get around this is to do the following:

1. Reboot into the BIOS setup and reinstate the settings for the hard drive that you had prior to you fixing the issue.

2. Restart into Windows 2000, if necessary use Safe mode. This should allow you to access your data. Back this up and check the backups are good by restoring elsewhere on this PC or another PC. The backup must NOT be on the physical hard drive that you are altering because of step 4.

3. Shutdown W2K and reboot into the BIOS setup. Change the hard drive settings so that they are correct or use autodetect to pick up the correct settings.

4. Logon to W2K as an administrator. Use Disk Management to select this hard drive, create a new partition and format it (right click my computer and choose Manage to get into disk management).

5. Restore data from your backups to the new hard drive.

John

 

[prophotodx]

The hard drive has been installed and working fine for over a year, even with one W2k reinstall. Both drives are EIDE. I have tried setting the bios to auto, to no avail. I am using an asus a7s333 mb, if that matters. Is there a way I can find what the actual heads/sectors/etc values should be without tearing out the hd or destroying the data?

DBX
(Try it my way, it might work...)

 

[xwb]

Found this note from Maxtor

http://maxtor.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/maxtor.cfg/php/enduser/olh_adp.php?p_faqid=720

Somewhere in there, it says

Hard drives should never be configured as a Slave device to a CD-ROM or DVD drive.

but it doesn't say why but I don't think why is important right now. Do you by any chance have the 2nd drive attached as a slave to a CDROM?

 

[tuco7]

There is a section In the BIOS that allows you to choose the order of Boot Up, floppy drive or CD-Rom or your main Hard Drive that you want to use.
Seeing that you have a problem make sure that the Hard drive that has WINDOWS 2000 Is the First Boot Device, Disable second and third and other boot devices

 

[wolluf]

Have you another machine you can try the second drive in? Is it formatted as ntds or fat32? The mbr shouldn't have anything to do with this - unless the partition table part of it has actually been wiped. Can you run chkdsk on it? Some description of your 'bios issue' and how it was fixed would be useful. You don't have goback installed?

 

[prophotodx]

The drive is formatted for NTFS. It is an internal drive that I have had no trouble with until this point. I have tried auto recognition of the drive from the BIOS, along with a few other settings and there is no difference. The drive is not set to be a slave to a CD-ROM. Safe mode and chkdsk do not work either. Chkdsk says the drive is "RAW format"

Boot order makes no difference. Now the computer is rebooting every time upon login, safe mode or not...gotta fix that first. I have tried the setup defaults with no change. The only way I can get it to boot is to Safe Mode command prompt!d

Thank you very much!!

DBX
(Try it my way, it might work...)

 

[wolluf]

sounds like its dying. Try drive manufacturer's diagnostic utility - if it is dying, the only chance of retrieving anything would be via a data recovery app (eg, getdataback) - other than going to an expensive data recovery agency.

 

[GWilsonRFK]

As Wolluf stated, you want to backup your hardrive right away. Sounds like the harddrive is definately dying. Depending on the harddrives and where they are located in the case, this could have started because of a cooling issue. You have have not had enough airflow through your case to properly cool off the harddrive which would eventually kill it. One way to prevent this in the future if this was the case is to give enough space between the hardware you install. What I have seen alot of people do(and I have done this many times myself) is that they put one harddrive right under the other. This can cause harddrive to heat up alot. Another thing I have and seen done many times is have enough fans but yet have them positioned in a way that I created a heat vacuum by having two intake points. Anywho. After backing up data and before thinking about a new harddrive(if that is on your docket), look at how your case is setup. Check the airflow. A good utility to check the temps with is Motherboard Monitor. Good luck. I hope you are able to recover your data.

Greg Wilson
RFK Technologies
866 837 1007

http://www.rfktechnologies.com

"What an Information Technology Business Partner Should Be