Windows XP, Clean Install, Missing Drive

[cuckoo4]

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Hi:

I ran a clean install of Windows XP, now one of my drives is missing. My computer was originally setup with RAID 0...not sure how that plays into all of this.

2 physical drives: My C drive is 40G, the E drive (now missing in action), is 80G. I looked in BIOS, Device Manager and Disk Management...no 80G hard drive...but, there Z drive (RAID partition?) which was used to back up files from C and E shows up.

When I installed XP, I had a floppy with FastTrak 133 drivers (RAID for WinXP). Being the extreme light bulb I am, I thought this was how I was suppose to setup my RAID config. So, I don't see this 80G guy in bios or anywhere...is there a way to recover.

Could I have deleted everything on E? If so, how come I don't have 80G of free space...? Thanks for any advice.

M

 

[MarkhP]

If you have setup Raid0 you have created a striped array. Both drives are running as one now possibly giving you performance improvements. If this is the case, both drives are each holding part of your 40gb 'c:' data. You cannot remove the second drive from a raid0 pack without losing your primary drive. You will have to backup and then break the pack. You will then be able to restore to just the 40gb. Alternatively, break the pack with the fastrac utility and then reinstall from the start.

*happy to be corrected

 

[rvnguy]

cuckoo4,

MarkhP is correct if you have enabled "RAID 0".

Check in diak management there should be "unalloctaed space"
on the 80gb drive that you can initialize(format) and use.

rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all

 

[cuckoo4]

Thanks guys, I will try this tonight. But in disk management...I really don't see the 80G allocated? What might this mean?

 

[cuckoo4]

Also, so you understand better what I mean...this was the information I gathered before install.

Disk Drives:
Maxtor 6E040L0
Maxtor 6L040J2
Promise 1 + 0 Stripe / RAID0 SCSI Disk Device
Promise 1 + 0 Stripe / RAID0 SCSI Disk Device

SCSI and Raid Controllers:
D344PRT SCSI Controller
WinXP Promise MBFastTrak 133 Lite (tm) Controller

-> The Maxtor drives up top (after searching on Google) are 40G drives, not my 80G like I thought they represented.

I thought it was RAID 0 because the lines above.

Lastly, I didn't have any drivers for the D344PRT SCSI Controller...I couldn't find this anywhere...does anyone know what that SCSI controller is for.

Thanks again.

 

[rvnguy]

cuckoo4,

I really don't see the 80G == The Maxtor drives up top (after searching on Google) are 40G drives, not my 80G like I thought they represented.

This should answer that question and as stated if you have enabled raid 0 then there will be only one drive seen.

SCSI is a type of interface like for HD's similar to IDE. google SCSI.


rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all

 

[cuckoo4]

My bad man, I just meant the D344PRT SCSI Controller
specifally. When I search for this, I don't pull up any manufacturer, drivers or information on where to find this particular controller.

Not sure what part it's playing in all of this now.

Thanks again, I will be working on this later in the evening.

 

[rvnguy]

cuckoo4,

Try finding and uninstalling ant virtual CD program (one is called deamon-tools) yours might be different. As this is usually asociated with D344PRT SCSI Controller.

rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all

 

[cuckoo4]

Ok...excuse my thickness.

I tried going into the FastTrak utility to erase the Array (I believe this is what you meant by breaking up the pack). But every reboot the array automatically re-configured.

So I still have RAID 1 + 0.

In disk management, I made a new partion of 40G for some reason and deleted the Z: partition. At this point I still couldn't see my 80G drive and probably screwed it all up more.

I then installed Partition Magic, rebooted and saw my drive pop-up. But it is still split dynamically...and the extra 40G Partition I made is there showing as unallocated space.

How can I get the split drive put together without losing that data.

http://www.qwlproductions.com/issues/

Above is a screenshot of PM

 

[MarkhP]

Q. As you start the PC, do you see a prompt to hit CTRL-F or similar to run a utility called something like Fastbuild?. Is this where you are trying to change the array? If not try going into this to delete the array.