JABrown
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XP won't read hard drive, Win98 & DOS will.
I have an odd hard drive problem. Recently, my primary hard drive quit working. Upon starting my PC, XP will begin to load and then just reboot. I moved it to another PC as a secondary drive and it says the drive is not formatted. (This PC is also running XP). I tried running Norton Disk Doctor (the 2005 version) and it says it can't examine the drive because there is no valid file system.
Here's the odd thing... Since the drive was FAT32, I decided to boot from a DOS diskette. DOS reads the drive with no problem. All my files are there. I also made the questionable drive a secondary drive on a PC running Windows 98, and it reads the drive fine as well.
Why can't XP read it... even as a second drive? Anyone have a clue?
Here's the odd thing... Since the drive was FAT32, I decided to boot from a DOS diskette. DOS reads the drive with no problem. All my files are there. I also made the questionable drive a secondary drive on a PC running Windows 98, and it reads the drive fine as well.
Why can't XP read it... even as a second drive? Anyone have a clue?
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ASKER
By the way, this drive is a Maxtor, 80-gigabyte. The PC's that I'm using are P-III and P4, so the BIOS's don't have any issues recognizing the drive. (All the more reason I don't think it's an overlay issue).
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Run Windows Repair off the windows XP cd.
Ac
Ac
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If the drive works in Win98 the drive works and the problem is MICROSOFT..
Pardon me, just venting...
Pardon me, just venting...
ASKER
Thanks for all the comments! Sorry so slow to respond. I've been out of town and haven't had access to e-Mail or Internet. Also, will not be back at this particular computer until tomorrow. But to answer some of the replies...
I have tried the XP repair from the CD. It says the drive is not formatted and then offers to format it. (Not what I'm looking for)!
I have not tried scandisk in DOS, but I did try Norton Disk Doctor in DOS, and it started scanning with no problems, but then produced a stack overflow error midway through the FAT scan.
I'll try some of the other suggestions when I'm back at work tomorrow.
I have tried the XP repair from the CD. It says the drive is not formatted and then offers to format it. (Not what I'm looking for)!
I have not tried scandisk in DOS, but I did try Norton Disk Doctor in DOS, and it started scanning with no problems, but then produced a stack overflow error midway through the FAT scan.
I'll try some of the other suggestions when I'm back at work tomorrow.
ASKER
Here's where I've gotten...
I tried FDISK /mbr but that didn't change anything.
I couldn't find sys.com on an XP system. I think it's only a DOS/Win9x command?
I also tried the following as referenced above:
FIXMBR C:
FIXBOOT C:
bootcfg /disable
COPY x:\I386\NTLDR C:\
COPY x:\I386\NTDETECT.COM C:\
BOOTCFG /rebuild
The drive recognizes now, but the only files it sees are ntdetect.com and ntldr. Even in DOS, these are the only files shown on the drive. Also, XP now lists the drive as only 10Meg capacity using FAT (not FAT32). I'm going to conclude the drive is hosed now.
Thanks anyway for all the suggestions. At least I was able to salvage anything important before things went further downhill.
I tried FDISK /mbr but that didn't change anything.
I couldn't find sys.com on an XP system. I think it's only a DOS/Win9x command?
I also tried the following as referenced above:
FIXMBR C:
FIXBOOT C:
bootcfg /disable
COPY x:\I386\NTLDR C:\
COPY x:\I386\NTDETECT.COM C:\
BOOTCFG /rebuild
The drive recognizes now, but the only files it sees are ntdetect.com and ntldr. Even in DOS, these are the only files shown on the drive. Also, XP now lists the drive as only 10Meg capacity using FAT (not FAT32). I'm going to conclude the drive is hosed now.
Thanks anyway for all the suggestions. At least I was able to salvage anything important before things went further downhill.
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It would be intersting to know if a "zero-fill" could bring the drive back into a useful state (after creating new partitions etc). It sounds like a logical error, unless of course the drive says 10 MB in the BIOS drive detection, too....
/RID
/RID
yes, i would suggest the manufacturers utility too :
http://www.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm#DFT
http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/products/index.htm
http://support.wdc.com/download/index.asp
http://www.fcpa.fujitsu.com/support/hard-drives/software_utilities.html
http://www.fcpa.fujitsu.com/download/hard-drives/#diagnostic
http://www.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm#DFT
http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm
http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/index.html
http://www.samsungelectronics.com/hdd/support/utilities/utilities_index.html
http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/tais/su/su_sc_home.jsp
http://www.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm#DFT
http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/products/index.htm
http://support.wdc.com/download/index.asp
http://www.fcpa.fujitsu.com/support/hard-drives/software_utilities.html
http://www.fcpa.fujitsu.com/download/hard-drives/#diagnostic
http://www.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm#DFT
http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm
http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/index.html
http://www.samsungelectronics.com/hdd/support/utilities/utilities_index.html
http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/tais/su/su_sc_home.jsp
ASKER
I'm going to go ahead and close this, and split points among those who gave comments.
ASKER
But concerning writing a signature, how would I do that? I've gone to Admin Tools, Computer Mgmt, Storage, Disk Mgmt. The drive shows up, but I don't see any options to write a signature. Of course, there is no operating system listed for this drive and it shows as 100% available. I've already pulled my important files off the drive (using Windows 98) so it doesn't really matter if I trash it. It's more curiosity than anything else at this point.