Possible hard drive help, please??

First of all, it doesn't matter what you have on it (could be a clone of your 'C' drive if you want). As long as it shows as 'D' drive then your system will boot off of 'C'. One of two things is happening. If you just added the drive, your bios may have determined this to be the boot drive. You must go into the bios and make sure it is set to the correct boot drive and that it sees both drives. If it does not see both drives then that usually indicates that the new drive is bad or you don't have the jumpers correctly set on the new drive. Read the manual( or the drive label itself) under Master/Slave drive config. and make sure your's is correct. Most Hard Drive Mfgs' sites have a floppy you can download to format and set up your drive as extra storage. The fact that it's not formated correctly sometimes throws Windows off track. When it's all said and done (if your bios is set to 'Halt on all Errors, Except Keyboard), any bad peripheral not working correctly will stop a boot, but the odds are in your favor that it's one of the above.

My money is on the jumpers

You might need to set one drive as "master" and one as "slave." Your boot drive would be the "master." Their should be little switches located on the back of the drive to set this.

Thanks everyone, here's what I do know. The jumper settings on it are set to slave and I had it as my G drive when it was working last week, it was working fine till then. I know in the BIOS it finds it as slave also. When it was working we had it set to cable when it started acting up so I changed it. I will check the bios for the setting for the boot drive, I believe it is set to HDD-0 right now. Windows will load from my main drive with the backup connected it just doesn't stop. You can see stuff is loading but at the same time the backup drive is doing something so windows cant't get loaded all the way. When I timed it the other day after an hour and 24 minutes I shut it off and just unhooked the drive. My most important thing I want to do is get the data off it, I am gonna replace the drive, but I just don't want to lose the data. Will double check all the settings and let you know. Will take any other suggestions too. Thanks again.

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Here might be an option for retrieving your data https://www.wincustomize.com/msgboard.asp?BID=WC&id=254863

Ok, I did as yrag suggested and double checked the jumpers and Bios. The C drive is set to master, the backup to slave. I got it to boot once and was able to get a few files off of it, but then something crashed in the middle and it stop working. Tried to reboot but it wouldn't. Then disconnected the backup drive yet again, booted windows works fine. If that drive is connected windows does not want to boot. Talk about frustrating. > Just seems really weird to me, it was just fine up until a few days ago. Any other suggestions?

Do you have an nVidia Motherboard by chance? Also, what are you using to transfer files off the drive in Windows? Have you tried a DOS boot floppy as I described earlier to create a partition and transfer the files in DOS. And lastly, who's (Mfg) drive is it?

Something I didn't hear mentioned was the specific interface type on htese HD's. Assuming it's an IDE interface, there should have been a decision as to where on the interface ribbon each drive is plugged. I'm going to guess that the Master belongs on the end of the ribbon and the Slave should be connected on the middle. This may not be an issue since the original HD was probably on and stayed on the end of the ribbon.

Now, I might have this bassackwards, but that's an on-the-fly declaration of an issue you should have checked on.

yrag....my motherboard is a Soyo Dragon Sy-kt400 dragon lite, the hard drive I am trying to get the files off of is a Seagate 80gb. You ask about how I was transfering the files off windows. I may be misunderstanding but the drive that has the files on it I want doesn't have windows on it, there are just all my backup files. So, the one time I got it to load the extra drive I just used "move to" in explorer. I am completely lost when it comes to Dos, so am not exactly sure how to get the files that way but will do some research on it. Now, here is an interesting question. I left the computer off overnight, when I turned it back on had the spare drive connected, it booted, then it locked up after a short time. So, what I wonder is if I run both drives could it be overheating and locking up preventing both drives from loading? It is a thought I had, I am grasping at straws now.

Here is some other info on it in case it helps. I built this system only about 8 months ago.
Athlon 2400
1.24 Gig Ram
GeForce 4 Graphics Card
Windows XP Home
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Might sound silly but disconnect your cd-rom and set the back-up drive to master and put it on the second IDE cable....anything's worth a shot...if it comes up to vote, at least you can rule out the harddrive being the problem and retrieve your data. I am assuming that your running two IDE drives here

Sorry to be so long in getting back...

OK...First things first...go here http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/drivers/discwiz.html and download the 'Starter Edition' software. When you execute the file it will make 2 floppies and will allow you to Insert the first floppy and re-boot into DOS ( it will prompt you when to Insert the second). The two floppies will load all the files you need into memory and move the files to where ever you want.

I do have one question...you said this was set as drive 'G'. The board only gives you the option of having 4 IDE/ATAPI connections...in this case it would be C,D,E,F. Are you using an add-on card or is a letter missing from the Windows setup (and if it is missing, which one is missing)

I'm sure it's not, but humor me...this isn't an 80G SATA drive is it???

....grrrrr.. damn scripts errors







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Yrag...just curious and no experience with it...I have the ability to use SATA on my motherboard, but nothing's wrong with my IDE HD's now. If you install two SATA drives and no other HD's, are they in a RAID array or is that just an optional way to configure them?

You can use them in in a Raid array (usually you can get to the array config by hitting F4 on the bootup) or you can bypass the array and use them as 2 separate drives.

First, both of the hard drives I have are IDE. Second, here is how I have my drives set:

A Drive: Floppy
C Drive: Main hard drive
D Drive: CD-RW Drive
E Drive: DVD-Rom
F Drive: Zip Disk currently not plugged in
G Drive: Backup Hard Drive, the one that doesn't want to load.

Now, the stuff you mention to download, when I run it, I need to have both hard drives connected, correct? Or will it run with just the backup(seagate) drive connected. The reason I ask is want to make sure I do it right and don't want to take any chances messing up data on my good working drive. Sorry to seem do dense on this stuff but never had this happen before on a backup drive.

Thanks for all the time and help you are giving, I really appreciate it.

Essencay, yes i have tried setting it as just the only drive, as the master, have tried uplugging cd rom and everything in between it just doesn't like me enough to work. Which really stinks cause I know the data is there, the drive still works, it hasn't crapped out completely....yet. Just want to get the data before it does.

First, un-plug not only the power connecter (I'm going to assume it is USB) to the ZIP drive, but unplug the USB plug as well. If they both are already, that's fine...Windows is just retaining the slot and that in itself won't be a problem. When you re-boot using the two floppies have both drives hooked up since my guess is that you're going to transfer to the 1st drive that works.. and then you can tend to fixing the 2nd drive. Make sure in the Bios your system is set that the 1st boot device is the floppy drive (it should be already, but you never know). If both drives don't show, then try just hooking up to the 2nd drive and creating a second partition on it and move files to that. One thing I think you may find is that for whatever reason the 'Ontrack' file setup may have been corrupted on the 2nd drive (Ontrack is the needed bios format to apply to the drive and the files are on the floppies).The good news is, if (no matter what might be wrong with the drive) if you can see the drive (you will not see the files) then you can transfer the whole partition off the drive. If you get the files copied off the drive then you can re-format it, using these floppies, and then use the drive again....I don't think at this point there's anything wrong with the drive itself.

If you get this far, we'll talk...

Thanks so much yrag. I will try this and see if it works. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed. It may be a day or two due due to some stuff I have to take care of, but will let you know what happens. I also think your right about nothing actually being wrong with the drive, just seems weird it has tried to boot with it connected. Either way the company is going to replace the drive after I get the files off it, so thats the good news.

No problem...let me know..whenever you get to it. If this fails (and I don't think it will) then I can easily walk you thru a DOS boot and give you the commands to transfer the files. If there's any life at all in this drive we will get the files.

Sorry it took so long to get back. Had to take a break before I took a hammer to this thing. So, here is what I tried. Downloaded and made the floppies from seagate''s site like you suggested. When you try to boot from them it says there are no system files on the floppies. Checked the floppies, it did make them, there are files on them. So, I got curious and tried the seagate cd I have, again. Then you get the this message:

''Please remove any cd''s or floppy disks
Hit ctrl+alt+delete to restart
X:\Install>

Then I tried running the seagate as the only hard drive in the system, just to see if it would boot to the cd, it wouldn''t, got the same error message. So, yesterday, I got the replacement drive that seagate had shipped me to use while I get the files off the other and am getting the same result with it. You plug it in as either slave or master by itself and won''t boot to cd either. Now I am wondering if my system just doesn''t like seagate drives. The one I have in the system now is a ''Western Digital'' and it works fine.
So, here was a thought. Is it possible the seagate drives connected with everything else on my motherboard is just drawing to much power, I have a 430watt Antec power supply. Was wondering if maybe I should try just leaving a few things connected? Other than these what else does windows have to have to run? "Both hard drives, ram and cd-rw" If that doesn''t work thought about trying to install windows on the backup drive to at least get access to the files, but didn''t know if doing that will hurt any of the stuff on it during the install. Didn''t want to chance doing that without asking first.

Think that is about everything I have tried up till now, if I forgot to mention anything, just ask. Thanks again for all the effort your giving me. Going to take a break from it till this afternoon, before I do use the hammer. Will check back here then.

It''s not the power and it''s not incompatibility with your system......

Hummmm....#1- stick with the floppies ...the CD only works if you''re actually up and running in XP and only loads maintenance proggies...your IDE drive doesn''t need any drivers.

#2 - Do you have the Mobo IDE connectors set as HD/ CD ROM - HD/ CD ROM or HD/HD - CD/CD?

#3 - Go into Control Panel/ Administrative Tools/ Disk Management and get rid of any signs of that Zip drive. You want to free up that ''F:'' so it can apply it to this new drive. If you have to, re-hook the zip and boot up and change it''s letter to ''G''. When it''s all said and done Windows may be getting in it''s own way with this drive being that it''s showing out of the Mobo range of ABCDEF.

The only thing I noted that was a little different other than fixing the ZipDrive lettering, was that the Seagate HDD is a slave to the DVD-Rom, if I''m reading his Drive lettering right? I think he has it HD/DVD - CD ROM/HD?

Yeah...I think this is going to get down to a Windows config problem....the drive letter per se doesn''t matter if (and that''s a big if) they were added or powered up in the correct order. Done incorrectly he could very well be trying to run this under a PIO/DMA-Word driver...anyway, when he gives the set-up I''ll know and it should be a short task to get it up and running.

My motherboard has two IDE connections, there labeled IDE 1 and 2. The two hard drives are on IDE 1 and the cd-rw and dvd are on IDE 2. Disconnected the zip drive completely, still no luck. I am going to try unplugging the cd drives from the motherboard and put another new cable to the hard drives and see if that works. Maybe if the only things connected to associate to drive letters is the hard drives it will boot to windows. Because I agree that something seems to be getting in the way when it boots. If everything is booting fine without the seagate drive and only messing up when its connected, it does seem like something with it is causing confusion.

If that fails, am going to take the whole thing apart tonight and just connect only what is necessary to run, if it is confused about drive letters, maybe that will help. If that still a no go, I am going to take it over to a friends this weekend and try to connect to there system and see if it works. Maybe if I can get it to connect to a different machine I can copy the files. It is worth a shot a this point. Before I do any of this tonight, will check back and see if you guys have any suggestions. Thanks.
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Dis-connect the two CD Roms and either use that IDE (2) connector with the new cable, for the drive you want to get the files off of (you do not have to move the jumper being you''''re using a separate IDE connector) or leave it setup as slave with the boot drive on the same cable. Either way you do it, when you boot up go into the bios and see if it recognizes both drives correctly and that your original Boot drive still shows as your Boot drive. If everything shows correctly in bios, save and exit bios and it will boot into Windows. Now go into Control Panel/ Administrative Tools/ Disk Management and see how Windows shows your drives...it should be the same as the bios. If it is, use the floppies and get the files off the drive and put them to a partition on the boot drive. If these are just ''''Storage'''' files with no .exe''''s running, you can do it right in Windows if you want to (as well as formatting the drive). Turn off ''''puter and install new drive as Master IDE #2 (now you need to change the jumper) . Repeat the steps above w/bios and Windows Admin Tools and if everything is still correct (Drive letters should show C,D), then turn off and hook both CD Players as slaves to IDE #1 and IDE #2. After the boot into Windows, your Letters should now be A,C,D, (drives) and E,F (CD Roms). If it does not boot after installing CDs then do them one at a time so we know which (CD) drive has the conflict. (it could very well be both, since they both require DMA mode).

If everything works, then you now will be able to transfer files to the extra HD.

Having said all that, if when you do all this and it doesn''''t work, I need to know at what point it stopped booting..........








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I just noticed I should have added....when you get to the point where you put the new drive in, do as I stated and go into bios to make sure they show correctly, but then save, exit and boot using the floppies . Once there you can format the drive....now re-boot into Windows and follow the rest of the instructions as noted above......

A question....because I''m still XP-n00bish and I don''t understand how the backup drive is trying to come up as the G: drive. With Win9x, I know you can limit the number of drive letter assignments (LASTDRIVE=F) and that you can assign letters in Windows System Properties to your CD-ROM and Zip drive. So if you assigned D,E and F to your CD-ROMS and Zip, the drive wouldn''t show up if the LASTDRIVE=F command was used. Is there something similar to this with XP? The ability to force XP not to look for or assign letters beyond a specific letter?