Recognition of a hard drive in Windows XP

[lochlain]

I installed a new hard drive and reinstalled the existing copy of Windows XP on it (along with all the updates and service packs). I tried to connect the old hard drive to copy data over by two means. First by installing both hard drives on the IDE cable (yes, it's an older computer; my brother's), and second with an external USB enclosure. In neither instance did the computer recognize the drive. I had the jumpers set correctly for the ribbon cable option, and both drives were recognized by the BIOS at startup. The enclosure was powered up, the hard drive was spinning, and the found new hardware started then disappeared before it began looking for drivers (i.e. the box to walk through the process of installing new hardware never showed up).

This could be a hardware issue, however somehow I doubt it since the hard drive was working fine when I pulled it.

I am leaning towards it being a software issue with Windows realizing that there are two hard drives with Windows installed (with the same product key). Perhaps it is not recognizing the older drive due to copyright issues? Or just self-preservation because Windows doesn't want to get confused on which drive is the root system?

There are a bunch of pictures, songs, etc that my brother does not want to lose in this process.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. The computer is a Dell Dimension 3000 desktop with 1GB of RAM (in case that has any bearing on the convesation).

Best,
Lochlain

 

[Alvin.C]

Hi,

Strange. Well, Windows should still be able to mount the drive, despite there being an existing installation of Windows on the hard drive. Also, only one Windows partition is active at any one time (the one you're booted into).

When you tried connecting it via IDE, and via the external enclosure, what position did you set the jumpers? Did you try using Cable Select (CS)?

 

[lochlain]

I did try both CS and specifying the master and slave specifically (I have the same manually selected set up on the DVD and CD drives already).

As for the external HD enclosure, which connects with USB, I had it set for master as specified in the documentation. Although I did try both the slave and CS jumper positions as well.

 

[Alvin.C]

Okay.

Can you still boot into Windows on the old hard drive? If you can, remove your new hard drive and hook up only your old hard drive to the system, and boot into Windows. Once booted, check the disk for errors and defragment the hard drive.

Once you've done that, connect both your new and old hard drive to the system (either to the motherboard or via your external enclosure) and boot into Windows on your new hard drive to see if it can successfully mount the old hard drive.

 

[lochlain]

Hmm. OK, here's the latest. When I have that drive and no other connected, it get into an endless loop of failed Windows boot attempts.

When I have any other drive connected along with this one, this drive does not mount. I went as far as to have a bootable drive and the "problem" drive on separate ribbon cables altogether, both set as master.

Maybe it is a hardware issue after all?

Oh, and to add insult to injury, the "bad" drive does show in the device manager.

 

[Alvin.C]

Hi,

Okies. Reconnect your new hard drive as the primary hard drive, and connect the old drive to the motherboard via IDE to the slave connector (settings the jumpers on both hard drives to cable select). Then boot into Windows.

Once booted, see if you can defrag your old hard drive using method 2 in the following knowledge base article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314848. If the old disk is not listed in disk defragmenter, move onto the next task below...

Open up command prompt, type diskpart then hit enter (to run the diskpart command line program). You should then see 'DISKPART >'. There, type list disk then hit enter. Does it list two disks (both the new and old hard drive)?

If you see both hard drives in the list, then Windows has successfully detected your old hard drive. If this is the case, what does it say for the 'status' of your old hard drive? Next, again using diskpart, enter list volume and hit enter. Do you see the partiton(s) of your old hard drive in the list, and if so, what is the status?

 

[lochlain]

Disk 0 and Disk 1 are both Online.

Volume 0 is Healthy
Volume 1 is a removeable disk (not the "old" disk drive)

I still have them as masters on separate cables (sorry, I was going for convenience and speed instead of following directions explicitly). If you need me to set it up exactly as you described, let me know.



Thanks!

 

[Alvin.C]

Hi,

Just to clarify, have you tried connecting both hard drives to the same ribbon cable (both set to cable select)? If you haven't, see if Windows can successfully detect your old hard drive and mount the volume(s).

You might also want to consider that the ribbon cable may be faulty. Try using a different ribbon cable if you can (or if you've been using two ribbon cables in a 'dedicated' setup, switch them around if you haven't already done so).

Also, with regards to connecting each hard drive to a dedicated ribbon cable, are both IDE controllers enabled in the BIOS? Also, for whichever configuration you try (whether it be slaving on one IDE cable, or each drive on a dedicated IDE cable) are both drives detected in the BIOS?

 

[lochlain]

Perhaps restarting would be best.

I am unable to defrag with method 2, since the volume does not show up on the list. Interestingly, I do see four partitions when I click on Disk Management:
Volume Layout Type File System Status
Partition Basic FAT Healthy (EISA Configuration)
Partition Basic FAT32 Healthy (Unknown Partition)
Partition Basic NTFS Healthy (Active)
C Partition Basic NTFS Healthy (System)

When I do list disk, I do see a Disk 0 and Disk 1. I can only assume that they are the two hard drives, since I have removed every other drive (removable, DVD, CD) from the computer.

List Volume now only shows Volume 0, which is the new drive (C. It is listed as healthy. The old drive is not listed.

Apologies for rushing through and not being thorough.

 

[lochlain]

I did put both drives on the same cable. Nothing fundamentally different in results from what I posted above. The cable is fine. I have another drive that I can connect, and it works correctly. The other drive has an NTFS file system.

Both controllers are enabled. Before playing musical chairs with the drives, I had 2 hard drives and 2 optical drives connected, and all worked fine.