hard drive not being seen by windows

Hello,

I have 2 hard drives, one with a working copy of XP, master and one with a non working version of Linux, slave. I want to wipe the slave with Linux on it to use it as a backup for my window's stuff but I am not able to because Windows will not and does not recognize the slave drive with Linux on it. Windows does not like Linux apparently. How can I make my primary drive the XP drive and the slave a XP slave backup? Windows does not even see the slave drive now that linux is on it.

Thank your help.

 

You would need to go to My Computer and right click the mouse, go to Manage and left click. On the left side click on Disk Management. This should show you the drive. Right click on the drive you want to format and tell it to remove the partitions on it. As a Linux drive it probably has 2 or more partitions. Then go through the process of partitioning in NTFS and format the drive. Then you will be able to see it in Windows Explorer.

MAKE SURE YOU DO THE CORRECT DRIVE.

 

Nice, I do see the drive but I do not see my my primary drive, the 250 gig drive. Is it sposta be listed here or somewhere else just to make sure I know where it is b4 I format?

 

All drives in the computer should show up there including CDROM, DVD and USB drives. This is also where you would set the drive letters. Each drive shows up on a separate line with the various partitions on the drive all showing up in the same line for the drive.

On the Linux drive you will have to delete the Linux partitions and then create an NTFS partition before formatting.

Your XP system drive may also have multiple partitions on it if the system came with a OS restore function.

Windows won't let you format the system drive in there so that is not an issue but if you have any other drives in the computer including external drive connected to the computer it will allow you to format them so be careful.

 

This is why I am cautious. I see the slave drive, 76 gig, disk 1, disk 2, 3, 4, 5 - all say removable no media, then next drive is cd rom and there as no other drives listed. My XP is on the main C drive is nowhere to be found here BUT I can see it on the disk defragment just above disk management. The slave drive does not appear on the disk fragment.

Is this another problem that the main drive is not present on the disk management screen or just a simple settings issue?

 

In the upper portion of the disk manager you will see the drives Windows sees. In the lower portion you should see all of the drives including the Linux drive. Disk 0 should be the drive the OS is on. The Linux disk should show up as Disk 1 and the others you listed must be a multi card reader on your computer.

 

Everything that you say is true but I do not have a drive 0 listed here or showing anywhere on this. On the Disk management screen there is nothing of the main c drive with xp. It is like it does not exist or is the OS is corrupt somehow. Does it matter that I don't see it since I want to format the drive that it does see?

Is something broken, so to speak?

 

In your first post, you called the XP drive Master and the Linux drive Slave. I took that to mean that they are IDE drives both connected to the same ribbon and presumably connected to the primary IDE controller. Let us know if this is or is not correct.

In the computer bios, how are the drives listed?

 

took that to mean that they are IDE drives both connected to the same ribbon and presumably connected to the primary IDE controller. Let us know if this is or is not correct.

You are correct, both are on the same ribbon. In the bios, everything seems wrong with the boot up also. I always need to select the drive that I want at boot up start.

I think that the bios is also a mess. What should I check for here?

 

My main goal is to install vista on the slave drive and clean up my corrupt, no have install disk cuz it did not come with one when I got the computer to reinstall main drive xp system to fix xp. Run on sentence I know.

my bios always starts up to select a drive and it will either go to linux or xp. I just want windows to start without having to select a drive.

 

Check the back of the linux hard drive to see if the pin is there that will enable this hard drive as slave- if you look closely you will see the choice, somewhere on the rear of the hard drive- you may have to remove it to see it properly- this will set it as the slave- also as it is on the same cable, put it on the second lower connector.
Your computer should then automatically start on the XP hard drive and see it as slave, and you should then be able to format it., as shnerdly said.
by right clicking in the management console, and choosing format.

 

I checked the drives and the master has no jumpers and the slave has one, in the lower left corner and it looks like it is a permanent one that cant be removed. Also, I have the ribbon hooked up like this, the end of the ribbon on the slave and the other, middle ribbon on the master. Do I need to put some jumpers on the master to make is the master?

There also are the power cords for each drive. One the wire string for the power cords, there are 3 plugs to plug into the hard drives. Does it matter what one I use for each drive?

I obvioulsey had these drive hooked up incorrectly but somehow they both worked.

What should I do from here? :confused

 

What are the make and model of the two hard drives? I would be able to help you with the correct jumper settings for each but each manufacturer has their own configuration.

Also describe the ribbon that is connecting the drives to the mainboard. Are all three connectors the same color or is one blue, one gray and one black? Is the ribbon marked Master and Slave?

As far as the power connectors, the ones with the red, black and yellow wires, it doesn't matter which ones you use for which drive.

 

The computer is a Gateway GT5220, about 3 years old. It came with a 250 gig hard driver, not sure of the manufacture, i am here is the info - 250GB 7200rpm SATA Hard Drive. I think it is western digital. I will have to dig it out of the system to see.

The slave drive is older, about 6 years old, Maxtor 80 gig hard but works fine. The ribbon only has two connections, one back, at the end and one grey, in the middle.

Any help is very much appreciated and let me know what other info you need.

 

I am getting more confused.

The drive you are adding is a Maxtor 80 Gig that I can reason is IDE based on your description of the ribbon. You said your original drive is a 250 Gig SATA which makes sense based on the model of the computer. A SATA drive can not be connected to the ribbon you described so you will need to better define your hardware arrangement. The SATA drive can not be a slave or a master to anything.

What hardware exactly is connected to the ribbon with the black and gray ends?

 

At least I am not alone with being confused.

Here are my drives -

250 gig, western digital, model # wd2500bb and it does not say ata/sata/ide anywhere on the top sticker on the drive. It is a WD Caviar? I dont think this is a sata, that is what the description of the computer says because this has the very same ribbon jacks as the older Maxtor drive. So they are the same drive as far as how they connect to the ribbons.

The Maxtor drive says diamondmax plus 9, 80 gb ata/133. This drive hooks up the same as the WD drive. They just dont run right when I hook them up. The ribbon has only two connectors, black, at then end of the ribbon and grey, in the middle of the cable.

I had the black connector of the ribbon connected to the slave and the grey part connected to the master other wise the ribbon would be so twisted up.

so essentially they are the same drives but I can not get them run master and slave if i had to.

I hope that helped more.

 

First we'll define the requirements of the ribbon. The ribbon you described is an ATA 66/100/133 80 conductor ribbon. It does have, as you described, a gray connector in the middle and a black connector on the end. It also has a blue connector on the other end connected to the mainboard. With this ribbon you MUST connect the Master drive (the 250 in your case) to the black connector on the end and the Slave MUST connect to the gray connector in the middle. Install your drives as needed to accomplish this.

On the WD 250 gig drive, there should be a jumper on the pins closest to the power connection to enable Cable Select. There should be a diagram on top of the drive.

On the Maxtor 80 gig drive there should be a jumper on the second set of pins away from the ribbon connector to enable Cable Select. Again, there should be a diagram on top of the drive.

Just to confuse things, if you really want to assign the drives as Master and Save, you MUST set the Master as a "Master with Slave present" if you have a Slave connected. This is indicated on top of the drive but this is not necessary if you use the Cable Select option on both drives. With the ribbon you have, you still need to place the Master at the end of the ribbon.

 

Nothing has changed. I changed the hard drive placement to accommodate the new ribbon placement, done. Then I out the jumpers into place, just like you said. Turned on the computer, still the same. Only see's the slave drive in Disk Management.

Then I tried a few different hap hazard connections and jumper changed to '' accidentally '' get it to work. Of curse this did not work.

I am beyond frustrated. I am taking this seriously and doing just want you say and it is not working. I obviously am doing something wrong. Tell me what you need to know.

What do you think? Throw tower off the nearest bridge?

 

now the start up screen says, '' GRUB loading, please wait...error 17. "

Did I break this? I think I have everything so messed up now.......

 

shnerdly has tried to explain, but sometimes it can be difficult without pictures, when explaining to relatively new , or, novices with computers

......go back to.....................

"Nothing has changed. I changed the hard drive placement to accommodate the new ribbon placement, done. Then I out the jumpers into place, just like you said. Turned on the computer, still the same. Only see's the slave drive in Disk Management. "
Did you try to format the Linux hard drive from there (disc management)- right click in disk management hould show that option.?

I think these might help you
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AT_Attachment

Scroll down to........
Multiple devices on a cable
If two devices attach to a single cable, one must be designated as device 0 (commonly referred to as master) and the other as device 1 (slave). This distinction is necessary to allow both drives to share the cable without conflict. The master drive is the drive that usually appears "first" to the computer's BIOS and/or operating system. On old BIOSes (Intel 486 era and older), the drives are often referred to by the BIOS as "C" for the master and "D" for the slave following the way DOS would refer to the active primary partitions on each.
The mode that a drive must use is often set by a jumper setting on the drive itself, which must be manually set to master or slave. If there is a single device on a cable, it should be configured as master. However, some hard drives have a special setting called single for this configuration (Western Digital, in particular). Also, depending on the hardware and software available, a single drive on a cable can work reliably even though configured as the slave drive (this configuration is most often seen when a CD ROM has a channel to itself).

WESTERN DIGITAL HARD DRIVE SETTINGS
http://eshop.macsales.com/Tech/manuals/idehdsettings/WD72.pdf
Maxtor (now Seagate hard drive settings
http://www.seagate.com/staticfiles/...nstallation_guides/ata_installation_guide.pdf

 

I may be wrong here but if a hard drive has an ext2/ext3 Linux format on it windows will not be able
to see it?

I would run partition magic at this point as that can normally see drives the gods can't see, I know
this software is not everyones cup of tea but I've had a lot of success with it over the years.

 

I missed the point about "grub"- error 17- Looking it up, it seems that you have the grub loader installed, so that it would dual boot, with linux , and XP.
I am not a Linux man ( I only ever used the work from cd version to recover files)- :-o
It would appear that the grub loader needs to be removed, and my way of doing it would be to disconnect the Linux hard drive, and see if Windows boots o.k.
If it does,then , I would save any important documents to cd/usb stick, and then I would reboot, try pressing F11,as this model has a backup option, to bring the computer back to factory installation condition.(hence no ordinary backup XP disc) You would than follow the prompts to to have your computer back to factory condition-
If you used another partition manager, without knowing enough, the recovey partition might be lost. There is the possibility that his recovry partition is already ;ost, but if you are careful, it may still be there.
If it does not show, when pressing f11, at startup, we may have to try to undo the grub loader.

I would then deal seperately with the Linux hard drive

 

The problem with this idea is that grub generally overwrites the windows bootloader, or at least moves it, so that grub manages all boots. Therefore the removal of the Linux drive may:
1. not remove grub as it is in the boot sector on the other hard drive
2. cause the machine to fail to boot as the boot sector no longer exists

 

I can understand that, but if the bootloader is not on the Linux hard drive, then it might have booted- if not my suggestion, then, would be to download a bootable floppy of windows 98se,and try FIXBOOT, THEN FIXMBR.
As I said, my Linux knowledge is very limited, so, if you can lead him through from here collinsl, I would concur, and be pleased , as he seems to have been fighting this for a few days, that is why I kept looking back, as schnerdly was trying to help, and I feli voodoo3rd idea,might affect the recovery partition- he has not got an XP disc to run recovery

 

I fel that this thread should be transferred to the LINUX section of majorgeeks, as they are obviously more up to date than I am, and I would think a better, quicker solution will be found there.

 

I found my XP operating system disc that came with this computer! will this help?

The master drive has the xp and the slave has the linux (corrupted and does not fully boot)

I want xp on the master, 250 gig and the slave, 80 gig maxtor as storage/backup.

i deleted the partitions on the slave drive and now the computer wont boot at all. even when the master driver alone.

THANK YOU to everyone here in advance for your help! Should I use the operating system disc for xp?

 

You need to boot into the repair on the XP disk and run FIXBOOT and FIXMBR once you have disconnected the linux hard drive, as baklogic has said.

 

Ok, I will run the os disk and go from there. I have disconnected the slave drive, linux drive too. It looks like the first part of this OS disk is a recovery partition? I do not want t erase this hard drive.

How do I " run " FIXBOOT or FIXMBR? Is this done with cmd ?

Thanks.

 

When you boot into the XP disk, it will give you three options: install now (enter), repair install (R), exit (ESC). You need to choose R. This will open up a restricted version of DOS, just like the command line, from where you can run these commands.

 

The hidden partition on the XP harddrive should be the recovery partition.
If you follow collinsl, then,it should be accessible, if yo want to go back to factory condition, at some time.

 

The plot thickens. The XP disc that I have says '' operating system disc '' for reinstalling my OS.

When I start up, it has the R - to set up a recovery and Q - to boot from the disc and esc to quit. There is not an option for repair and I am not able to get a cmd line or see any version of DOS.

The R sets up a recovery partition and there as no other options there to repair.

I did the full system restore but it will still not boot. I am so frustrated.

 

Should I boot from the disc to get the system booted and then try to fix it?

 

Hi,
Can you boot into Windows?
Let me try and help you with this.

1. Turn the power on.
2. Start pressing F8.
3. When the selection menu appears, select boot into the DOS mode.
4. When you get the prompt, try entering "fdisk".

If you get "Unknown command", try booting into the DOS mode with CD-ROM support and put you original CD in. It should have an "fdisk".

This program should pick up whatever hard drives do you have on the system.

Thank you.

 

I can not boot into windows all.

When turn on the computer, it goes to the screen for boot menu or bios menu. If I boot from hard, F10, it goes to select a boot device. If I choose Hard disc, then it goes to the only drive and there is another selection that is called '' bootable add in cards '' ....

When I choose the hard drive it goes to the next screen which give me the '' Grub loading... error 21.

If I hit F8 at the start, it ends up here as well.

I can not boot into windows at all now. Probably because I deleted the partition that GRUB loader was in.

I have not idea where to go from here.

 

I suggest you research the XP F8 menu, as you will find there is no entry for "boot into DOS mode" or anything like it.

So what you appear to have is a recovery disk from your computer manufacturer, not a normal XP disk. Do you know of anyone you could borrow a normal XP disk from?

What happens when you press Q at that bootup menu for the disk?

 

Start with cd rom-- read this first--especially item 4.-4.Turn on the computer. When prompted to press R, press CTRL+BACKSPACE instead, to access the hidden Manufacturer Menu
CHOOSE 2- START RECOVERY PROGRAM ON CD/DVD

http://support.gateway.com/s/SOFTWARE/Medialess/MLXPH2/7515017su3.shtml


your spec

http://support.gateway.com/s/PC/R/1009151/1009151sp3.shtml

i HAVE NOT TRIED THIS ON THIS PARTICULAR MODEL, BUT IT SHOULD REINSTATE AS STATED- COME BACK IF IT WILL STIL NOT BOOT AFTER TRYING THIS.

 

Baklogic, I think that we are getting somewhere ! I like that secret hidden menu. I got to that point and if I choose 2 - start recovery disc, this takes me right back to where I either erase the hard drive or start a back up recovery.

CollinsI is right. This is not a normal boot disc it seems. I have an older copy of XP on disc, should I try that? I tried it before but it prompeded me that this version was too old to install cuz the xp I am running is a newer version.

On this hidden menu, I STILL have the Grub loader error BTW, there are a few interesting options;
erase the master boot record on driver 1
install ST master boot record
install master boot record

Should I try any of these?

It is this GRUB loader from Linux that is making me not able to boot. ugh.

 

I also have a Vista OS upgrade disc that come with this system that I could install over XP but then I have to use Vista and Vista sucks.

But if this fixes this I will do that.

 

Wow, what a night. I found a older XP disc and I am at the restore console page to repair my computer. I can't believe it. Ok, so i typed in fixboot and fixmbr twice each and everything confirmed to work for that but I am still not able to boot anything. So, I tried to run the repair function on the XP disc but now it is prompting me for an administrative password. If I have one, I don't remember it. I tried to just hit enter, default, and nothing worked.

How can I get past this? I don't have the password to get into the administrative part of the repair nor do I know how to find it or delete it.

I have come so far only to be road blocked again....we are almost there.

Any ideas?

 

Mr. Valen, have you tried the password "admin"? Just a thought.

 

Jimvalen70
Sorry I have only just come back on-line
I had to check it out, as none of the links on HP worked, and found this for you- should lead you right through it. I believe the only difference was it was F11 for your model, and not F10
http://www.computersurgeons.com/FAQs.aspx

 

I need my administrator password in order to log into the recovery console. I do not know what it is. How can I find out or change or delete this administrator password. I tried just '' enter '' and nothing.

If I can this done I can repair.

Any ideas anyone?

This is the exact screen that I am on -

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/fixtheproblem/ss/rconsole_5.htm

HELP!!!!!!!!!

 

If you still cannot get into XP, as if it will not allow a repair, and will not accept "enter", and you cannot remember the password, the only other way, as I understand it , is to be able to get into windows from safe mode, and changing it, but as you cannot get into it.....why not try,

As you have your original recovery cd, then I suggest you put it in the HP Recovery cd/dvd rom, and when starting follow the HP recovery : from the link
http://support.gateway.com/s/SOFTWARE/Medialess/MLXPH2/7515017su3.shtml
After the computer is turned off, disconnect all USB devices except the keyboard and mouse. This includes USB devices
such as a printer, scanner, removable storage, or camera.
Turn on the computer. When prompted to press R, press CTRL+BACKSPACE instead, to access the hidden Manufacturer Menu.
Note: Do not press R or the computer will start to the CD System Recovery.

Then as from
http://www.computersurgeons.com/FAQs.aspx

6. Select option <4> clear the partition table.

7. The following message appears: No Operating System Installed or Partition CorruptedPress "R" to perform a full system recovery. Do not press R. Instead, press and hold down ctrl, then press Backspace to bring up the Tools Menu.

8. Select option <5> erase the Master Boot Record of drive.

The following message may appear: No Operating System Installed or Partition Corrupted Press "R" to perform a full system recovery.
NOTE: If there are no partitions, the following message appears: No MBR or master boot record found.Continue using these steps.

Do not press R. Instead press and hold down ctrl, then press Backspace to bring up the Tools Menu.

Select option <6> wipe all sectors of drive.

An Erasing Hard Drive progress bar will appear. This process will take approximately from 15 minutes to over one hour, depending on the size of the hard drive.

When the hard drive is completely erased, the following message is displayed:

No Operating System Installed or Partition CorruptedPress "R" to perform a full system recovery

9. Press R to begin the automatic System Recovery process.

Other than trying that way, you need to know that the other XP disc that you have is the same version of XP, as is installed, (XP SP1, XPSP2- IT WOULD PROBABLY NOT BE THE sp3 VERSION- as it might not accept the COA that you have with the computer- if it will, no problem.-INSTALL A FRESH INSTALL OF xp FROM THAT DISC

 

Hello all,

I have tried so many things and it looks like XP is corrupted to the point where it no longer boot. So, I came to the conclusion that I am going to wipe both drives clean and reinstall windows. I bought an 500g external hard driver, WD elements. The problem is getting it to work. I cant get a clean version of windows to boot so I partitioned Ubuntu to run to get at least something to work. It did. But I am not sure if the external HD is working right. There were no instruction or anything. I want to make sure if have both drives backup on this external HD before I wipe them both clean. Any ideas on how to use the external and how to make sure it is all there.

Any recommendations?

 

Western digitalsite- click on the links to study-
http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc...185&p_cv=1.185&p_pv=3.289&p_prods=228,219,289 sCROLL TO BOTTOM OF PAGE, AND CLICK ON THE RELEVENT LINKS.
I hope you copied any data you wanted, before deleting the linux partitions, as I did not want you to delete them, until XP was running.
You can use the hard drive that you had Linux installed on to get a copy of XP onto, just set it as master- see previous post for settings on WD hard drivesor Vista might instal o.k on that hard drive, - as it has a different bootloader, and you could then connect the XP hard drive as a slave, and copy your data off the XP hard drive from the management console as explained on western digitals site.
If you cannot see it when ubunty is running then, I am sorry that I have not sufficient knowedge on ubunty/linux Systems- :-o other than saying, again put your queery in the Linux part of the site, I can only offer as I did previously-
Put in your recovery cd, and again, try to format and instal(choose the Q option that i understand will erase and re-instal as factory)
If it goes so far, but sticks, and you restart- try the recovery method, as I stated earlier , pressing CTRL+BACKSPACE ,
Then on the menu
1/ erase the master boot record on driver 1
2 / Then install master boot record
3/ Then "R" to perform a full system recovery

GOOD LUCK

 

Ok, I have backed up everyting on an external HD and slave drive, installed vista and life is good EXCEPT - I posted this on the networking thread as well,

Hello,

I just installed Vista over XP and no I get this error code/problem in device manager = other devices, Ethernet controller, unknown device. It has yellow error codes here. I know that the Ethernet card works because I can use it with ubuntu on my other drive.

When I attempt to get a connection or diagnose/repair I get, '' local area connection network cable unplugged ''. This exact configuration get me on line in 5 seconds with ubuntu Linux but not with windows vista. Everything with the new vista install works fine except the other devices in device manager. I cant get on line to download new drivers with that computer...any ideas?

Thanks.

 

YOU CAN DOWNLOAD FILES TO ANOTHER PC/LAPTOP, BURN TO CD/DVD, OR, SAVE TO A USB STICK, OR, TO YOUR OTHER BACKUPS, AND TRANSFER THEM THAT WAY TO THE GATEWAY

http://support.gateway.com/support/drivers/search.asp?st=pn&param=1009151

VISTA ETHERNET CONTROLLER DRIVERS.
http://search.support.gateway.com/i...0&text=Ethernet+controller+FOR+vISTA&x=12&y=5

You say you have a card, so if the controller is not on the motherboard, you will need to know its make, to decide on the driver
:major

Coincidently, if you 'upgraded' to Vista from XP, you can get your old files from the Windows Old folder, that you will see, when you look , as Vista will save all you old stuff, in a folder called windows old.

 

I still can not get the ethernet cards to work. I downloaded several drivers from Gateways site, other sites and nothing works. It results in code 1 and code 28 errors. I just can not get the drivers for these Ethernet cards, I am not running wireless, cable modem. Obvious works fine with this computer.

I have tried to download every driver on the entire internet with no luck. Now I have a few Ethernet cards that I have swapped in and out to see if one will work, neither of them will. Since this is vista and these cards are about 5 years old, maybe there is not a driver for them? For the last 2 hours I have trying to find a driver that work, nothing.
Could these cards get damaged by a virus - removal?
These cards work with Ubuntu but not vista....should I get a new '' vista ready '' Ethernet card?

 

According to Gteway, that model has Integrated 10/100 Ethernet LAN

http://www.ask.com/bar?q=GT5220,&pa...Jw3tKmWx4+zgIKg3sGpD2BIfUU=&tsp=1277029896144
http://majorgeeks.com/download4181.html
otherwise, if you use Everest (download from majorgeeks)

to see what the card is, then here are links to manufacturers that might help.

Intel
http://mysearch.intel.com/corporate...0&value=0&searchsubmit.x=25&searchsubmit.y=11
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Sea...t=Intel®+82599+10+Gigabit+Ethernet+Controller


Realtek
http://www.realtek.com/

http://www.ask.com/bar?q=realtek+et...frsJ4gmZI9UDDI7PeGxJnP0td8=&tsp=1277031740196


broadcom
http://www.ask.com/bar?q=Pci+Ethern...QELqEI3R7aFpABxVuWR0CGubB0=&tsp=1277031572288

 

This is the exact pop up that I get that had been the main roadblock - I put the screen shot as an attachment here. I have looked and looked for the driver for this and have not been able to find anything that WORKS.

This seems like the only thing that I need to get on line. Device is -

Kingston EtherRx KNE111TX PCI Fast Ethernet Adapter.