Slave drive not assigned drive letter

I hope I'm not breaking any rules here, I have already posted this inside someone elses post but thought it need it's own thread. I hope this is the correct place to post this. Sorry for the length.

For years I have had an 80GB Western digital HD as my primary drive and a 40GB Western digital HD as my slave drive. Although the slave drive had Win 98SE installed, I was able to access the slave drive without a problem. I decided to have a HD dedicated to Video Editing so, I recently place my original HD into an enclosure to share a bay/mount with another 80 GB Western Digital in the same brand enclosure (to use as the editing HD). I still have the 40GB Western Digital HD as the slave. The video editing HD (new HD) has Windows XP Home with it's own CD Key. The primary HD (original HD that worked fine before) that shares the enclosure bay and has the original Windows XP Home with the original CD Key.

After installing the OS on the new Video Edit HD, I am able to access the slave drive (which always had and still retained the drive letter (D. When I shut down the computer and replace the new Video Edit HD with the original HD, everything appears to boot correctly, but I am unable to access the slave drive. There is no drive letter. I went to the Disk Mgmnt tool and the slave drive is recognized as (no drive letter) Disk 1, [volume] JOHNS40GB, [layout] Partition, [type] Basic, [File System] Fat32, [Status] Healthy (active), [capacity] 37.26GB, [free space] 14.91, [%free] 40%, [fault tolerance] no, [overhead] 0%. All of this appears to be normal and is the same as when the Vid Edit HD is booted-up (except there is the (D behind of JOHNS40GB).

I began having this problem after my oldest kid installed the Google Earth program. It has since been uninstalled. I tried the simple right click onto the JOHNS40GB but the only option I'm given is to delete partition. Obviously the problem is with the Windows XP on this HD and not the slave drive. Is there any way of forcing the computer to recognized the slave as a specific drive? I'm afraid of losing the information from the 80gb or the 40GB. Any help is appreciated.

Thanks John

 

Go back into Disk Management and right click on the problematic drive. If there's an option to "import foreign disk", do so and see if that solves it.

 

TheDoug,
I attempted to do just that prior to posting. The problem is the options: [Open], [Explore], [Mark Partition as Active], [Change Drive Letter and Paths], and [Properties] are all grey'd. The only options available to me are [Delete Partition] and [Help] (which is no help). Like I said, I'm able to access the slave drive perfectly through the other HD. Any other ideas or utilities to get it done? The only thing I haven't tried yet is, I haven't attempted to do a repair on windows. I'm afraid I'll loose my data. Any thoughts?

John

 

Have you ever previously used a program called GoBack with the problematic drive?

 

Yes, but the last time I erased this HD and reinstalled the programs I installed NSW 2006 but did not install the Go-Back option. I did try to use XP's restore option, but it said that the slave HD drive (in this case it has always been E had not been included in the restore points and will not be restored. Thanks for your help, any more ideas? I'm still perplexed.

 

Hmm. Well, the thinking on the GoBack was that a program such as it had modified the MBR on the problem drive where it was previously installed. Returning it to that installation and removing GoBack, hence un-modifying the MBR, would let Windows in the new installation happily recognize it. That hiccup about system restore not being available makes me lean towards digging further into the NSW.

 

If I've read your post correctly, jh3463, the 40GB drive is accessible when slaved to your 80GB WD drive, but not when it's slaved to the Video Edit HD. That makes me wonder if the Video Edit HD was correctly jumpered to provide for a slave drive.

Most hard drives I've seen lately use the same jumper setting for "single drive" and "master/slave present" -- but I've seen some that had to have the jumper setting changed if you added a slave.

Either that, or we need some more information about the enclosure you're using for the Video Edit HD and your old 80GB drive. How are these connected to your system? Which one is the primary master in that hookup? Are you using the secondary IDE channel?

 

Rob M,
Thanks for your help, In fact you have it reversed, I can access the 40GB HD from the Video Edit HD that is in a removable enclosure. The original HD (which is the one I use primarily) is also in an enclosure of the same brand (Comp USA brand enclosure). They change places with each other utilizing the Comp USA mounting bay. Both HDs inside the enclosures are the same brand and size and the jumper settings are the same. The mounting bay is attached to the IDE1 port at the end of the ribbon cable and the 40GB HD is attached to the middle of the same cable. This set-up has worked in the past, although, I have a new MB now. Still, that doesn't explain why one HD can access the slave and the other cannot.

Still perplexed!!
John

 

Thanks, jh3463 -- but I'm still confused. Maybe I'm being dense, but I'm not getting the picture. Maybe you can draw one for me. Some questions that might help:

• Are you using the mounting enclosures to swap masters or slaves? Or both?
• How many drives are you using as masters?
• You have two 40GB drives you're using as slaves. Is that correct?
• How is each drive jumpered?

I'll have some more questions when I have the answers to the above. You might want to consider re-describing your situation using a specific name for each drive every time you refer to it. For each drive you name, give us a brief description of the drive that includes its make and size, how it is jumpered, and what position on the IDE cable it occupies.

 

Qu. Are you using the mounting enclosures to swap masters or slaves? Or both? An. Masters.

Qu. How many drives are you using as masters? An. Two, but not at the same time. I am swapping the masters, after I shutdown the system, utilizing the enclosures. Basically, the master HDs are removable.

Qu. You have two 40GB drives you're using as slaves. Is that correct? An. No, just one. The slave drive is internal and does not remove.

Qu. How is each drive jumpered? An. The mounting bay is attached to the ribbon cable at the first port. It is there that the removable masters are swapped. Each master HD is an 80GB Western Digital and is jumpered as the Master. The slave drive is a Western Digital 40GB HD and is attached to the ribbon cable at the middle port. It is jumpered as the slave. The ribbon cable is attached to the MB at the IDE1 connector.

So you know, the IDE2 connector is being utilized by the DVD Burner without any problems.

To recap:
1) I'm trying to access a slave drive (which has Windows 98SE installed and is a Western Digital 40GB jumpered as slave) through my primary HD, which has Windows XP Home (the primary HD is a Western Digital 80GB jumpered as master, inside an enclosure). The BIOS and Disk Manager show the slave drive as being there and healthy but there is no drive letter assigned to the slave drive. I am unable to assign a drive letter due to all options (except [delete partition] being grey'd out.
2) I just clean installed Windows XP Home (a new OEM version) on another Western Digital HD (this is the Video Edit HD). I jumpered this drive as master and placed that HD into the same type of enclosure as the primary HD.
3) Both the primary HD and the Video Edit HD share one mounting bay. The slave is non-removable.
4) When I shut down the computer and switch the enclosures, then boot to the Video Edit HD, I am able to access the slave drive perfectly, without problems.
5) Both the BIOS and the Disk Manager show the same information as before, except nothing is grey'd out when I right-click on the slave HD.
6) I'm trying to save the files on the slave, so I don't want to delete the partition and start over.
7) I don't really want to clean install Windows XP Home on the Primary HD if I don't have to (that is such a pain in my ...neck!)

Hope this helps.

John

 

I have found out that different hard drives (different mfr.s) require different jumper settings for the slave drive. One may require the jumper in the Slave position and another may require it to be in the Cable Select position for the second drive to be recognized..

You'll have to try each to see which works with your new hard drive.

Crash

 

crash38n,
All HDs in question are the same manufacturer and have the same slave and master position requirements.

 

I wasn't talking about Slave and Master jumper positions but Slave to Cable Select and/or vice versa. And I know what I'm talking about because I had to make those changes on several different computers to get the PCs to recognize the new, second hard drives.

Crash

 

Thanks for drawing a nice clear picture for me, jh3463. It really helps.

You said, "The mounting bay is attached to the ribbon cable at the first port." From the context and other information supplied, I assume "first port" means the end of the ribbon cable. That's as it should be for a master drive on an 80-conductor ultra-ATA IDE cable. If that's not the way it is, that may be contributing to your problem.

Crash38n offers an observation that may be valid, though I would have expected that the slave would not be visible to the BIOS if it were incorrectly jumpered. But if you're using an 80-conductor IDE cable, try jumpering both drives on that channel as CS (cable select), and making sure that the master is connected at the middle of the cable and the slave is at the end.

(The CS option was intended to simplify drive installation for assemblers. The idea is to jumper both drives as CS, and designate master and slave by their position on the cable. The old 40-conductor IDE cables often didn't have the break in line 28 between the middle and end connectors on the cable that the cable-select feature depends on, but the 80-line cables generally have that break. That's why the 80-line cables usually label the connectors as "motherboard", "master", and "slave". At boot-up, the drive that sees line 28 as an open circuit will set itself up as the slave. The other drive will get signals from the IDE controller on line 28, and will set itself up as master.)

A side note. You mention that the 40GB slave has Windows 98SE on it. That shouldn't make any difference. You're not trying to boot from that drive. The partition that Win 98SE is on will be marked "active", but I've never had that get in the way of accessing it as a slave drive.

Given all of the above, I'm inclined to think you may have been right in your first post -- there may be something wonky about the Win XP installation on the first 80GB drive. Win XP is not my strong suit -- anyone else out there want to step in from here?

 

Thanks for all your help!

Crash,
According to the all Western Digital documents that came three HDs and the tech-support at Western Digital, the jumper settings for these HDs souls be: Master and Slave. They said that the slave HD wouldn't show up in the BIOS if is was hooked up incorrect. Also they said that the slave drive, if jumpered incorrectly, may even keep the computer from booting correctly. Also, I'm reluctant to switch the jumpers on the slave drive as I am able to access it from my other primary drive. I appreciate your thoughts. Thanks!

Rob M,
I think I've exhausted the brain bank. I'm off work today and I'll spend the day backing up some info on the troubled drive and performing a repair. Wish me luck.

John

 

Just googled in with an enclosure problem and this fixed it.

Nice one you, you bunch of solid, proper geeks

 

I understand, but I don't have the option. It's grey'd out.

 

Ok, I may be wrong here.. but if your slave drive has a win 98 format on it (fat32 file system) and you're trying to hook it up with your master which is running win xp (NTFS file system) its not going to recognize your slave because they are different file systems no?

 

Nevermind, I'm thinking if the situation were reversed a win 98 master drive wouldn't recognize a win xp slave. Sorry

 

jh3463 Did you say you just added a new Mobo?
If so did you install all the drivers that came with the mobo?
Im assuming you did, but i know that on mine (Gigabyte) there was a driver for IDE. Check to see if there was a disk that came with it. might be on there.

 

you may also have to install the drivers on both masters.