Windows XP Setup Cannot Recognize My 80GB IDE Hard Drive Correctly

SBMForLife

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Jun 22, 2012
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10,510
Okay so it goes like this... I have one 10GB hard drive which works really well with the 80GB hard drive... Currently on it.

And I have another 20GB hard drive but when I try to install Windows XP on that, on the Format screen where you see the partitions available I see the 20GB hard drive but that 80GB hard drive is recognized as *UKNOWN PARTITION* and displays no details. Only sees size but really weird way... It also says 0 MB is free...

Completely opposite when I plug in 10GB hard drive. Everything works fluently...

I installed Windows XP on 20GB hard drive and when it loads, I see no 80gb hard drive in My Computer.

I tried to disable sata configuration in Bios but it doesn't help, because it also disables my atapi CD Rom..


Please help me out. I've been searching for the solution and can't find one...

Everything is plugged in correctly... Pins, etc...


JUST WEIRD PROBLEM MANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN !! :non: :non: :non: :non:
 
UKNOWN PARTITION means it is not a file system windows can see. Was the drive used for linux or another operating system in the past. Is this a new drive or second hand?

When in windows on the 10 or 20gig you can just partition or even remove the unknown partition from the 80g drive in disk management.

-Hit Start
-Run
-type or copy and past "diskmgmt.msc" without the ""
Enter

From this section you should be able to remove this Unknown Partition. Please note that if you are using that unknown partition for ANYTHING. this will erase it. So make sure you are only messing with the 80g drive.

Hope this helps.
 

SBMForLife

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Jun 22, 2012
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10,510
80GB is formatted as NTSC.

The Drive wasn't used for linux or something. Always for XP... It was always a disk drive that I've laid back on. I have my most important files there and never had a problem with it before. Use it fluently. I cannot remove it or erase it. I need to somehow revive it... I'm using it really well, even right now when I'm on 10GB hard drive.

I don't want to remove it... I just want it to be seen... Any other ideas?
 

It would be NTFS :) NTSC is a TV standard

What did disk management show the drive as? Was the drive ever encrypted or anything? Did you ever use a tool to make it bootable on older systems that could not read an 80gig drive(easybios ect)?
 

SBMForLife

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Jun 22, 2012
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10,510
Yeah lol it's NTFS. Misspelled most likely.

Well I never used any of the tools but I could have done something in the Disc Management I don't remember, honestly. But I definitely didn't use any tools/software...

Okay so here's what it says in the disk management..

It is displayed as simply nothing. "Foreign Disk Drive"... I can make it Basic Drive but it warned me it's gonna delete everything on it... I have some valuable files and can't do that for now...

What would be the ideal decision? Get those files on the flash drive (total of 5GB would be enough) and make that partition a basic disk? :)
 
Has this drive always been on that computer?

You are in a very strange situation here.

converting to basic of ANY format will erase the disk.

Now software like Recuva can attempt to restore data, but i am not sure how it will work in this case. The problem here is that you would most likely have to quick format the drive to even try. A quick format just tells the drive it is empty but does not erase all the data. This should allow software recovery. The problem is, that if for any reason the drive was encrypted or anything like that, recovery will NOT work.

Lets keep this as a last option.
http://www.piriform.com/recuva

Can we get some more info about the system(as much as you can even model numbers may help) in use and any other systems used with the drive. As much info as you can provide.
 

SBMForLife

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Jun 22, 2012
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10,510
No it was brand new when I first bought it. I had no problems with it as I've mentioned. Always been on XP. I see it during Windows XP installation only when 10GB is plugged... When 20GB is plugged this happens... It cannot be displayed correctly in the setup..

I have a DVD-RW. All the valuable files I have weigh-ins of total 4.5GB, but DVD-RW offers 4.7 GB free space. I will most likely write those files to DVD-RW and keep them there. Then I will try to convert that Foreign Disk Drive to a Basic Drive...

It will erase all data but at least it will work, at least I'll see the drive when I'm using 10gb hard drive disk...

That's all I want for now..

Once I do this, I'll install Windows 7 on the 20gb hard drive and this will be my primary hdd.

The other one will be 80gb one, where I will import all the valuable files, by then kept on my DVD-RW...


I guess it's the last solution. My purpose here is to make the duo of HDDs work, I can manage files, no worries...

Will that changing to basic drive work? I hope I won't get an error or something like "Cannot recognize hard Drive" lol..
 
Just to make sure I have this all right.

You have 3 drives
10gig
20gig
80gig

10 + 80 works?
20 + 80 makes the drive not detected?

This is ALL IDE.

If the drives are(well 2 at a time) on the same cables, it may be worth making sure that the drives are setup right. I sure hope you are also using an 80 pin cable(normal IDE cables are 40 pin, they both have 40 holes per plug, but the 80 pin cable just has more wires).

For an image of the 80 pin cable please see here. The page even covers jumpering the drives too :) But blue is board not hard drive, thats for sure.
http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1778&page=3

Cable Blue = Board
Cable Grey = Slave make sure this drive is Jumpered to Slave and not Cable Select
Cable Black = Master Make sure this drive is Master not CS.

If you can see the 80 with the 10 installed, use that 10 gig + 80 to get all your data off that drive before trying anything else(Burning to DVD's is a good option).
 

SBMForLife

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Jun 22, 2012
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10,510
Yeah that's correct...

Thanks for the info but everything is being plugged in correctly... No mistakes :( Still not detected..

I will use that 10g+80 combination to get files off the hard drive...

Thanks for the assistance and I will keep u updated for sure what happens next!