Re-installed XP hdd D: and E: gone

[Barryboy]

Had XP Pro installed on C: also a hdd D: and E: for data had a few problems with my C: drive so formatted C: and re-installed XP Pro I can no longer find either D: or E: I have tried rescan on disk management and diskpart but no joy.

[Guest Wolfeymole]

This sounds like D: and E: were partitions on the drive.

 

Do you you have any other physical drives?

 

If not you must have formatted the whole drive.

[Barryboy]

No sorry these were both seperate drives I had three hard disk drives and a CD and DVD all worked fine until I re-installed XP

 

Re-reading this I feel I need to explain I have three physical drives plus two optical drives

Edited October 6, 2008 by Barryboy

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Are they listed in the bios on boot up, if it flashes by too fast then hit (usually) Del to access it and have a look.

[Barryboy]

My bios start up screen does not seem to have changed but I will try it again as i does flash through quite quick

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Let us know what you see Barry please.

[Barryboy]

When I press delete it just goes into the bios, years ago you could press (I think) either scroll lock or pause but that does not seem to work anymore. I'm getting far to old for this. Wife is screaming tea is ready back in a while

[Guest Wolfeymole]

:D Get back to us when you can Barry.

 

Wives :confused:

[Dalo Harkin]

You will have to initialise the disks:-

Go to control panel, click admin settings, then computer management, and then disk management on the left hand side.

It will then list your disks and you need to right click on the ones you want to activate and click activate - they will then show in My Computer where you can access.

[Barryboy]

Both the disks show up on boot up I have looked in device manager and I have a error (Other devices/raid controller) I have tried putting my XP disk back in and updating drivers but it does not find them. When I re-installed XP it asked me to press (I think) f6 to load raid drivers but I didn't. I am sure this is my problem If nobody can point me in the right direction on how to load these drivers then I will have to re-format and install again, a pain as I then have to download sp2 and sp3 again from the internet. As for the disk manager I have been there and they do not show up as far as windows is concerned they do not exist

[Dalo Harkin]

unfortunately yes - as you mention when it says press F6 this does have to be done on Windows XP.

make sure that you do have the drivers available before you do the reinstall

[Barryboy]

This is a old computer at least 6 years maybe 8. I have re-installed windows on here before but can not remember when, but I am sure I did not have to install drivers from else where Everything came off the XP disk still I might be wrong as its so long ago. To be on the safe side I seem to remember a program called sandra that would tell you what you had on your computer to find out what motherboard I have and download the drivers I need

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Well this must have been one the first sata enabled boards out at that age Barry, I'm assuming it has to be sata as I've never seen a board with more that 2 IDE connectors.

 

You must have sata on there as it's physically impossible to connect 5 drives to 2 IDE connections.

[Barryboy]

Well this must have been one the first sata enabled boards out at that age Barry, I'm assuming it has to be sata as I've never seen a board with more that 2 IDE connectors.

 

You must have sata on there as it's physically impossible to connect 5 drives to 2 IDE connections.

 

Funny you should say that Wow is this going to be long

 

About 2 years ago I was talking to the local computer shop and he said the same thing yet I have. When I bought it approx 6-8 years ago I wanted it set up as a raid 0 system but for whatever reason it was not when I picked it up and talked to the tech he said it would take another couple of days to do it. I could not wait so took it as it was ie C: and D: both maxtor 60 gb drives a few years later I got a virus I could not seem to cure it so I added another drive 120 gb and disconnected the two 60 gb drives then about two years ago I thought todays virus checkers should cure this so conected the 60gb drives up as D and E no problems everything has worked great. I really think its the raid thing

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Ok

 

It seems to me that's what happened here is that initially the guy from the shop installed the raid/sata drivers and now you have reformatted they need reinstalling.

 

Do you still have the floppy disk to install them from, did he give you the disk?

 

If not then I doubt with the age of that board that you will now be able to get that driver.

 

I'm also assuming that you have IDE connectors on the board, would this be correct?

[Barryboy]

I have downloaded SiSoftware Sandra and scanned my computer with it, It tells me I have a Gigabyte GA-7VAXP motherboard I have visited Gigabyte's site and my motherboard is listed with a pile of drivers for it I am in work at the momment so have downloaded the raid drivers to a pen drive and will load them when I get home it may not be tonight as I have to take the family for a meal. Gigabyte also gives a option to scan your computer and install any up dates for you I may even try that? Anyway I will let you know how I get on

[Barryboy]

I loaded up the raid drivers the error message went from devise manager, thought I would have to reboot and then initilise the hard disks went in to my computer just in case and they were both there. All up and running couldn't belive I didn't even have to re-boot.

 

Thank you very much for your help my next project is to build a new computer I was going to buy one from overclockers for nearly £2,500 but looking at advice on here I think I'll save myself a small fortune

[Dalo Harkin]

Glad its all sorted and please feel free to ask about a build