Reinstall XP - 2nd HD issues

[Matty D]

Well I have decided to reinstall windows XP in a quest to track down a problem.

In doing so I have backed up all my important info on my 500gb sata drive that was in the system. I had a second 160gb sata as my OS drive, again was in the system already.

So I changed no hardware etc. just to be clear.

Reinstalled windows XP (not with SP2 as the disk is anceint). Then proceded to do all my windows updates. I only had the 160gb drive hooked up during the installation, format etc.

It now shows the second drive as two partions - though not the correct ones that were on it and to access the drive it is asking me to format it :help:

I checked in the BIOS and the drive shows up fine there, proper size etc.

How can I get the access to the second drive without formating it? Do I need to start from scratch with a slip streamed version of XP SP2 for this to work?

Thanks for any help or assistance for my n00bish problem

[Matty D]

UPDATE:

I tried using the console and the "diskpart" or "disklist" commands to rescan and identify the drives, where it identifies my 500gb as disk 0 and my 160gb as disk 1. I then tried switching to disk 0 which worked but when I used the command to import this disk into my system it said that it was not part of a group that could be imported

So here I sit still, not wanting to continue installing things if I'm going to need to start over? Some people have mentioned in other posts about needing to install SATA drivers during windows install, something I didn't do but both drives were viable options for an install as they showed up all be it as only 130GB drives instead of there true sizes. The strange thing is I built this system in the spring with the same hardware (different video card) and had no issues.

Any other thoughts on

[Matty D]

UPDATE:

I tried using the console and the "diskpart" or "disklist" commands to rescan and identify the drives, where it identifies my 500gb as disk 0 and my 160gb as disk 1. I then tried switching to disk 0 which worked but when I used the command to import this disk into my system it said that it was not part of a group that could be imported

So here I sit still, not wanting to continue installing things if I'm going to need to start over? Some people have mentioned in other posts about needing to install SATA drivers during windows install, something I didn't do but both drives were viable options for an install as they showed up all be it as only 130GB drives instead of there true sizes. The strange thing is I built this system in the spring with the same hardware (different video card) and had no issues.

Any other thoughts on how I can at least retrieve the data and format the drive as a last ditch option?

[sswilson]

I'm wondering if the problems are related to the fact that the original drive is also a main boot drive. It's been a while since I had to deal with an issue like this so I'm not positive, but doesn't the Seagate HDD tools allow you to change it from a main boot partition?

[3 of 7]

Did you get SP3 as one of your updates? If not, manually download it and install,then hook up the second drive.

[Matty D]

Originally Posted by sswilson

I'm wondering if the problems are related to the fact that the original drive is also a main boot drive. It's been a while since I had to deal with an issue like this so I'm not positive, but doesn't the Seagate HDD tools allow you to change it from a main boot partition?

I will have to try that. The 160gb was always and still is the main boot or is that what you mean?

yes I believe I have sp3 but will double check.

Thanks, hope to solve soon

[Shadowmeph]

ok I am confused , which drive is which ? is XP installed on the first drive? also sometimes you can use a Linux live cd to have access to all of your drives that way you can move things around you just have to know the proper commands. also what do you mean by windows not showing the second drives proper partitions? do you mean the names like D:,E: and the like? all of this can be changed using the computer management that is in the administration tools

[enaberif]

In windows in the drive management area what does it list the drives as?

They are usually either Basic or Dynamic.

[Matty D]

Originally Posted by enaberif

In windows in the drive management area what does it list the drives as?

They are usually either Basic or Dynamic.

Ok here we go one more time. The 160gb is sata, was the what XP was installed on, decided to re-install after several months of using system on this same disk. Put in XP disk and did a quick format and re-install of windows (though drive showed up as only 130gb), XP is up and running.

500gb drive was a data drive, was part of system, when I went to re-install XP I had this drive connected, it showed up as a viable option to install XP on however it showed up as only 130gb, BEFORE INSTALLING XP I physically disconnected the 500gb drive to ensure I would not overwrite it, then proceded to plug it back in and try to access it in XP.

I think that clarifies things?

Step two:

In windows in the drive management area what does it list the drives as?

They are usually either Basic or Dynamic.

The drive shows up as E:128GB Partition, Healthy (active vs, system for 160gb drive) type: Basic (same as 160gb) File system blank (160gb is NTFS) and there is 337.76BG unallocated.

This drive should have a G: partion with about 200gb and an F: partition with abouth 280gb, both with needed healthy files (prior to re-install)

The one thing I need to try is to re-name the drive letters to the proper names, however I can't select F: as an option, need to figure that out.

I can only partition, delete partition, change drive name and path and format, no other options.

I'm rather confused and stumpped. I don't know what to do and can't afford to loose the data.

[Shadowmeph]

Originally Posted by Matty D

Ok here we go one more time. The 160gb is sata, was the what XP was installed on, decided to re-install after several months of using system on this same disk. Put in XP disk and did a quick format and re-install of windows (though drive showed up as only 130gb), XP is up and running.

500gb drive was a data drive, was part of system, when I went to re-install XP I had this drive connected, it showed up as a viable option to install XP on however it showed up as only 130gb, BEFORE INSTALLING XP I physically disconnected the 500gb drive to ensure I would not overwrite it, then proceded to plug it back in and try to access it in XP.

I think that clarifies things?

Step two:


The drive shows up as E:128GB Partition, Healthy (active vs, system for 160gb drive) type: Basic (same as 160gb) File system blank (160gb is NTFS) and there is 337.76BG unallocated.

This drive should have a G: partion with about 200gb and an F: partition with abouth 280gb, both with needed healthy files (prior to re-install)

The one thing I need to try is to re-name the drive letters to the proper names, however I can't select F: as an option, need to figure that out.

I can only partition, delete partition, change drive name and path and format, no other options.

I'm rather confused and stumpped. I don't know what to do and can't afford to loose the data.

ok the first thing you need to do is see which is what C: is usually you first HD, D: is usually ( but not always) your cd/dvd drive this also depends on how many partitions you have on C: , I ran into a simular problem I have two drives and a DVDR drive what I did was I changed the second hard drive letter to B: ( that was because it is free) then I renamed most of my partions acoprding to the way I wanted them I did all of this Via admin COmputer management storage disk management, OS I am running is WInXP x64 pro so I am not sure if you can do this on WIndows XP