Weird Computer Problem

[Astral Fridge Magnet]

Hello,

Something really weird on my PC is happening. I have two hard drives installed, but when I look inside my computer it only sees the C drive and not the D drive. However, in device manager both drives show up and when I troubleshooted it says that the drives are working normally. Yet it is as if the D drive is not there.
Could somebody please help!!!!

Thanks

[Nestor]

How many discs in total do you have?

How many partitions exactly?

Do you have a double D letter, like it sometimes happens? I mean, are you sure your CD driver is not D as well? I’ve seen this problem before.

[Astral Fridge Magnet]

How many discs in total do you have?

How many partitions exactly?

Do you have a double D letter, like it sometimes happens? I mean, are you sure your CD driver is not D as well? I’ve seen this problem before.

I have two hard drives- C and D. Plus I have a DVD Reeder and DVD writer. My DVD player (CD player) is definitely not my D drive.

I have no partitions on either the C or D drive. I never have (and probably never will). My C drive is 80 GB and my D drive is 200 Gb.

I recently did a diskwipe of both drives with Norton G disk, but I don't think that is the problem. As I said my C drive shows up in My computer and not my D drive, but both show up in Device Manager. I can't figure out why.

I thought maybe because I wiped my drives that i may have wiped partition data, but as I said my C drive appeared.

Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Astral Fridge Magnet]

Hello again,

Well at least now I seem to be getting closer to solving the problem. It seem that there must be something I have to do in Disk Management.
However can anyone "talk me through" what I have to do for the drive to be recognised (rather, seen in My Computer). At least in Disk Management I see the D drive that should be there.

Phew!!! I was starting to panic.

I would appreciate it if someone could explain what I need to do.

Thanks

[garyb]

did you partition the d drive, and more importantly, did you format it?

[Astral Fridge Magnet]

did you partition the d drive, and more importantly, did you format it?

Thanks for the response.

I recently did a disk wipe of my drives. Since then I haven't formatted the D drive, but I didn't format my C drive either, however that shows up.

However, a dumb question now- how do I format a drive I can't actually access just yet. In Disk Management I see that the second drive is unallocated. Do I have to convert it to "Dynamic Disk"?

By the way I prefer not to partition my drives if I don't need to.

Thanks

[garyb]

even if there is only one, there must be a partition. the partition is the framework that the filesystem will exist in when the disk is formatted. when the os is installed, the installer first partitions and then formats the disk. formatting is writing the file structure to the disk, the partition is the known, marked space on the disk where the file structure is written.

if the disk is already partitioned(even if there is only one), then you can right-click on the drive in "my computer" or explorer and choose "format". there you will be able to name the drive if you wish(maybe you want to give the drive a name like "tape" or "stuff"). when i install an os, i always do a full format. the full format writes the file structure and then fills all the storage areas up with zeros. this insure a truly fresh slate. for your d drive, you can probably just do a "quick format" which is very quick. it will only write the file structure.

after the format, you will be able to access the drive for storing data.

[Astral Fridge Magnet]

even if there is only one, there must be a partition. the partition is the framework that the filesystem will exist in when the disk is formatted. when the os is installed, the installer first partitions and then formats the disk. formatting is writing the file structure to the disk, the partition is the known, marked space on the disk where the file structure is written.

if the disk is already partitioned(even if there is only one), then you can right-click on the drive in "my computer" or explorer and choose "format". there you will be able to name the drive if you wish(maybe you want to give the drive a name like "tape" or "stuff"). when i install an os, i always do a full format. the full format writes the file structure and then fills all the storage areas up with zeros. this insure a truly fresh slate. for your d drive, you can probably just do a "quick format" which is very quick. it will only write the file structure.

after the format, you will be able to access the drive for storing data.

Once again thanks for the respone GaryB.

However, I am unsure what I have to do. In Disk Management I see the D Drive as unallocated. First of all what would happen if I the convert the drive to dynamic? Would that make the drive "visible"?
I have right clicked on it and I see the option to create a partition. Then I get the choice of "primary" or "extended" partition. I have no idea which one I have to choose (if any). As I have said, I have never ever before created partitions on my drives. I prefer not to. As I also said, I didn't create a partition in the C Drive, but that appeared automatically (well actually after I restored an image of a basic install-so maybe a partition already existed in that image, hence why I can see it).

So any chance of a step by step explanation ( with idiot proof instructions) of how I go about this please? Sorry to be a nuisance!!!

Thanks

[garyb]

it'll be the only partition, so make it primary.

i usually use the windows installer or the manufacturerer's software to prtition, so i can't give you a perfect step by step.

i am assuming that this is a new drive. it is unallocated because no part of it is ready to accept files for storage. go ahead and choose partition and follow the steps, you can't really break it. then format. the software will do the rest.

[Astral Fridge Magnet]

it'll be the only partition, so make it primary.

i usually use the windows installer or the manufacturerer's software to prtition, so i can't give you a perfect step by step.

i am assuming that this is a new drive. it is unallocated because no part of it is ready to accept files for storage. go ahead and choose partition and follow the steps, you can't really break it. then format. the software will do the rest.

Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!That was a quick response!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Actually the drive technically speaking isn't new. It's just that I wiped both drives (using Gisk) reducing them to zeroes. Doing so obviously also obliterated the existence of the D drive at least. So from what I understand, creating a partition means that it will then come into existence (so to speak) and then I can see it and use it?

Thanks yet again !!!!

[Astral Fridge Magnet]

By the way, shouldn't Windows have detected the D drive anyway, seeing that if I plug in an external Hard Drive that is detected and "visible" in My Computer?

[garyb]

no.
until there is a partition, then there's nothing to detect. until there's a format, there can be no storage.

the external drive has already been partitioned and formatted. the external drive is strictly for use with a windows computer and has an "xp compatible" logo. the internal drive might be bought for use with any os or system, the manufaturers don't know, so you have to do the job yourself.

[kylie]

I recently did a diskwipe of both drives with Norton G disk, but I don't think that is the problem.

why don't you? do you really know what norton gdisk does?

a short passage from the GDisk description:

"G Disk provides command-line partitioning with more functionality than FDISK. G Disk allows you to completely erase a hard drive with a safe, thorough wipe."

I don't really know why you still can see your drive C: , unless you installed windows again from scratch afterwards...

but maybe you did that, ok. then windows assigns c: to the drive you install it on (that's why you see it). wiping an entire disk mean you overwrite everything, including master boot record and partition table. no partition table - no partition - no drive letter.

if you start the drive management, were you asked to initialize the empty drive (that means, windows wants to write some information to the drive) ?

you can (if you intended the complete erase before) sure re-create a partition (primary is fine) and format it. only then a new drive letter will be created. if your optical drive has (and I assume that) already the letter d: then change it to something else before formatting.

-greetings, markus-

[Astral Fridge Magnet]

Hello,

First of all, thanks for the help and explanations to all concerned. The second hard drive is back after sorting things out in Disk Management. So I created a primary partition and it formatted and voila!!

I recently did a diskwipe of both drives with Norton G disk, but I don't think that is the problem.

why don't you? do you really know what norton gdisk does?

a short passage from the GDisk description:

"G Disk provides command-line partitioning with more functionality than FDISK. G Disk allows you to completely erase a hard drive with a safe, thorough wipe."

I don't really know why you still can see your drive C: , unless you installed windows again from scratch afterwards...

Well, I do know what Gdisk does (superficially I suppose) in that it wipes your drive completely. The reason I saw my C drive afterwards is because I actually restored the drive from an image backup of my system in it's "virgin" state after wiping the disk. So I guess all the necessary "data" is included in the image, which is why I could see the C drive. Perhaps I didn't make that clear enough.

Once again thanks for all the help and responses. Very much appreciated!!!!!!!!!!

[garyb]

glad it's sorted

[Astral Fridge Magnet]

glad it's sorted

Thanks!!! Me too!!!!!!!!

[kylie]

The reason I saw my C drive afterwards is because I actually restored the drive from an image backup of my system in it's "virgin" state after wiping the disk. So I guess all the necessary "data" is included in the image, which is why I could see the C drive. Perhaps I didn't make that clear enough.

yeah, that explains it all. restoring an image should do that by imaging also the important sectors that contain information like partition tables etc... and since you obviously did not image your d: drive, you were left with an entirely empty disk (as you intended to ). maybe even emptier than you wanted it to be...

nice proof (for you) that your imaging software seems to do a good job. what do you exactly use?

-greetings, markus-

[Astral Fridge Magnet]

nice proof (for you) that your imaging software seems to do a good job. what do you exactly use?

-greetings, markus-

I use Acronis. I am very happy with it. I used to use Ghost but I prefer Acronis these days. What is nice about it too is that the program doesn't need to be installed on your PC to run as it can work via a boot disk. So can Ghost by the way, but for some reason, which I know now, the bootable didn't work on my main music PC (due to the way the BIOS is setup). Though I should explain that you need to install the program first to create a boot disk, but I install it on another PC to do that ( I don't like installing "unnecessary stuff" on my music PCs-I only have music related programs on them and no anti virus or internet). I make my backups to external drives, though you can backup to DVD if you want. Though the trouble with DVD is that if your image file is big you may need a few discs which is a bit cumbersome, especially if you are disorganised like me. I should also point out that if you back up to DVD you also need something like Nero installed (with Acronis that is), whereas with Ghost you don't. I never compress my files by the way. Nor do I do incremental backups. I tend to create a new backup when I need to as you don't really save that much extra space on your external drive.

Another nice thing about Acronis is that you can give a detailed description of your image so you know exactly what it contains. Ghost has this feature too, but I prefer the Acronis way.

Anyway, both Ghost and Acronis are good.

Wow!! I typed more than I intended too. Hope that I gave you some useful information.

[kylie]

nice proof (for you) that your imaging software seems to do a good job. what do you exactly use?

-greetings, markus-

I use Acronis. I am very happy with it. I used to use Ghost but I prefer Acronis these days.

somehow I expected this . I have a copy of acronis in the shelf but didn't manage to do an image yet... (not because I feel not capable of doing it, but due to limited time and resources to image to).

I'm not that afraid of a hard disk failure this moment since I use a hardware raid, but this won't, of course, prevent me from deleting files by mistake...

thanks to remind me of that.

I used ghost years before, since it was one of the better solutions then, but acronis seems to have outperformed it already (that's why I bought it). time to get myself a decent backup media and do some imaging.

-greetings, markus-