XP does not recognize additional hard drives

ednachman · 07-21-2003, 06:19 PM

I had three drives under W2k. When I attempted to setup XP for a dual boot, I was advised that Drive C: had to be partitioned. I had copied all my files to my E: and F: drives and saw no reason not to let XP take over and delete W2K. Now, under XP Home Editon, XP sees drives E: and F: but they are not identified by a drive letter. I have gone into diskmanagement, right click on the un-identified drive and my only choices are "Partition" and "Help". I had two CD-ROMS and I changed their drive letters to coincide with the W2k Setup. I still can't get the two HDs to be identified by a drive letter. The only HD showing is of course C: where the OS resides.

orb36O · 07-21-2003, 08:56 PM

WinXP Uses NTFS 5... 2k uses NTFS 4 that may be a problem...

LPDad · 07-21-2003, 10:21 PM

That is an interesting problem. I have never heard of that happening before.
Can you get to the files on the Unnamed drive??? (you implied that you could, but I just want to be sure)

You might want to try a Repair install, where you load WinXP up like you are going to do a fresh install, but when the installer gives you the :
Another version of Windows has been detected message, you highlight that and then choose R to repair that particular windows installation. This will keep your data and settings..so you won't loose anything.

Hopefully this time around you will end up with drive letters assigned. (PRIOR to doing this I would CHANGE the drive letters of your main CDROM to E: , and your second CDROM (or whatever) to a letter further down the alphabit say I: or J: or K

C and D are usually reserved for Harddrives and E: and F: are usually reserved as the default CDROM. Everything else is pretty much fair game.

My Harddrives are C, D, G, H, I, and J (yep I have a lot of them)
My CDRom/DVD, CDRW drives are E and F

and my Virtual drives are K and L (alcohol, Daemontools)

My Linksys USB Memory is M (M is also the letter of my Digital Camera memory card when it is plugged in...I use one or the other, but not both at the same time.)

Hope this helps.

ednachman · 07-21-2003, 11:37 PM

LPDad,

I cannot access the unamed drives. I will attempt to do what you suggest but someone in the thread mentioned that WinXP uses NTFS 5... 2k uses NTFS 4. Possibly another reason

LPDad · 07-22-2003, 12:10 AM

Well you can easily use the appropriate XP RUN command to convert your drives to NTFS. What the hell, it is worth a shot, It should convert to the ver 5. This will only work if you can access the drives.

The problem is you are completely locked out of them and have no way to access them.

...In which case I suggest renaming the drives you do have access to as I suggested in my previous post and then doing the repair install. You certainly won't make anything worse.

I don't remember the exact command for the converting to NTFS, but if you need it I can look it up.
(you can find it in the help section of windows..search under something like conversion to NTFS or drive format conversion or something like that.

LPDad · 07-22-2003, 12:15 AM

As far as ACTUALLY recovering the data off of the "missing" partitions....I can help you there, so that your data will not be lost.
(PM me if you need to RECOVER the data and I can direct you to the solution)

07-21-2003, 06:19 PM	#1 (permalink)
ednachman Registered User Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Georgia Posts: 2	XP does not recognize additional hard drives I had three drives under W2k. When I attempted to setup XP for a dual boot, I was advised that Drive C: had to be partitioned. I had copied all my files to my E: and F: drives and saw no reason not to let XP take over and delete W2K. Now, under XP Home Editon, XP sees drives E: and F: but they are not identified by a drive letter. I have gone into diskmanagement, right click on the un-identified drive and my only choices are "Partition" and "Help". I had two CD-ROMS and I changed their drive letters to coincide with the W2k Setup. I still can't get the two HDs to be identified by a drive letter. The only HD showing is of course C: where the OS resides.

07-21-2003, 08:56 PM	#2 (permalink)
orb36O x4841434B4552 Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Strongbadia Posts: 254	WinXP Uses NTFS 5... 2k uses NTFS 4 that may be a problem... __________________ -----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK----- Version: 3.12 GCS d- s+:-- a--- C++++ UL++ P+ L++ E W++ N-- o-- K- w++ O- M-- V- PS-- PE++ Y PGP t+ 5- X- R !tv b++ DI+++ D+ G e h !r z? ------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------ Decode Here Used to have a sig, but the friggin' sites don't allow remote linking...

07-21-2003, 10:21 PM	#3 (permalink)
LPDad Admin & "Fixer" Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Costa Mesa, CA Posts: 2,293	That is an interesting problem. I have never heard of that happening before. Can you get to the files on the Unnamed drive??? (you implied that you could, but I just want to be sure) You might want to try a Repair install, where you load WinXP up like you are going to do a fresh install, but when the installer gives you the : Another version of Windows has been detected message, you highlight that and then choose R to repair that particular windows installation. This will keep your data and settings..so you won't loose anything. Hopefully this time around you will end up with drive letters assigned. (PRIOR to doing this I would CHANGE the drive letters of your main CDROM to E: , and your second CDROM (or whatever) to a letter further down the alphabit say I: or J: or K *C and D are usually reserved for Harddrives and E: and F: are usually* reserved as the default CDROM.** Everything else is pretty much fair game. My Harddrives are C, D, G, H, I, and J (yep I have a lot of them) My CDRom/DVD, CDRW drives are E and F and my Virtual drives are K and L (alcohol, Daemontools) My Linksys USB Memory is M (M is also the letter of my Digital Camera memory card when it is plugged in...I use one or the other, but not both at the same time.) Hope this helps. __________________ We don't need no stink'n TechSupport We ARE TechSupport. *LPDad* Administrator

07-22-2003, 12:10 AM	#5 (permalink)
LPDad Admin & "Fixer" Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Costa Mesa, CA Posts: 2,293	Well you can easily use the appropriate XP RUN command to convert your drives to NTFS. What the hell, it is worth a shot, It should convert to the ver 5. This will only work if you can access the drives. The problem is you are completely locked out of them and have no way to access them. ...In which case I suggest renaming the drives you do have access to as I suggested in my previous post and then doing the repair install. You certainly won't make anything worse. I don't remember the exact command for the converting to NTFS, but if you need it I can look it up. (you can find it in the help section of windows..search under something like conversion to NTFS or drive format conversion or something like that. __________________ We don't need no stink'n TechSupport We ARE TechSupport. *LPDad* Administrator

07-22-2003, 12:15 AM	#6 (permalink)
LPDad Admin & "Fixer" Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Costa Mesa, CA Posts: 2,293	As far as ACTUALLY recovering the data off of the "missing" partitions....I can help you there, so that your data will not be lost. (PM me if you need to RECOVER the data and I can direct you to the solution) __________________ We don't need no stink'n TechSupport We ARE TechSupport. *LPDad* Administrator

07-21-2003, 11:37 PM	#4 (permalink)
ednachman Registered User Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Georgia Posts: 2	LPDad, I cannot access the unamed drives. I will attempt to do what you suggest but someone in the thread mentioned that WinXP uses NTFS 5... 2k uses NTFS 4. Possibly another reason

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