Can't Access Second HD

Hi all...

My home PC crapped out, so I had to get a new computer. I bought everything I needed and assembled it myself using some new parts plus what was savagable from my old one. I was counting on using my old 7G HD in there, even if it's only to get back my old files, but I can't get XP to recognize it.

The BIOS can see both HDs. The new one as the master, the old one as the slave. If I set the CMOS to boot from the old HD, it loads to the desktop, then I can't do anything, because the machine doesn't recognize my USB keyboard and mouse.

XP shows only the new one as "c:". The XP Device Manager lists the other HD as installed, and can read the specs (size, etc.) but it just won't show it as a valid drive.

I've set the jumpers on both HDs to about every combination with no luck...

What to do next? Is my old HD just dead? :(

Hmmm sounds like a toughy...one thing I know with some manufacturer's that they will help you out if you try to get info from an older computer so you could try and call them...and anything you could ever think of for computer trouble with windows is here
support.microsoft.com

I hope this kinda helped.

Have you tried just booting from your old HDD? with out the new one installed?
If you had a USB moust and keybourd before then nothing should change.

Its possible its only a little screwed, and that should tell you for sure.

XP from my experiance is really good at recognising mroe than one drive, Iv had several in and out of my machine backing up other ppls stuff for freash installs.

I'm gonna borrow a ps/2 mouse tonight and try to boot on the old HD just to see if i can dump my files onto the new one...

the OS on the old one is Win ME. i forgot to mention that, piece of crap that it is...

Thanks for the help...

anything you could ever think of for computer trouble with windows is here
support.microsoft.comGood call; I found this:
Hard Disk Does Not Appear in My Computer or in Windows Explorer (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;330140)

http://support.microsoft.com/library/images/support/1ptrans.gif(330140) - When you try to upgrade to Windows XP, or when you try to install a hard disk on your Windows XP computer, the hard disk may not appear in Windows Explorer or in My Computer, even if the hard disk does appear in Device Manager and in Disk Management...


My old computer has that GoBack bundle-packed on it.

Hope this works! ;)

does it work yet?
I know how to get XP to get a slave drive to be reconized if you still need a bit of help.

Did you go into the aministrative tools (from the control panel) / computer managment / storage / disk management?

If you see it there, it probably has a partition that the computer can't read. While it will destroy the files on it, you could create a new partition and then you'll see the drive in explorer.

Yeah, I had this "GoBack" program on the old HD which altered the master boot record. I had to boot of the old HD and disable it, and now it works fine.Good call; I found this:
Hard Disk Does Not Appear in My Computer or in Windows Explorer (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;330140)

http://support.microsoft.com/library/images/support/1ptrans.gif(330140) - When you try to upgrade to Windows XP, or when you try to install a hard disk on your Windows XP computer, the hard disk may not appear in Windows Explorer or in My Computer, even if the hard disk does appear in Device Manager and in Disk Management...


My old computer has that GoBack bundle-packed on it.

Hope this works! ;)

I suggest that you go back into bios and check to see if the proper type of drive is selected, Typically you can choose between Auto LBA or large. Every once in a while something will happen to my bios, and I have to go back in and change that and then XP will see the drive.