[nashnut]

When I reinstalled windows I came up with my CD/DVD drive as a E and not a D.
I cannot access my external storage drive which would normally be the E drive.
Should I reinstall windows again?
Thanks
Windows XP Pro
Service Pack 3
Q8200, 2.33 ghz

I've noticed that on disk management I have a disk 0 which is apparently the OS, a disk 1 which is unallocated - I think that's the external HD that I'm looking for which should be Drive E. There's also a Drive E - CD/DVD.
My drives should be
C - OS
D - CD/DVD
E - External HD

Edited by nashnut, 23 November 2010 - 04:08 PM.

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Try this to change your CD/DVD drive letter to D:/

• Log on as Administrator or as a member of the Administrators group.
• Click Start, click Control Panel, and then click Performance and Maintenance.
• Click Administrative Tools, double-click Computer Management, and then click Disk Management in the left pane.
• Right-click the drive, the partition, the logical drive, or the volume that you want to assign a drive letter to, and then click Change Drive Letter and Paths.
• Click Change.
• Click Assign the following drive letter if it is not already selected, click the drive letter that you want to use, and then click OK.
• Click Yes when you are prompted to confirm the drive letter change.

After doing that, restart, and reconnect your external drive. Check disk management before and after you connect your external drive to see what it is listed as.

[edge2022]

Try this to change your CD/DVD drive letter to D:/

• Log on as Administrator or as a member of the Administrators group.
• Click Start, click Control Panel, and then click Performance and Maintenance.
• Click Administrative Tools, double-click Computer Management, and then click Disk Management in the left pane.
• Right-click the drive, the partition, the logical drive, or the volume that you want to assign a drive letter to, and then click Change Drive Letter and Paths.
• Click Change.
• Click Assign the following drive letter if it is not already selected, click the drive letter that you want to use, and then click OK.
• Click Yes when you are prompted to confirm the drive letter change.

After doing that, restart, and reconnect your external drive. Check disk management before and after you connect your external drive to see what it is listed as.

[nashnut]

Changed CD/DVD drive from E to D.
Drive is currently working correctly.

Checked before connecting external HD
No sign of unallocated disk 1
Connected external HD
Refreshed and the disk 1 - unallocated popped up

In the Device Manager it appears as a second disk
when connected. Is there a fix or do I need to reinstall windows again?

Thanks

Edited by nashnut, 24 November 2010 - 08:58 AM.

[123Runner]

Can you get a screen shot of device manager please?

[edge2022]

Your external drive showing up as unallocated could mean that its filesystem is corrupted. Or it could mean that its a new drive, and it hasn't been formatted yet. Do you have any data on the external drive that you need?

As Runner said, a screenshot of device manager would help us visualize the problem.

[nashnut]

Oops... screen shot is not working either.
I do have photos, etc on the drive which I am currently removing.
The drive is listed both on the USB as a mass storage (no resources used)
and under the disk drive itself along with the normal HD
Class: Disk drives
Device: ST3500620AS
No resources used

Class: Disk drives
Device: WD 3200AVB External USB Device
No resources used

The photos are coming off okay, but nothing else. I go in under the disk drive like I would for the original HD and click on the external WD drive. Is it possible that the other items are not coming off correctly since the original program is not loaded into the computer?

After I get the photos off, I am wondering if I should reinstall or just create a partition in the system.

Thanks

Edited by nashnut, 25 November 2010 - 09:47 PM.

[edge2022]

So you are able to access the WD drive through windows explorer? Can you see and access all the contents of the drive properly? Is the drive listed with the letter E:/ ?
I don't think this has to do with Windows, rather than your external hard drive. You should be able to access everything regardless if you have installed the WD software.

[Macboatmaster]

Class: Disk drives Device: ST3500620AS No resources used

Unless I am mistaken this is a Seagate Barracuda 500Gb sata drive.
The fact that this, the main HDD is also shown as NO resources used AND this is a fresh installation AND screenshot will not work, suggests to me that either the installation has failed but not fatally - otherwise of course it would not load - OR it is the widely reported problem with the Seagate Barracuda drive. Seagate actually released a firmware update. HOWEVER, whilst I could understand that on its OWN, maybe the problem with a fresh installation I cannot connect the other faults.
Did the XP install, find the SATA drivers on its own, was it already SP3, or did you change the mode from SATA to combined to get round this.

Further research tells me that the problem with the Seagate drives did cover that model for only for maufactured dates in December 2008.

I still favour the XP installation.

Being honest I cannot make 2+2 = 4

Edited by Macboatmaster, 26 November 2010 - 01:42 PM.

[nashnut]

No. I can see it only as an additional disk drive with the main HD under disk in the Device Manager. I cannot see it at any other location on the computer that I know of. If I went in and partitioned it - if I understand things correctly - I would lose the contents but be able to assign it a letter. It will not be recognized on another computer.

I loaded a recovery program and with that, I can see it sitting nicely next to the main HD. When extracting the items, the program is taking them right from the external HD. The photos are coming out quite good, but nothing else seems to be processed correctly - notepad info, programs, etc. All are coming in with just a no preview or question mark.

It is a western digital external HD.

[Macboatmaster]

I do not think there is ANY Western Digital software TO install.
Having looked at that drive, which I think is WD elements it has no software it uses the xp drivers.
If when you reinstalled windows you have not installed ALL drivers, ie: for your motherboard etc., then it is, I think quite possible that if you examine device manager you will find that you have warnings on some entries.
Check USB entries, normally at the end of the device manager list.

If that is all in order - connect the drive to another computer and see if it is fully recognised there.
OR if it is readily available - another computer - try that first. That will eliminate any errors on that drive.
Also connect another USB device to the SAME usb port and se if that is recognised properly.

[nashnut]

It's a P & P with no software package.

Everything is clean on the Device Manager. The external appears as another drive under the main HD. It is also listed as a mass storage unit on the USB hub. The same when changing hubs.

I tried it on another computer and it did not show up.

[Macboatmaster]

I was actually replying to the suggestion in post 7 regarding the software.
The file system on the drive is corrupted.
Once the drive is formatted, after you have recovered what you can, I am sure it will be seen.
I suggest you run Western Digital`s data lifeguard diagnostics on it, this is a free download from Western Digital and will according to the code returned give you a positive answer.

Edited by Macboatmaster, 27 November 2010 - 07:55 AM.

[nashnut]

I did as you suggested. It passed the test with no error messages.
It appears as a physical drive but not a logical drive

[Macboatmaster]

See these links please.
1. Using the Western Digital free Acronis - recover all your data from the drive to DVD or to another drive.
http://support.wdc.c...il.asp?swid=119
2. In Computer Management, Disk Management follow this on the unallocated space - which is the external drive.
http://www.microsoft...anced/ntfs.mspx

Edited by Macboatmaster, 27 November 2010 - 09:37 AM.