Desktop·25,152 discussions

Missing Hard Drive

Locked

I am putting together or should say reconfiguring a PC for charity and am
having a problem with it getting to recognize a 2nd hard drive under Windows-95.
System is a generic 486DX100 with 16 MB Ram, has 2 hard drives, (1st one is 1.6GB, 2nd one is 850MB), 4X CD-ROM, etc.
It WAS running DOS/Windows3.1 with no problems!
Drives were configured as : #1-HD=C: & D:, #2-HD=E: & F:, CD-ROM=G:

After FDISKing and Formatting the hard drives (#1 as C: & D:, #2 as E:),
using Windows-95 Fdisk & Format.
I loaded Windows-95/SR2 with no problems, except that Windows does not recognize or report that the 2nd hard drive exists and both MY COMPUTER and Windows Explorer just hang when executed. Also, starting in native DOS mode and trying to do achkdsk or scandisk on drive E: also just hangs the system.
If I turn off the 2nd hard drive in the BIOS, Win. Explorer & MY COmputer work fine and report just C: & D:.

Thsi is driving me crazy!!! Please help!!!!

Thank you VERY much!!!Sincerely,

Rob

Topic

Missing Hard Drive

In reply to Missing Hard Drive

Hi Rob,
check the master/slave settings of the HDs. Maybe try to connect them each as the master on the first and second ide connector. Sometimes the CD has to be connected to the first ide connector (as slave); I don’t know why. Is the bios capable of accessing HDs larger than 512MB? Maybe you have to use somewhat like the ez-drive utility. If this doesn’t help mail me more data: dirve type, jumper settings, board and bios info, how you connected the cables…

Missing Hard Drive

In reply to Missing Hard Drive

As stated in original question – Windows-3.1 recognized both HD’s fine, therefore BIOS did NOT need upgrading, and jumpers were set correctly also since both drives worked fine in DOS-6.22 & WIN-3.1!
Only difference was that in WIN95, 2nd HD was FDISK’d and formatted as a SINGLE drive (E:) instead of 2 drives (E: & F:) as they were under WIN-3.1.

Problem turned out to be AUTO DETECT for HD’s in BIOS was set on. Turned it off and typed in HD params and WIN found 2nd HD okay!
Thanks for ur suggestions anyway!

Missing Hard Drive

In reply to Missing Hard Drive

First update the bios.
Take the jumper off the hd you want to designate as slave and system will auto detect the slave,make sure they are not hidden partitions,and the drives are not compressed.If you have access to partition magic use it to createthe partitions.

Missing Hard Drive

In reply to Missing Hard Drive

As stated in original question – Windows-3.1 recognized both HD’s fine, therefore BIOS did NOT need upgrading, and jumpers were set correctly also since both drives worked fine in DOS-6.22 & WIN-3.1!
Only difference was that in WIN95, 2nd HD was FDISK’d and formatted as a SINGLE drive (E:) instead of 2 drives (E: & F:) as they were under WIN-3.1.

Problem turned out to be AUTO DETECT for HD’s in BIOS was set on. Turned it off and typed in HD params and WIN found 2nd HD okay!
Thanks for ur suggestions anyway!

Missing Hard Drive

In reply to Missing Hard Drive

I had a similar problem with a Gateway that I am currently working on. C: is a 2 gig hd and d: is a 10.2 hd. It is a 120P. When I reformated for Win95, it would not see the second hd but recongized at startup. I updated the bios but they still did support that size of drive. I had to use Ez-Bios that comes with Western digital hds. That part works great right now anyway.

1. Check your jummper settings.
2. Update your Bios, and try it then.
3. Check to see if you have something like Ez-bios.

I hope you get to work.

Missing Hard Drive

In reply to Missing Hard Drive

As stated in original question – Windows-3.1 recognized both HD’s fine, therefore BIOS did NOT need upgrading, and jumpers were set correctly also since both drives worked fine in DOS-6.22 & WIN-3.1!
Only difference was that in WIN95, 2nd HD was FDISK’d and formatted as a SINGLE drive (E:) instead of 2 drives (E: & F:) as they were under WIN-3.1.

Problem turned out to be AUTO DETECT for HD’s in BIOS was set on. Turned it off and typed in HD params and WIN found 2nd HD okay!
Thanks for ur suggestions anyway!

Missing Hard Drive

In reply to Missing Hard Drive

1>Are the drives showing up in bios setting and are the setting right? If not check master/slave jumpers and then make sure that pin 1 (red side of cable is on pin1)
Upgrade Bios
Make a boot disk.

Try booting up in DOS and then try to access the drive. If you can’t access it. Try swaping the hard drive. Make the other one master. You might want to try reformatting the drive. If that does not work You might have a bad hard drive

Missing Hard Drive

In reply to Missing Hard Drive

As stated in original question – Windows-3.1 recognized both HD’s fine, therefore BIOS did NOT need upgrading, and jumpers were set correctly also since both drives worked fine in DOS-6.22 & WIN-3.1!
Only difference was that in WIN95, 2nd HD was FDISK’d and formatted as a SINGLE drive (E:) instead of 2 drives (E: & F:) as they were under WIN-3.1.

Problem turned out to be AUTO DETECT for HD’s in BIOS was set on. Turned it off and typed in HD params and WIN found 2nd HD okay!
Thanks for ur suggestions anyway!

Missing Hard Drive

In reply to Missing Hard Drive

🙂
Try 1)conect to first HD as master ; make sure that the jumpers are set korect!
2)reboot the comp..go in bios and select “IDE detect” ..u should “see” the 1th HD..by now
3)u have 2 posibilities to connect the 2nd HD .. “As SecondaryMaster” or “As Primary Slave”
4)..but! if u want to have in the same time the CD i advise u to connect it as “Primary Slave” ;the cd jumpers are set ..by default in “Secondary master Position”
5)in this case u need to have a ..second connector ..and the jumpers set for “Master” too.
6) reboot ..press “Delete” to go in BiOs ..repeat the 2nd step ..u r done!

Missing Hard Drive

In reply to Missing Hard Drive

As stated in original question – Windows-3.1 recognized both HD’s fine, therefore BIOS did NOT need upgrading, and jumpers were set correctly also since both drives worked fine in DOS-6.22 & WIN-3.1!
Only difference was that in WIN95, 2nd HD was FDISK’d and formatted as a SINGLE drive (E:) instead of 2 drives (E: & F:) as they were under WIN-3.1.

Problem turned out to be AUTO DETECT for HD’s in BIOS was set on. Turned it off and typed in HD params and WIN found 2nd HD okay!
Thanks for ur suggestions anyway!

Missing Hard Drive

In reply to Missing Hard Drive

In your bios try re-detecting your second hard drive, switch back and forth between LBA and normal modes on different boot ups. try switching out your drives between primary and secondary and master slave. pay close attention to your jumper settingsand bios settings. also try booting up is dos only mode(hit the F-8 key repeatedly when the windows splash screen comes up) and see if you can access it from an E:\ prompt.

Missing Hard Drive

In reply to Missing Hard Drive

What is diff. between LBA mode and others??
I actually figured out the problem (see below) just before your answer got to me.
But you didn’t tell me HOW to re-detect 2nd HD and switching drives between primary and secondary and master slave wouldn’t have helped in this case.
But to be fair I am giving you half the points anyway!!

As stated in original question – Windows-3.1 recognized both HD’s fine, therefore BIOS did NOT need upgrading, and jumpers were set correctly also since both drives worked fine in DOS-6.22 & WIN-3.1!
Only difference was that in WIN95, 2nd HD was FDISK’d and formatted as a SINGLE drive (E:) instead of 2 drives (E: & F:) as they were under WIN-3.1.

Problem turned out to be AUTO DETECT for HD’s in BIOS wasset on. Turned it off and typed in HD params and WIN found 2nd HD okay!
Thanks for ur help!
Send me answer to LBA mode, etc. at robt-nelson@excite.com please.

Thanks again!!

Missing Hard Drive

In reply to Missing Hard Drive

If you’re using the auto-detect setting for the Secondary Master in CMOS, try manually entering the parameters instead. The information for the cylinders, heads, etc. may be stamped on the drive’s case or you might try the manufacturers web site. Good luck 🙂

Missing Hard Drive

In reply to Missing Hard Drive

You are correct!! BUT as I stated in Vinz’s comment, I figured out the answer prior to getting all of your (peoples) help. And Vinz did answer a day before you.
Thank you very much though! Your answer was the most clear one and straight to the
point !!
You know your stuff and present it in a clear and concise manner.
Thank you very much!!!
As stated in original question – Windows-3.1 recognized both HD’s fine, therefore BIOS did NOT need upgrading, and jumpers were set correctly also since both drives worked fine in DOS-6.22 & WIN-3.1!
Only difference was that in WIN95, 2nd HD was FDISK’d and formatted as a SINGLE drive (E:) instead of 2 drives (E: & F:) as they were under WIN-3.1.

Problem turned out to be AUTO DETECT for HD’s inBIOS was set on. Turned it off and typed in HD params and WIN found 2nd HD okay!
Thank you again for ur help anyway!

Missing Hard Drive

In reply to Missing Hard Drive

everything worked fine until you fdisk and formatted did you change the volume # The reason it hangs is it does not even see the drive or anthing for that matter . try fdisk+reformat that hd again make sure it is set to slave and let windows set thedrive letter. Rob

Missing Hard Drive

In reply to Missing Hard Drive

As stated in original question – Windows-3.1 recognized both HD’s fine, therefore BIOS did NOT need upgrading, and jumpers were set correctly also since both drives worked fine in DOS-6.22 & WIN-3.1!
Only difference was that in WIN95, 2nd HD was FDISK’d and formatted as a SINGLE drive (E:) instead of 2 drives (E: & F:) as they were under WIN-3.1.

Problem turned out to be AUTO DETECT for HD’s in BIOS was set on. Turned it off and typed in HD params and WIN found 2nd HD okay!
Thanks for ur suggestions anyway!

Missing Hard Drive

In reply to Missing Hard Drive

> …problem with it getting to recognize a 2nd hard drive under Windows-95.
> FDISKing and Formatting the hard drives (#1 as C: & D:, #2 as E:), using Windows-95 Fdisk & Format.

The problem is with Microsoft’s pre-Windows2000 way of assigning drive letters. As a result, you have not FORMATted all the partitions.
When you only have the one drive enabled, it is designated C: and the second partition on that drive is called D:. When 2 hard drives are used, the first partition on the firsthard drive is C:. The first partition on the second hard drive is D:. The second partition on the frist hard drive is E:. When you format E:, you are FORMATting a partition that has already been FORMATted rather than the first partition on the second hard drive as you intend to do.

Knowing this, you can simply FORMAT D: to solve the problem!

Missing Hard Drive

In reply to Missing Hard Drive

FYI – if you fdisk a 2nd HD and format it as an *Extended* DOS partition you can make it anything you want, i.e.: drive E:, F: G:, etc.
Windows has nothing to do with it since Fdisk & formatting is done in DOS!
As stated in original question – Windows-3.1 recognized both HD’s fine, therefore BIOS did NOT need upgrading, and jumpers were set correctly also since both drives worked fine in DOS-6.22 & WIN-3.1!
Only difference was that in WIN95, 2nd HD was FDISK’d and formatted as a SINGLE drive(E:) instead of 2 drives (E: & F:) as they were under WIN-3.1.

Problem turned out to be AUTO DETECT for HD’s in BIOS was set on. Turned it off and typed in HD params and WIN found 2nd HD okay!
Thanks anyway!

Missing Hard Drive

In reply to Missing Hard Drive

Dear Rob,
Yup, i have the same problem in few years back….486 system. Well, I can say I was lucky that time….here are 2 suggestion :
1. Double check the I/O card (where you connect your HDD on), if possible, change another card, the card couldbe faulty.
2. Unplug the I/O card and change to another slot (another ISA slot).
Cheers

Missing Hard Drive

In reply to Missing Hard Drive

As stated in original question – Windows-3.1 recognized both HD’s fine, therefore BIOS did NOT need upgrading, and jumpers were set correctly also since both drives worked fine in DOS-6.22 & WIN-3.1!
Only difference was that in WIN95, 2nd HD was FDISK’d and formatted as a SINGLE drive (E:) instead of 2 drives (E: & F:) as they were under WIN-3.1.

Problem turned out to be AUTO DETECT for HD’s in BIOS was set on. Turned it off and typed in HD params and WIN found 2nd HD okay!
Thanks for ur suggestions anyway!

Missing Hard Drive

In reply to Missing Hard Drive

Rob

If you are still having a problem seeing your second drive try adding LASTDRIVE=Z to your config.sys as you are probably just running out of available drive letters.

Regards

Missing Hard Drive

In reply to Missing Hard Drive

As stated in original question – Windows-3.1 recognized both HD’s fine, therefore BIOS did NOT need upgrading, and jumpers were set correctly also since both drives worked fine in DOS-6.22 & WIN-3.1!
Only difference was that in WIN95, 2nd HD was FDISK’d and formatted as a SINGLE drive (E:) instead of 2 drives (E: & F:) as they were under WIN-3.1.

Problem turned out to be AUTO DETECT for HD’s in BIOS was set on. Turned it off and typed in HD params and WIN found 2nd HD okay!
Thanks for ur suggestions anyway!

Missing Hard Drive

In reply to Missing Hard Drive

Like other mates say check yoru master/slave jumpers to make sure everything is ok.If you have all ok you could try with an application like partition magic to make partitions as you like.

Missing Hard Drive

In reply to Missing Hard Drive

As stated in original question – Windows-3.1 recognized both HD’s fine, therefore BIOS did NOT need upgrading, and jumpers were set correctly also since both drives worked fine in DOS-6.22 & WIN-3.1!
Only difference was that in WIN95, 2nd HD was FDISK’d and formatted as a SINGLE drive (E:) instead of 2 drives (E: & F:) as they were under WIN-3.1.

Problem turned out to be AUTO DETECT for HD’s in BIOS was set on. Turned it off and typed in HD params and WIN found 2nd HD okay!
Thanks for ur suggestions anyway!

[Author]

Replies