I have several initial factors to disclose, so let’s start from the top.
– Just built new computer from existing parts of W2K system with a few IDE HD’s and 1 USB HD – no problems with the build or driver installation, etc. Everything shows that it is installed and functioning without warning or error in Dev. Mgr.
– New system is XP Pro with all updates installed (SP2+)- added 1 320gb SATA as main boot drive
– 1SATA (Seagate 320GB) as boot (2 part. 130/170GB),
IDE Seagate 300GB (0) – 1 part.,
IDE WD 160GB (1) – 2 part. 75/75gb,
both IDE’s are in SECONDARY controller (due to troubleshooting – no difference between primary/secondary)
Everything seemed fine until I had a $MFT error pop up on my screen for the 300GB IDE drive. I rebooted and all seemed fine (this is not the boot drive – only storage.)
From that point I noticed that Explorer displays the IDE 300GB as 2 drives – exact same info, but it allocates 2 drive letters for the drive.
I naturally entered Drive Manager to change and assign the drive letters properly as I thought it was a mixup.
Inside DM, the ONLY drive that is assigned a drive letter is the 300GB IDE. This is currently listed as X: and is listed as DISK1, Dynamic. All the drives are there and are displaying all the partition information fine, and will accept drive letter assignments and changes that are correctly displayed in Explorer but never in Disk Manager.
I have never seen anything like this, nor can I find anything beyond “how to change drive letters” which I can do in my sleep… I am thinking to re-install XP and see if that will straighten this out, but lots of effort…
Have confirmed that BIOS is recognizing SATA and all IDE’s – boot order has IDE’s disabled and only SATA active – even removed the CD/DVD’s from the boot list.
Remember, ALL is functioning perfect… access to all drives and data are fine, just don’t trust the fact that Disk Mgr & Explorer is confused just after fresh installation.
BTW -IN Disk Mgr:
SATA is Drive 0
IDE 300GB is Drive 1
IDE 160GB is Drive 2
USB 160 is Drive 4
(removable disk is #3)
Open for direction – will try anything for troubleshooting…
Thanks in advance for the trouble!
Cletus
