HDD detected in BIOS and XP devicemanager, yet shows nothing in Explorer

I can see the HDD in BIOS, and according to my device manager it's working properly. But I cant see the partition in Windows Explorer. Basically, what I want is to access the files on the HDD and copy them to my other disc.

Heres some background information which may (or may not) be relevant:
The HDD is a Seagate Barracuda ATA V drive with 120 GB (model: ST3120024A).

My master disk is another Seagate running off the ATA-cable, while this HDD, along with the DVD-player runs off of the IDE-cable. Ive tried using a separate IDE cable for the HDD (there are two IDE-connectors on motherboard) with no success.

There is no jumpers set on this HDD, which according to the documentation should set it as master. However it is still my ATA-cabled disc that boots the system. (The only way to specifically set the HDD as slave is by a jumper setting to activate cable select.)

The IDE-connector was damaged with one pin slightly pushed in on my previous system. I remedied this by simply using a pair of pliers and pulling out again. When I switched this HDD into my current system it seems the PIN was pushed all the way in and even fell off. Im not sure how this came about as it was my borther who helped me build the system and it may even have been me breaking the pin while trying to access the HDD in the new system.

Ive had a new pin inserted and soldered on the right connector on the HDD controller card. Ive verified that there is an electrical connection between the two.

All my music is on that HDD... (I should have known better, but here I am...)

 

Access through run command?

Start > Type the drive letter (prolly C) followed by a ':' and then a '\' (without quotes)

 

Perhaps I shoulod have been clear. There is no letter assigned to the HDD. I can see it as a device in the devicemanager and I can see it in my BIOS options, but it does not show at all under My Computer:. I can see all the letter partitions on my current system HDD (the one on ATA-cables), but not on this HDD.

 

ok.. Maybe something wrong with explorer?

 

Assuming the IDE connector is the culprit:
You can purchase a new drive of the exact model number and remove its logic board. Remove the logic board on the old drive and place the logic board from the new drive onto the old drive.

Assuming the drive, itself, is okay and there is some problem in Windows:

You don't mention your version of Windows so I will give you instructions for Windows 2000 Pro because it is what I have in front of me at the moment.

Click Start> Settings> Control Panel> Administrative Tools> Computer Management> Disk Management> (assuming the drive shows here but without a letter) Right-click the drive> choose Change/Assign a drive letter. Assign it a letter and you're done.

If the drive does not show in Disk Management, you most likely have a hardware problem of some kind. It could be a bad/incorrect cable, incorrect placement on the cable (wrong terminal; master goes at end of cable) incorrect jumper setting, damaged pin or a host of other possibilities.

I have seen situations that when jumpered as master, also had to be at the end of the ribbon cable (master position).

Use an 80-conductor cable instead of a 40-.

Above suggestions assume a PATA drive.

 

Thankyou for replying. I followed your advice and I can see my drive in the disc management tool as unassigned.

However, I cant assign a letter directly, rather it wants me to partition the disc first. I feel hesitant to do so, since I am not sure how this will affect the information already on the disc.

 

You're right. It would make recovery more difficult.

Frankly, I am lost for more ideas except for the possibility of using a recovery program like Easy Recovery Pro or similar. If you used such a program, I suspect it would have to be a program that can read a disk raw as oposed to a partition. I think Easy Recovery Pro will read only a partition and since your partition is supposedly recognized as much smaller than it should be, well, you get the idea.

There is another possibility. You could get Active Partition Recovery. There is an free evaluation version of the program that you could use to see if it might help. If it recognizes the old partition parameters, it will let you know; but, in order to write those parameters to the disk, you will have to buy the full version. At least you don't have to pay unless there is some possibility it will wrk for you.

I think I paid about $30 for mine.

 

What operating system are you using?

What file system are both drives?

 

XP and NTFS