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I formatted an IDE drive using another computer and Partition Magic, using NTFS. My computer will not recognize the drive under either channel/IDE. The jumper is set to master. My other hard drive is SATA. I tested the drive with the other computer and Partition Magic, it states that the partition table is bad and will not repartition or reformat it. What did my computer do to the hard drive? How do I fix it?
How to return a Hard drive to its original condition (Like when you bought it new)
1 Insert the Windows 98 BOOT Disk (into the A Floppy Drive)
2 Select (start computer WITHOUT CD-Rom support)
3 @ The A prompt Type (FDISK)
4 (Enable Large Disk Support) do not use this option if you are using WIN95 *
5 Choose #4 Display Partition Information (incase your drive has been split into multiple drives, then hit the ENTER key then press the ESC key to continue))
6 @ fdisk option Choose #3
7 Choose #1 DELETE Primary DOS Partition or choose the partition you wish to delete
(This is your LAST chance to back out)8 Hit ENTER
9 Hit ENTER
10 Type the letter Y11 Hit ENTER (ONCE YOU HIT THE ENTER KEY THERE IS NO GOING BACK)
12 HIT ESC
13 HIT ESC
14 HIT ESC
15 RE Start the Computer using the re-set button or turn the power off wait 10 seconds then turn the power back on.
16 LOAD Your Operating System the DRIVE IS NOW BLANK***If you are using Windows 95 it must be the B version which supports large drives and your BIOS MUST support large disks to use Large Disk Support. However you can break up your hard disk into drives of 2gig or less to avoid this limitation and use the entire disk space. If you do not elect to break up your hard disk and you have not elected to enable large disk support FDISK allocates the size it wants and continues. You can loose a substantial amount of hard disk space depending upon the size of the drive if you don’t break it up.
** You will need to format each of the hard drives created in FDISK if you are using Windows 95.
***If you don’t know the volume label you need to exit FDISK, format the drive (to remove the volume label) and start the FDISK procedure again.
Special Note:If your drive is large enough (60 GB or larger) I suggest you split your drive into two segments a drive #1 around 20 to 40 GB (keep in mind drive #1 needs to be large enough to hold your Operating System and ALL of your Programs) and a drive #2 that uses the balance of the drive. Use drive #1 for the Operating System and Programs. The #2 drive can be used as a DATA drive (store anything you want to keep like letters, backup files, ETC) incase you need to reinstall your Operating System and Programs (for some reason) on drive #1.
Hope this helps
sorry for the format of post I just copied and pasted it from a MS Word doc
Fixer
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Forgot to add to my first post
Try setting the HD to cable select or Slave
xp should see it when you start up, then you can work with it from there.You can break the drive up and format it using xp
Fixer
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JRS
"The computer does not recognize the hard drive". Does this mean the hardrive isn't properly identified during the POST screens at startup? If so, you probably have the jumpering or cabling set wrong. Or the IDE channels are not enabled.
If you can see this HD in a different machine then the drive is functional. Use killdisk as mentioned above. This is a powerful little utility so what I suggest you do is this. Connect the bad drive as a master on the first IDE channel. Disconnect ALL your other harddrives for safety. Killdisk must already be copied to a Windows BOOT DISK. Put in the floppy and boot to your BIOS screens. Set the boot order to boot to floppy first, then CD, then your SATA drive. Then save and exit. The computer should boot to the floppy disk. Select boot the computer without CD support. When you have an A: prompt type Killdisk. Been awile since I used Killdisk but I believe you will then get a choice of what drive you wish to work with. You should only SEE one drive at that point. Select the C: drive and execute Killdisk. Then shutdown and reconnect your other drives. Boot to the BIOS and disable first boot device. This last step isn't necessary but it will avoid a floppy seek each time you boot. Then restart and enter WinXP. Go to Manage> Storage> Disk Managment. Your drive should now be seen and you can partition and format as desired.
FYI, you don't need to partition and format ahead of time when installing WinXP.
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For response #5. That is correct. The drive is not recognized on POST. Using an external USB to IDE drive cable, PArtition Magic says that the drive partition is bad.
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Check out that your ribbons are working fine and in the right position. Also check if the HD is getting energy from the power cord. try switching with one that you already know its working. If POST doesnt recognize it, then it means 3 things. 1. your HD is not working.(Somehow!!) 2. ribbons and power is bad. 3. there is a problem with the master/slave conf. Try using different ways to see if it works.
For your SATA drive, connect it to another pc and format it using windows xp or vista. Dont use that partion magic stuff. Im not saying is bad. just had lots of problems using it. 80% like yours!!
Hope this help and gl!!
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So, you computer doesn't see this drive at all even at POST but you CAN see the drive using the other computer. I believe your computer is not recognizing this drive.
"I tested the drive with the other computer and Partition Magic, it states that the partition table is bad and will not repartition or reformat it".
I don't thnk the drive is at fault though. Logic dictates that IF you can see this drive in ANY computer than the drive is working, albeit not correctly. I repeat what I stated before, you have the drive configured wrong or your IDE channel isn't working. To add to that you might want to try a different cable and power connector. Once you get the drive to be seen use Killdisk to wipe it.
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