My D: drive is not useable anymore, i can't find it in My computer nor cmd.exe. i've had this problem for since before christmas but it's always found D: again after some restarts. Now, my mouse suddenly stopped working, and it was a USB mouse with a usb>ps2 converter. my computer is almost 2-3 years (don't remember exactly) old and it's a pentium 4. anyway, my mouse works in my USB port now, but still not in the old port. and i didn't do anything to the mouse, it just suddenly stopped working! but the D: drive is now all gone, even after 4 restarts. i haven't checked it in the BIOS yet. it's been the most used HDD. I have 3 HDD's. and i've always had problems with the 3rd, E:. It lagged when i was listening to music through it. but it didn't bother me so much, so i left it like that. i always use my computer a lot, at least it's on almost all the time. i always see to it so that the CPU doesn't reach 100% for a long time at once. anyway, do you think D: is dead? should i try freeze it (rumors say that can give you some hours-days to backup your stuff)? or could it be the motherboard - after all, the mouse doesn't work in the port where it should? or is it windows? my windows hasn't been reinstalled since i bought this computer. some more facts: - D: is 160 GB - my 3 HDDS is named C:, D: and E:. D: is now gone, but C: and E: has renamed with the same labels, and E: is still lagging. that means that i can see C: and E:, but there's no D:. E: has _not_ renamed itself to D:. - I don't hear any clicking sounds from D:. i read that you could hear that from almost-dead HDD's. strange? - D: is my newest HDD. it's 1-2 years old. - all HDDs has the file system NTFS. i'm thankful for all suggestions!

Maby the connections are loose to the HDD. Make sure all the cables are in tight and that the bios can see it. Mattwizz3 : ) A7N8X-E Deluxe Sempron 2600+ OC 2.2GHz 1Gb DDR400 Dual Channel Maxtor SATA 200Gb/7200/8m WDC IDE 80Gb/7200/8m Damn Microsoft... DIE STEAM DIE!

Please tell us where your C, D and E Drives are on the IDE channels. I suppose C is on primary master. What about the other two? Can you swap D and E and read the D drive?

my C is primary master, that i know. but D seems to be secondary master (if i remember correctly from the BIOS) and E: is primary slave. i'm not quite sure, i was dumb enough not to write it down. i'll come with a correct answer next time i restart the computer. today when i started my computer after having it off for 12 hours, it worked perfectly! but it's only been on for 20 min, so i'll have to see if the mouse lasts etc. i checked the BIOS, and it could find all 3 HDDs and the cd player. but it did that when i started windows too after that, so i don't know if it's like cause i had the computer off. i'll backup D: now anyway and then see if it dissapears after some restarts again. if it does, then i'll try swapping like mcamax said. and D: still doesn't click <.< may i ask, does ALL HDDs click when they're broken or can they be broken without clicking? can they be broken like mine - dissapearing from "my computer" sometimes and after restarts be visisble again? or is that probably just the windows/motherboard/cable? thank you for all answers! i'll report back how this ends. because i don't think this is the end of this issue.

can i ask another question similar to the above.....my laptop doesnt see my hd in bios,i have had it and another checked and they both work fine. any body any clues as to where i can start? laptop is :toshiba satellite 4090xcdt, os is going to be win98 or xp home when the drive is working. any help wld be gratefully recieved as this is going to be a paper weight before long :)

TLM, you need to provide more information, please. What was the recent history that led to your not being able to see the HDD in BIOS? I'm assuming you didn't just get this laptop?