I have two 40gb hdds in my pc. One has the os on it and the other is a slave storage drive named E drive. All has been well for years but suddenly I cannot access my E drive. It doesn't show up in "my computer" but is recognised in the bios as well as device manager which says it's working properly. SIW shows it under storage devices but not under logical disks. The only thing that looks odd is under device manager general tab where it says device usage it says use this device (enable). Any ideas what is wrong?

Put it on the 2ndary channel, not the primary.

Are both drive identical? I had issues when using Identical drives in the same system.

Look in disk management to see if the drives both show there.

Yes both drives are identical and have been configured like this for 4 years now flawlessly. I simply went to use that drive one day and it wasn't there. As for disk mgmt, will have to check it when I get home.

IT sounds like it is not formatted (or at least, Windows doesn't think it is). Windows is obviously detecting it, as it shows up in Device Manager, but has not assigned it a drive letter.

If there is nothing on the drive you are worried about losing, you can use the disk manager to format it again.

If you are worried about loosing something, you might look into using a program like Partition Magic or a specialized recovery program.

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Did you by chance disable the device in device manager? Does it have a red X beside the drive in device manager? If so, select enable and reboot.

Silence is golden but duct tape is silver

I have had problems with WinXP all of a sudden failing to recognize a drive. I've ended up repartitioning three drives because of that problem. One of the drives turned out to have a bad area and had to be trashed, the other two drives worked fine after the repartition/format.

It does not show in disk management. Only my C drive. It is not disabled in device manager but the option to disable is there. As previously stated the device useage box says use this device (enable), whereas the c drive box shows nothing and is greyed out, and has no option to disable. The drive is nearly full of data I wish to keep. Is there a way to gain access to the contents to copy to an external hdd?

There may be something wrong with the cable or the connections. You say both drives are properly identified by model in the startup screens?

Nothing has been disturbed and what are you refering to as the startup screens?

When you first boot the computer there should be screens with the BIOS, drive and hardware settings.

If you are not seeing those screens then you need to enter the BIOS screens (setup) and disable fast boot and any logos, save when exiting.

Here are a couple of file recovery programs that you could use.

PC Inspector (free)
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/pcinsp...

Zero assumption Recovery
http://www.z-a-recovery.com
The demo is limited
It will only recover'up to' four folders per run
But you can make multiple runs.

Disregard.

That's what I thought you meant. Yes they are each identified in bios by model number. Also SIW sees both and their serial numbers too. I have get back data somewhere on this machine and will see if it will do anything. I did read somewhere about disconnecting the drive, booting up, then shutting down. Reconnect the drive and boot up and see if windows can find it. However tower is not in the easiest place to remove side panels at this time.

Possible to have a defective cable that can partially work. Try a new cable. If you have a live version of Linux handy try that to see if Linux sees the drive. Knoppix is a good one.

Look at this.
http://www.ubcd4win.com/

Getting under the covers is your next step. I would second that disconnect and reboot then reconnect and see if windows sees it. Could be a resource conflict with another device as well. Any difference when you boot into safe mode? You can always download the hdd diagnostic software from the manufactuer.

A long shot would be group policy hiding the drive or access to it.

Silence is golden but duct tape is silver

Let me get this straight, it shows up in Device Manager but is no displayed in the Disk Manager? Try action > Rescan disks in the disk management. Is this a Basic or dynamic disc? Are you using a raid card? Does it show up in Mycomputer? I would try the hooking it up on another cable or another pc. Are their any event logs pertaining to this drive?

Sorry didn't get back sooner. Nothing was different in safemode. Don't quite understand basic and dynamic disk (despite googling) but it is a wd 40gb hdd just like the main hdd. As stated previously, it does not show up in my computer. Soon as I can I will pull the tower out where I can get inside to check cable.

Right click My Computer and choose manage> storage> Disk Management. Do you see the drive there? If so, you need to take ownership of the files/ folders. To learn how look at the link below.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308421

No, it does not show up in disk mgmt. (see response 7)