Recognising my HDD, but not showing up in 'My Computer'

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phb10186

New Member
:mad: I have a hard drive that I want to get some old documents off. It works either via the USB case it is in, or when connected to my PC as a slave drive.

When I boot up my PC it said new device installed OK, and when I look in Device Manager I can see it, and it tells me that it's working correctly.

I just cant access any of the files on it as I cant see it in My Computer, nor can I get to the drive via windows XP in and simple way (I am no computer whizz, but I have done what I have thought would be logical as a good all round computer user).

-It is a Maxtor 120GB drive if this helps.

Thanks for any advice in advance,

Ben
 
Good old Maxtors alright. They often see that. If you connected the drive as a slave to the primary and set the jumper to SL while on the center connector and still can't access the drive there are two possible solutions besides swapping out a possible bad ide cable(one good -one bad connector) with the first being a move of the jumper to the CS(cable select) position to see if that helps. The second right off is any udma drive tool Maxtor has available to make sure the drive is set in the correct mode. If nothing like this works the remaining option to attempt data retrieval is the use of a Linux Live distro like ubuntu or highly recommended Knoppix Live for dvd where a cd iso image is available for download and burn to a bootable cd. http://www.knoppix.net/
Try the other methods first as well as booting from the XP installation disk to the recovery console choosing the repair option and typing in "fixboot" and "fixmbr" with only the troubled drive connected. That would another thought with the Linux as a last resort.
 
:eek: Thanks a lot for the fast reply but I'm afraid it all went way over my head. Do you think it would be possible to explain it in laymans terms so that I might understand better.
 
Did you check the jumper settings when you added this drive to the case will be the first question anyone will ask. On the rear of the drive casing you will see a small slot with two rows of small pins and a plastic cap over two connecting the two rows together. On the casing itself you will see MA, SL, and CS or CL markings stamped into the casing itself. When you put the drive in did you use the center or end connector. The jumper setting and cable position will make the difference whether the drive works or not.
 
Was the drive connected to the center or end connector? If in the center simply try the SL(slave) setting with the primary set to MA(master). This is most likely the reason why the drive is inaccessible. It is being properly detected while not configured correctly for your system.
 
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