Drive not showing?

Insane_Drifter

Hi all
i have an extra drive on pc, shows in device manager no yellow question marks etc does not show in my computer or disk management. How do i get it so i can use it? Using XP

Paradigm

Is it formatted?

Insane_Drifter

Yes as best as i can remember

exup

is the drive external or internal (SATA / IDE?)

GeoffX

Your disk may not have a drive letter attached to it:
Click on the Start button, then Run. Type compmgmt.msc and press enter. A window will open. Click Disk Management.
From here you can format disks, partition them and associate drive letters, so you need need to be very careful before you make any changes.

kwikbreaks

If it isn't showing in disk management I reckon you be snookered. Are you sure it shows in device manager?

May be worth looking in the CMOS settings but the BIOS has been autodetecting hard drives since shortly after Noah beached his ark and it must be there anyway if it is really showing in the device manager.

All very strange.

Insane_Drifter

defo in device manager but not in disk management

kwikbreaks

Have you got a USB caddy that you could put it in? If so you may be able to see it in disk management from there and sort it out.

I suspect it could be something like a corrupt partition table but even then I'd expect it to show in disk management.

davb

As has been said previously, it's unusual not to see anything in Disk Management - even if the drive is unformatted or a non-windows format, the drive itself should show. Have you tried using "rescan disks"

Alternatively, device manager could still detect the drive controller even if the disk itself is fried.
Can you test the drive in another PC to see if it works.

Insane_Drifter

not got one, i have had alot of probs with pc lately but have reinstalled Xp everything is working well but cant work out why this drive isnt showing as it used too