hard drive issues.
 

i have a hard drive that has 2 partitions on it. one is the C drive and the other is D.
the computer runs so the hard drive works, C works but it does not see the D drive.
virus?
I also have another hard drive on there and it sees that one.

the other day I tried to open some stuff on the D drive and it wouldn't, then yesterday it does not even see D

is D drive a recovery partition ?

Reboot.

Check all connections.

Run Malware bytes and CC Cleaner.

Partition map is corrupt.

Run Disk Management.

What does it say about the partition?

not recovery. old style computer with actual SW disk.

problem is all those programs are ON the D drive.
that's my data drive. I kept all my stuff on D, then if I needed to format the drive with the OS I don't lose my data.

I also copied all my SW disks to the D so I would have backups and easy access to them.

A little more info would help:
- what OS and version?
- What formatting is on the drive?
- When did this occur?
- Has it happened once or twice before becoming permanent?
- Has the computer crashed or stopped or froze in the last few days?
- Did you try to startup in Windows Safe Mode?
- Do you do an external backup?

Please let us know. Include a picture of your cat/dog so when we answer with the possible bad news it will not be so hard.

I hate to answer,
win XP. really only use it for music stuff now.
just happened. I have not looked into it other than rebooting the PC.

BTW, I hate working on computers especially when its mine.

its been fine until I could not open some files last week.

I am hoping the MBR is not screwed up.....virus.
I figured it would go after the C drive, not the D. actually think it is, uh was the E drive.


I figure this one is appropriate since the cat is dead

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1511798961.jpg

Run Disk Management and tell us what it tells you about the partitions status.

http://www.resize-c.com/howto/img/di...management.png

Ah, XP. Well. no matter. Open a command prompt and run "chkdsk.exe" it will run in read only mode and tell you if there are any errors in the MBR or the partition table that it can correct. You can run it in "fix" mode after that if it comes up with something it can repair.

no more comments on XP? your just being kind.

will have to do when I get home.

I need to transfer some music recordings and do a quick mix first. need to send them out.

did I mention I hate working on computers...

Well the stuff on there needs to get off. I used Wondershare Recovery software and the free version works great. If the hardware can be seen with or without the OS and partition information. It will take a long, very long time of partition information is corrupted as the program reads the disk physical information.

On your way home stop at Best Buy, Costco or any other place that will sell you an external hard drive and backup the "C" drive immediately. The latest drive I bought had data recovery and backup software included, it was a Seagate 1TB.

Before that, try a start in safe mode and run chkdsk.exe as noted above. See what it sez?

That is a pretty good cat bed. Ours live 7 or 8 years due to being "hunters" and usually just go off to die and we get a new one or two.

Same here.

I replaced the HD on an XP computer a few years ago without incident.
Acronis disk-imaging software I think came with the new HD and worked perfectly: OS and all was transferred to the new platter. All good.
The only potential catch was identifying the type of disk format system (I think that's the correct term) during the click throughs.

Then bought the Acronis program to use with another HD replacement.
Didn't realize it was a one-time-use deal with that program, which was ~$55. Yikes.

Windows 7 on a laptop this time.
Many small plastic clip parts to break or lose such as those dang plastic data ribbon wedges.
I get everything physically and data swapped over and Microsoft says it needs original disk for validation (HP did not provide one with the original sale).
Ex gf was official purchaser but I had paid for it.
I'm stuck with that one.

+100!
Only after you have backed up what you can, then try MBRcheck.exe (free program) chkdisk, and search for virus or malware. Also try using System Restore to the last date when everything worked.

One more thought: I've had it where a drive couldn't read a CD or DVD but if I copied it the drive could read the copy. I don't know if you can do that with a HD though.

Is it urban legend, or does freezing the broken HD first make it transfer better?
(in a bag I assume)

The freezing thing is a myth. You never want to disconnect a hard drive unless you are going to take it to a recovery shop and they are big bucks. Remember this is one physical drive with a C and a D partition. I used to do that and finally bought several disks and each has it's own letter and each is used for different things.
C is a solid state drive, very fast since the OS writes most temp stuff there. 500MB with 500MB recovery partition
D is the DVD reader/burner.
E/F/G are used for external drives/ thumb drives such as my Vizio movie box.
H is work and school (I taught but finally retired). 4TB
L is for web stuff/downloads and images. 4TB
M is for images backup 4TB
N is Temp storage. 4TB
Q is auto weekly backup. 6TB

As noted see if you can get a drive or two, then as noted above move stuff off.

WOO HOO!!!! IT'S BACK.

I put this computer together this year from spare parts and I changed the way I had it.
I put the OS on a separate 40g hd. I added 160g for music and I combined the 2 partitions on the 1tb hd.

Bios was not even seeing the 1tb hd.
All Sata drives, I swapped cables from the cdrom and it is up.

Gotta get some music stuff done then I will deal with either cable issue or other board issue.

Thanks for all the help

Never heard that one.

Freezing one can buy you a bit of crucial time if you have one that is physically malfunctioning, as in not spinning up fully due to bad bearings.

I've done it with mixed results in the past, usually a last ditch effort.