Cannot access my 2nd hard drive!!!

Chris_James · #1 Mar 29, 2004, 03:19 PM

I was online when my computer froze up and I had to shut it down. Ever since I cannot access my additional hard drive. It appears in "My Computer" but when I try to open it I get the following error:

"D:\ is not accessible. A device attached to the system is not functioning."

Under the Performance tab in System Properties it says:
"Drive D is using MS-DOS compatibility mode file system."

I have also checked the bios under boot and my other drives (C, Floppy A, and CD Rom) are there but not this one. I also opened up the tower, checked all connections, and even replaced he cable. I've been
searching online but have not been able to find an effective fix. I am hoping the data on this drive has not been lost - if you can help I would most certainly appreciate it!

P.S. I'm running Windows 98 Second edition.

psi42 · Mar 29, 2004, 06:16 PM

Quote:

author=Chris_James link=board=computer_hardware;num=1080602343;start= 0#0 date=03/29/04 at 15:19:02]I was online when my computer froze up and I had to shut it down. Ever since I cannot access my additional hard drive. It appears in "My Computer" but when I try to open it I get the following error:

"D:\ is not accessible. A device attached to the system is not functioning."

Under the Performance tab in System Properties it says:
"Drive D is using MS-DOS compatibility mode file system."

I have also checked the bios under boot and my other drives (C, Floppy A, and CD Rom) are there but not this one. I also opened up the tower, checked all connections, and even replaced he cable. I've been
searching online but have not been able to find an effective fix. I am hoping the data on this drive has not been lost - if you can help I would most certainly appreciate it!

P.S. I'm running Windows 98 Second edition.

I think it's unlikely that the hard drive has been physically fried. Unless it's been making oddish noises, the hardware should be fine.

Quote:

]
I have also checked the bios under boot and my other drives (C, Floppy A, and CD Rom) are there but not this one.

Are you sure? If the disk does not show up in the BIOS, it should not even be detected at all in windows (unless it's another windows bug). How is this drive connected in relation to your primary hard drive? Is it on the same IDE cable? Are you using a different IDE interface than the one integrated into the motherboard (i.e. a PCI IDE card)?

What probably happened was that the hard reset messed up the filesystem on the only partiton on that drive. A quick fix, of course, would be to repartition the drive and recreate the filesystem, but there may be a chance you can salvage the data.

I don't know much about reconstructing file tables and inodes, but I would suggest you try:

0) Double-check if the drive is recognized normally from the BIOS and the drive and partition show up in your favorite partitioning utility.

1) Try accessing the partition normally from DOS and Linux boot discs.

2) scandisk (dos) the filesystem. save any "file fragments"

3) boot from a linux disc and dosfsck the partition

That's really the only input I can give you. Let's hope a filesystem expert jumps in here.

Keep us posted.

~psi42



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