hard drive problem

[jono2003uk]

Slight problem, i have a 40 gb hard drive, with windows on and an 80 gb one.Which was used for storeing things however a random message came up on the hardrive saying format the disk( i was thinking of doing this anyway) so thought yeah alright then, clicked format....windows came back with : "windows was unable to format the drive", i thought oohh probly needs de-fraging first but in my horror the drive has vanished.. it just not in "my computer" i am hopeing it isnt broke but i dont know what the hell to do, any help please?

jono

[Krell]

Slight problem, i have a 40 gb hard drive, with windows on and an 80 gb one.Which was used for storeing things however a random message came up on the hardrive saying format the disk( i was thinking of doing this anyway) so thought yeah alright then, clicked format....windows came back with : "windows was unable to format the drive", i thought oohh probly needs de-fraging first but in my horror the drive has vanished.. it just not in "my computer" i am hopeing it isnt broke but i dont know what the hell to do, any help please?

jono

If it werent for that fact that I cant remember hating you for something, I wouldnt help you. That aside, there's little I can do with the cryptic description that you gave.

So . . XP is on the 40, some files were on the 80. You screwed something up, and are unable to format the 80.

If that is correct DO THE FOLLOWING:

1) Start > run > compmgmt.msc

2) Disc Management

3) Observe the volumes you have that are probably the 80g drive

4) Right Click it, and Delete that partition.

5) Right click again, and MAKE a partition, chose Basic.

6) Format it NTFS

If anything varies from what I presacribed above, DETAIL IT in very clear and specific terms with what more likely resembles English.

If the drive is a removable USB device, say so.

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[jono2003uk]

There is no partion in the volumes of the hard drive, but i`m guessing that i should make another parition and then format it, like step 5?

Cheers for your help by the way

[zaphodiv]

We repeat
DETAIL IT in very clear and specific terms with what more likely resembles English.

I suspect a hardware failure here. Is the drive detected by the BIOS when the computer is turned on?
It may be worth taking the lif off the computer and checking that the harddrive cables are fully inserted.

In the lower pane of the disk management window does it list two harddrives, probably Disk 0 and disk1 ?

[Krell]

If this 80g drive doesnt show up in the BIOS, and doesnt show up in the boot process with the other IDE devices, then you have drive failure.

If it does show up, which I suspect it does if you see it in the XP mgt console, then yes, do step 5.


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