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General discussion

Second Hard Drive Has No Letter Assigned

Mar 14, 2004 9:28AM PST

I had some sort of virus or something recently and had to re format my computer and re install XP. When I did this my primary drive was given the letter F instead of C like it previously was and the second drive was labeled C. A new problem arose later the next week unrelated to the drive letter thing so I decided to do another format and re install XP but put on anti virus software this time to have no more problems. The second time I re formatted my primary hard drive and re installed XP the hard drive went back to being labeled C. The problem however is that my second hard drive has no letter assigned now and I cannot access it. It shows up just fine in system tools and it says that it is healthy and all. I read up on the help page on what to do and the usual so called easy fix does not work. It said to go to the system tools and computer configuration and right click on the drive and select Change drive letter but the problem is that the option is dimmed and I cannot select it.
All I want to do is get my second drive back up because it has all of my saved stuff that I did not want to lose but now I cannot access it. Anyone who has an idea of how I can get it to have a letter assigned without losing its info please help. Maybe there is a way to unhook it and re hook it or something I can do while booting up. I already tried updating the drivers and uninstalling and re installing and no luck. Basically what I think the problem is, is that my operating system still lists it as a C drive also and will not allow two drives to have the same letter. I could have swore this happened to me the first time I went from Windows 98 to XP but that was two years ago and my brother helped me fix it. I swore he did something while booting outside of windows but I cannot remember. Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

Discussion is locked

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Re:Second Hard Drive Has No Letter Assigned
Mar 14, 2004 9:42AM PST

Try this:
With the machine powered off disconnect the second drives IDE and power cable. Boot the machine and check that the primary drive is seen checkly. Shut down the machine and reconnect the second drive. See if it shows up.

Note: Observe normal ESD(electro-static discharge) precautions when touching anything inside the case.

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Re:Re:Second Hard Drive Has No Letter Assigned
Mar 14, 2004 11:51AM PST

Your Hard Drives are mapped improperly. You may have set the jumpers and cable positions wrong. Be sure you specify Master on your primary and slave or CS on your secondary. Generally if you have two hard drives, it is a good idea to format and install on one HD and leave the other unformatted until installation is done. Then format it from inside Windows XP.

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Re:Re:Re:Second Hard Drive Has No Letter Assigned
Mar 15, 2004 1:22AM PST

Remember I never touched the jumper or cable settings, this is not a new hard drive it was already there working fine before my second re install of XP. It just has no letter assigned therefore I cannot access its information. I did follow the procedure you were mentioning of re formatting only my main drive and I saved all of my important information on the second hard drive but now I cannot get to it. As far as the Master and slave I checked and the settings are correct. The main drive is the master and the second with no letter assigned is the salve. Thank you for the help though.

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Re:Re:Second Hard Drive Has No Letter Assigned
Mar 15, 2004 12:58AM PST

Thanks for the suggestion, I tried the idea but when I re started the computer it starting spazing out and asked if I wanted to start in regular windows mode or use last working configuration so I chose last working configuration so I would not have a problem and things did not change. The second drive still shows up and with all of its info just no letter assigned and I have no access to it.

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Re:Second Hard Drive Has No Letter Assigned
Mar 14, 2004 11:27PM PST

I had the same problem a while back - go to Tweak UI, under "My Computer" - see if your drive is checked. If not check it, and restart...

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Re:Re:Second Hard Drive Has No Letter Assigned
Mar 15, 2004 12:50AM PST

Thanks for the suggestion but XP does not come with or support Tweak UI. Windows 98 was the las OS compatible that used it.

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True, but . .
Mar 15, 2004 12:57AM PST
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Re:True, but . .
Mar 15, 2004 1:13AM PST

Thanks got it, but didn't help as it had a check next to every drive letter like it was suppossed to but each drive letter had a question mark next to it that was not in use. My second drive did not show up there as the main problem I am having is it has no drive letter assigned.