Win XP won't see SATA hard drive

By the way, the drive did not show up in Disk Management either. I did turn off system restore on the drive months ago too.

Thanks for any help.

One more thing, the disk is good. I can see it as a Samsung when I look at the boot sequence. Hope this help for any solution.

Thanks.

See this thread here:

EXCEPT, for you - start further down on the page where I talk about testing the hard drive using the manufacturer's utility (link provided).

Then you can work your way up in the thread (if the drive is good) and start to try to recover data.

Hi Goombawaho,

Thanks for the info. I got some more info which may help. I use Ghost boot disk. I saw the drive as "H" when I attached to the PC as a 2nd drive. It should have been "F". When I 1st plug it in the PC via the SATA dock, I also have another USB drive plug in. This would explain the "H". The data is there. I think the drive boot is corrupted so Window just hung.

How to I rest this? Should I try to use a Linux boot to look for the drive? Apple? Is there a registry fix?

Thanks.

Check the BIOS for BOOT ORDER and place that drive as the LAST drive in the list!!! a wrong order of the HDDs can cause the hangup that you are experiencing...

causes for an HDD not being seen by Windows:

1. Drive FAULTY - TEST per Gooms suggestion...
2. cable damaged..
3. power connector not seated correctly...

once you test the drive with the DIAG software that Goom suggested and it turns out fine (let us know this TOO), then proceed to use a LINUX LiveCD, such as Knoppix or Parted Magic (GOOGLE), to try to gain access to said drive and it's files...


annotation:

even if the BIOS sees the drive, it does not state that the drive is GOOD...

even if you ONCE seen all the files, this does not preclude that the drive is fine and that the files can be accessed there after...



Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

I tried but it turned out to be a firmware issue. The firmware became corrupted after the USB cable was disconnected too early I believe. I can't get any Samsung firmware to flash and it's still under warranty so I sent it bak to ADATA. I got a replacement after I've recovered the data with EASUS.

Thanks for all the helps.

Thanks for the update.