Hard Drive problems (for those who have advanced knowledge ofDOS)
 

I use to have a C drive and a partitioned D drive. I had to reinstall 98se and when I looked in My Computer, the D drive is gone.. I tried formating and reinstalling 98 a few times, but it is still the same result. I went into MS dos and typed fdisk /status.. I see the drive that use to be my D drive, but it doesnt have a letter next to it.. Is there any way to reactiviate it somehow?

Use fdisk to delete the partition that used to be D:, then put a new partition in the same place, and it will become D:.

The partition may be there, but the "Logical Drive" may not... go back into fdisk and create a new Logical DOS Drive in the partition.
[edit]If that doesn't work, do what Mike said.[/edit]

wait I have important files on it, will the logical drive fix it without deleting anything?

Did you have 98se on the computer before you formatted?

yep.. I formated C:\ cause i thought something in it was causing D to go missing, and I reinstalled Win98, but with no use.

I think deleting the partition and replacing it is the only way to get D: back. Of course, you'll lose all that data on it if you do that, so I hope someone can come up with a better idea.

There are repair tools available (PM me for help "acquiring" them), but they are generally expensive.

I don't have 98 installed, and I don't recall the interface of fdisk very well, but could you give us a screen shot with the status data about the drive?

That would probably help so we can figure out what path to take. My guess is that somehow the partition table got screwed up by the Windows 98 install.

Heres what happened when I look up the disk properties of D:\
Display Partition Information

Current fixed disk drive: 2

Partition Status Type Volume Label Mbytes System Usage
1 A Non-DOS 2012 100%
2 Non-DOS 1799 89%



Total disk space is 2012 Mbytes (1 Mbyte = 1048576 bytes)

How do you make number 2 active?

Your partition table is fucked.

'Non-DOS'<<<

What happened to make your D drive 'disappear'?

Re: Hard Drive problems (for those who have advanced knowledge ofDOS)
 

i have a similar problem except you still can go on windows :cry: you could always re-make the drive... by re-make i mean make the other (insert amount of GB here) a partition again... just an idea....

I seen this one here a few months or a similar kind of problem. What you did when you formatted c: was wipe the data telling it that d: existed.
you'll still see it a as non-logiacl in DOS (Option 4 on first fdisk menu).
Alot of folk when they format c: just use 'FORMAT C:' when they should use 'FORMAT C:/s'. this put's the initial system files on the disk and help's windows load correctly. You can still run set-up either way, but'ws it's best to use the /s command.
Anyway you have to tell the registry that the drive is there i.e. your drive D:. when you formatted C: and then re-installed you installed a new registry. You need to tell your computer it is there and that the files are there.

Not sure how you do it as I only ever use 1 partition and allways have. No need for two and when I did use them they gave nothing but problems. This one being a prime example.
I have fixed it before (This works if you can see the drive in DOS) Is to move the files to c:/ temporarily and then formatting D: so it can be seen again, then you should be able to move the files back via the normal way in windows.
It's quite a while since I used DOS but at the A: promt I think you type the drive letter you want, 'D:'
Then there's a command to 'List' all the files on D: but like I say I forget it off hand (Think it maybe list *_* ..seem to remember the *_*)

Anyway you should be able to move the files as long as you can get the computer to reconise the D: drive other wise your gonna need something like Partion Magick to fix it or a data extraction tool to back the data up then re-set your computer (with the partition renewed as well - Thats if you really want the partition)

Anyway your D: drive will be a non-logical and your C: drive should be a Primamry DOS...hmmm maybe it was set as non-primary (Your D: drive), That option is 2 on on the options...they should be Create Primary, Non-primary, Logical, non-logical in that order. Depends wether the D: drive was set as a non-primary or non-logical...it would have been one of these options...

Sorry Cyu, if you get really stuck with this I'd advise a visit to a good techie shop in your area, and try make it someone you know and trust. I get call's all the time after a certain idiot in my area has been at a computer, most cases the computer is totalled and needs serious work to get it right again. I don't why the fucker does but he has a habit of pulling RAM with-out earthing out first and he wears nylon to boot ---end of story for the poor RAM and he's no better with MB'S, so take it to some one you know and trust, like I say, would be my advice...

G'Luck

~ :)

cyu: do you have enough space on C:\ for the files you need from D:\?

After hours of trying to figure things out yesterday, I decided to blow it off and format D: along with 300 of my mp3's. :( I listed all the files on D:\, but Program Files and the other directories didn't show up. After formatting and deleting, I decided to create a primary partition. I understand that DOS will only limit it to 2GB, but I have a total of 4 on the secondary drive. Strange thing is, after trying to add 2 more GB, fdisk couldn't find any more space. I tried chkdsk and scandisk, but still couldn't get my space back.. Any clues, suggestions?

Yes take it to a shop and they will not only reset it properly but possibly recover your mp3's.

~ :)