hard drive help

zanks · June 18th, 2004, 10:43 PM

i recently bought a new western digital 120gig hard disk and set it up as a secondary master drive on the same EID cable or whatever. i transferred about 10gig's of files from my current hard disk to it and reformatted my current hard disk... I reinstalled windows ME (unfortunately) and everything is working fine now.. However, i cannot access my western digital HD.. Data lifegaurd will allow me to access this HD but it requires me to partition or erase everything i have on the western dig HD.. Is there any way i can access the data on the western dig without reformatting it and loosing all the data i thought was safe?

Bovon · June 18th, 2004, 11:56 PM

Quote:

i recently bought a new western digital 120gig hard disk and set it up as a secondary master drive on the same EID cable or whatever.

Umm, pls explain what an EID cable is...sorry, but that one does not register.

You had a primary master and a secondary master. One was the operating drive with an OS on it, and the new WD had nothing on it..right so far?

Did you fdisk and format the WD before transferring data to it?...

Answer this for me, and maybe we can decide if you have a chance to recover anything or not.

zanks · June 19th, 2004, 12:09 AM

EID is just the cable that hooks the hard drives to the motherboard.. The primary master had the OS on it.. i installed the secondary master drive and moved a ton of files from the primary to the secondary.. Then i reformatted the primary and reinstalled windows etc. Now i want to re-access the files on the secondary drive without having to erase them like the program data lifegaurd seems to require.

proneal · June 19th, 2004, 12:22 AM

I was wondering - can you disable or uninstall data lifeguard , then after transfer, re-install?

i am no expert here,
just a thought, and I know nothing about data lifeguard.

sincerely
PS

EID = EIDE (Enhanced Integrated Drive Electronics) - that what u mean right?

zanks · June 19th, 2004, 12:28 AM

yes EIDE is what i mean...

as for data lifeguard: it is the program that western digital provides in order to configure and get your PC to recognize the new hard drive.

Shawn711 · June 19th, 2004, 12:32 AM

Another thought, what format is the secondary master formatted in? Probably FAT32, but just checking to make sure it's not NTFS as Windows ME wouldn't recognize that........... Also, make sure the secondary master is on the end of the IDE cable as that is the position on the ribbon that the master is supposed to be on. Maybe, if neither works/is the problem, try changing the secondary master's jumper setting on the drive to cable select.........the only ideas I can think of right off the top of my head.

Shawn

proneal · June 19th, 2004, 12:40 AM

Ok, so still confused.
Your set up with a second master on SAME cable????? with another master?
"set it up as a secondary master drive on the same EID cable or whatever" - is what you said,
So how is it even possible??
I must be reading wrong or missed something, sheesh

zanks · June 19th, 2004, 01:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by proneal

Ok, so still confused.
Your set up with a second master on SAME cable????? with another master?
"set it up as a secondary master drive on the same EID cable or whatever" - is what you said,
So how is it even possible??
I must be reading wrong or missed something, sheesh

yes,, the single cable has one connection to the motherboard, but two links (one in the middle and one on the end) for two devices.

truckpuller · June 19th, 2004, 01:18 AM

From what im reading he does not say if he partioned his second hard drive or formatt it from what i read. Also the second hard drive should be set as slave should it not?

Just my 1 1/2 cents worth

Shawn711 · June 19th, 2004, 01:25 AM

Pretty sure the drive on the end of the ide cable should be set as the master, while the drive on the middle of the cable should be set as the slave............or set them both on cable select and let them figure it out!

If they are both on the same cable, then one has to be set as the slave by the jumpers or on cable select as both cannot be masters on the same channel. In order for both to be a master drive, they have to be on seperate ide ribbons/channels. That might be the cause of your problem. I would assume the drive that has Windows installed on it is probably the drive on the end of the ribbon, while Windows can't recognize the other drive because of the conflict of drive settings.....

Shawn