Member Avatar for zalakes

my hardrive shows in post, shows in device manager, but does not show any where else. eg My Computer, Disk Defragment it does not show in all these things.

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If the drive appears in POST and Device Manager but never shows a drive letter, Windows can see the hardware but cannot mount a usable partition. That can be either a logical problem (corrupt MBR/partition table, RAW filesystem) or physical media failure (bad sectors, SMART errors). Because ran SeaTools and saw many errors, treat the disk as suspect and choose steps based on whether the data on it matters.

Non‑destructive first steps (if you need the data): 1) Stop writing to the disk. Further writes make recovery harder. 2) Verify the drive is seen in BIOS and try different power/cable/port or a different PC/enclosure to rule out the controller/cable. For older IDE systems check jumpers; for XP-era installs remember that SATA controllers sometimes need the vendor F6 driver during setup. 3) Create a sector‑level image of the drive before trying repairs — use a rescue environment and a tool that handles bad sectors (for example, GNU ddrescue). 4) Work from the image: use TestDisk to attempt partition/MBR recovery or file‑carving tools to pull data. Avoid chkdsk or formatting until you have an image, because those are destructive.

If you don’t need the data and want to try to reuse the disk: run the manufacturer’s long/erase tools or a full zero-fill to force remapping of bad sectors, but only if diagnostics show no mechanical failure. If SeaTools/SMART reports reallocated/pending/uncorrectable sectors or if the drive makes clicking/grinding noises, the disk is likely failing and should be replaced — don’t waste time with zero‑fills. The “freezer trick” is unreliable and risks condensation damage; avoid it.

’s reformat idea applies when the issue is just a corrupt filesystem. ’s zero-fill is a reasonable last step for logically damaged but physically healthy disks. Best immediate action: image first if data matters; then try TestDisk on the image; otherwise retire or low‑level erase the drive depending on test results.

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Member Avatar for jfountain02

It might need to be re-formatted

Member Avatar for Coconut Monkey

jfountain02 is on the right track. ;)

See here.

Member Avatar for zalakes

you cannot access the hard drive from any where including xp setup so formating i\does not work

Member Avatar for Coconut Monkey

Zalakes, did you read the guide I posted?

I assume this is a new hard drive you've rigged up, so in order to access it you need to create a partition which you then format. The link above contains detailed instructions on how to do this in Windows XP. ;)

Member Avatar for zalakes

its not a new hard drive... What im saying is that you cannot access the drive. it was working fine until a few weeks ago, u can see the drive in device manager but no where else.

Member Avatar for Coconut Monkey

I see now, sorry for the mix-up. What kind of drive is it? Model, make and interface type.

Regardless, you should check out the disk management section mentioned in the guide I posted. That should provide some information on what exactly is happening with the hard drive.

Member Avatar for zalakes

i used seatools and found lots of errors on the drive so i think i should just throw it away or put it in the freezer. lol

Member Avatar for Coconut Monkey

Actual bad sectors or possible partition errors? I'm not sure what Seatools tests for but you could just have a corrupted paritition. If there's nothing worth recovering then perhaps a zerofill utility could give you a working (albeit blank) drive.

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