Can't Browse Hard Drive

[StevieRay]

I am using three hard drives. Two IDE and one SATA. The SATA and the Master IDE work fine...the IDE set to slave is recongnized by my computer during boot and it is diplayed in my device manager and my computer management, under administrative tools.

I configured all my HD the same originally but for some reason this one now says that it is a Dynamic drive with a simple volume rather than a primary partition like the other drives...I was wondering if this could be the problem and if so how do I fix this.

Also I was hoping that there would be an option that would not include reformaing.

Thank you for the help.

[Nate89]

try putting the slave onto the other ide channel as a master thats probably where your cd rom drive is but dont worry about that now because if that works just put the cd rom as a slave or however u want to configure it....if that doesnt work then u may have to reformat

[Reverend]

Are you using XP ??

If you are,try this How To Convert to Basic and Dynamic Disks in Windows XP Professional (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;309044&sd=tech#4)

[Nate89]

now how would u find something like that reverend?

[Reverend]

now how would u find something like that reverend?the magic of Google. :)

[StevieRay]

Yes I am using XP, and as for the switching my drive I also use two CD-ROM drives, so I have no open IDE channels which is why I had to use and SATA drive.

[Reverend]

Are you using XP ??

If you are,try this How To Convert to Basic and Dynamic Disks in Windows XP Professional (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;309044&sd=tech#4)So was that knowledge base article any good ??

[Nate89]

what i was sayin was just try pluggin you hard drive onto the channel u have your cd rom drives on...too see if it helps any

[StevieRay]

The knowledge base article wasn't really any help because I can't browse the dynamic drive, so how can I back it up if I can't browse it. Also, if that is the problem why would anyone ever use a dynamic drive. I also have one of the HD partition 3 times so in effect I am using 5 HD, the three partition on the one drive and then 2 other HD. Is that a problem for some reason.

Thanks again for all the help...I really appreciate it, and sorry if my questions are fundemental...I am a newbie.

[StevieRay]

Oh...and I could try the thing with the CD-ROM it is just seems pointless though cause eventually I am going to need all of the drives working.

[Reverend]

I configured all my HD the same originally but for some reason this one now says that it is a Dynamic drive with a simple volume rather than a primary partition like the other drivesYou must have physically done something for it to suddenly show up as dynamic. Did you switch jumpers/IDE channels,etc ?

Have you gone into the BIOS recently and by some chance accidently configured RAID.

[StevieRay]

Yeah, I did change the jumper setting when I installed the new drive. If that is the reason that the drive changed to a basic layout instead of partition, will there be anyway to change it back by changing the jumpers back or is the info lost.

[StevieRay]

Cause I am think that at this point I will just reformat the HD that would just suck though cause I have so much info on this HD, 120 gig HD completly full of music, etc.

[Reverend]

Try changing the jumpers back. It may work.

And clear the CMOS after replacing the jumpers,before turning the machine on.