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Problems with missing Drives in Win98SE

BorgmanJayce - Jul 22, 2003

		BorgmanJayce		Jul 22, 2003
			Is it possible for drives to vanish from Windows 98 even though they've been installed properly? Amongst the drives I have installed are a 40GB Western Digital Hard Drive on which Windows 98SE is installed on EIDE Channel 1 and a Waitec WT2444EI CD-Writer along with a 40GB Fujitsu 40GB Hard Drive which has just been formatted last week as a spare one on Eide Channel 2. The problem is that the Western Digital Hard Drive obviously shows up in Windows Explorer but for some reason, the Waitec CD-Writer and the Fujitsu Hard Drive aren't showing up which is really ticking me off as I want to move some files from the WD HD to the Fujitsu one as well as burn some CD's along with installing a demo of Paint Shop Pro 8 but I can't because the two drives won't show up... To make matters worse, it turns out that rundll32.exe had somehow been deleted recently from the Windows directory and I managed to reinstall it in the Windows directory. If anybody has any suggestions on how I can get Windows 98SE to get my other two drives to show up, I'd be really grateful...

		Curtis		Jul 22, 2003
			Hmm...sounds a little like a virus to me. You'll often find a virus screwing with/using rundll32.exe. Perhaps some antivirus software of yours deleted it for you. Other than that, just look at the usuals - faulty HD, faulty IDE cable, corrupted driver install. Get the latest chipset drivers from the relevant website. How do you have all the drives plugged into your system? I mean the order? EDIT: forget the last, I can't read...

		BorgmanJayce		Jul 22, 2003
			Basically I have the drives in the following order: IDE Channel 1:Western Digital 40GB Hard Drive [Master] IDE Channel 2:Waitec WT2444EI CD Writer [Master] Fujitsu 40GB Hard Drive [Slave] As far as I know, the cables should be OK although I am worried about the situation with the second EIDE Channel.

		Curtis		Jul 22, 2003
			Yeah...that CD writer should really be the only thing on that channel - make the Fujitsu slave to the WD and see if that fixes anything.

		Protosstic		Jul 22, 2003
			one thing, when your computer starts up, and it goes through the POST , does it show those devices correctly in the bios? If so, then it's a windows issue, and could be anything really, so get a virus scanner and check, and if you don't get it going soon, think about formatting.

		BorgmanJayce		Jul 22, 2003
			I have a problem in that the caddy holder for the WD only holds one HDD it seems but I can try and check if I can fit another drive.

BorgmanJayce

Jul 22, 2003

	
	
		
		
			Originally posted by Protosstic@Jul 22, 2003 @ 02:04 PM



 one thing, when your computer starts up, and it goes through the POST , does it show those devices correctly in the bios?



If so, then it's a windows issue, and could be anything really, so get a virus scanner and check, and if you don't get it going soon, think about formatting.

As of last week, it showed the two devices up correctly and I know the Fujitsu drive worked because I formatted it myself in Windows and I haven't been online in months so I couldn't have caught a virus that way.

		gameboy900		Jul 22, 2003
			There are many viruses that activate on a specific date and lie dormant on your pc till then.

BorgmanJayce

Jul 23, 2003

	
	
		
		
			Originally posted by gameboy900@Jul 22, 2003 @ 03:23 PM



 There are many viruses that activate on a specific date and lie dormant on your pc till then.

I didn't know viruses like the kind that you talked about existed especially as I checked and double-checked that everything was set up correctly, especially as the 2 drives on the second IDE Channel don't show up when the POST part of the bootup appears...

		Curtis		Jul 23, 2003
			Ah well...it's either a dodgy IDE cable, or a faulty HD controller then. Possibly one of the drives has been damaged. If they aren't showing on POST, it is a hardware problem. Go into BIOS and see if you can auto-detect the drives.

		gameboy900		Jul 24, 2003
			Also try connecting each drive seperately with the cable from the working drive and to the ide connector it's hooked up to. If the bios detects the drives there then it's either the cable or second ide channel that's bad. If not then the drives are fucked. If they do work try using the other cable on the known working ide connector to see if it's the cable or ide channel. If it's the cable, simple fix, just buy a new one. If it's the ide channel.....not much you can do unless you want to invest in an inexpensive ide pci card.

		BorgmanJayce		Jul 25, 2003
			The latest news on the problem is that the BIOS now seems to have either gone belly up or my monitor's acting all screwy! Basically what's happened is that I flashed my BIOS with a upgrade after making sure more than twice that I had the right one and all went well until the computer wouldn't reboot after flashing the BIOS so I switched off the computer and now the monitor screen won't come on at all even after using the BIOS switch on the motherboard to reinstall the old BIOS on it... [Hates Fujistu-Siemens now with a passion...] So rather than go thru all the hassle of installing a special Micro ATX Motherboard; one of which I found for nearly £60, I've decided to buy instead a QDI Legend Advance 10F+ which has not only better specs than the one that was nearly £60 but is also a lot cheaper at the same time. I'm also going to buy a reasonably priced case from ebuyer and I'm going to transfer the PCI cards from the old case along with the processor and fan to the new motherboard and case and hopefully I won't fry this board like I did with the last one I bought when I forgot to put standoffs in the case... I'll let you know how I get on so please wish me the best of luck!