IDE Slave Drive Disappears under My Computer, but is seen under Device Manager

[markgrossman]

I have an old (about 7 years old) IDE 40 GB hard drive that I use as a second data drive in my desktop PC.  It’s worked flawlessly for years.  For background, I’m working in Windows XP SP2 on a Dell 2400.  I have the drive set in the “slave” mode via the jumper pins.  When I originally installed the drive, my PC recognized it right away, automatically assigned it a drive letter, and life has been fine since. 

Until the other day, when the drive suddenly disappeared – when I click on “My Computer,” only my main “C” drive shows up under Hard Disk Drives.  It used to show a “C” and a “J” drives.

However, when I go into Devise Manager and look under Disk Drives, BOTH hard drives are there, with their unique ID numbers.  So to some extent, my computer is recognizing this slave drive.  However, there’s no way to get to the data on it.

I hear no obviously clicking or noise from the drive.  The drive appears to be getting power since it’s warm (not hot) to the touch when the PC is on, and I feel a slight vibration when I touch the drive when the computer is on.

A few things I already checked:

* I changed the power cable and the ribbon cable.  No help.

* I installed this slave drive in another similar desktop that I own.  Interestingly, Windows XP automatically detected the new hardware and installed it.  However, like on the original PC, the drive is visible in Devise Manager, but does not appear in My Computer.  (No drive letter was assigned.)

* As a double check, I took the slave drive from this other computer and installed it in the original PC.  It recognized the slave drive right away, assigning it the drive letter “J” in My Computer and allowing full access.

So, it appears that I ruled out any motherboard problems, cable failures, or Windows problems.

I would like to be able to recover the data on this slave drive.  Does anyone have any suggestions on what to do?  Is there any recovery software that might work?  Or, does this sound like a mechanical issue with the drive?

[patio]

Right clik My Computer....select Manage...then Disk Management.
Right clik the drive and select properties...
Report back with the results.

[markgrossman]

I am at work, the computer in question is at home.  But I can tell you that I did that and it reported that the devise is working fine and the driver is up to date.

Right clik My Computer....select Manage...then Disk Management.
Right clik the drive and select properties...
Report back with the results.

[Computer_Commando]

I have an old (about 7 years old) IDE 40 GB hard drive that I use as a second data drive in my desktop PC.  It’s worked flawlessly for years. ...

You've done everything I would do.  It's probably failed, 7 years is pretty good service.  Could be mechanical or electrical.  Remove it and put it in the freezer for an hour, then hook it back up and see what happens.

Since it's not completely dead, it could come alive at any time for any length of time.  Be ready to pull the data of fast.

[Geek-9pm]

Computer_Commando,
The fact that the machine is 7 years old it a big clue.
Doing the freeze is not the best option in this case. The thing works in another PC. So the drive is not spindle bound. 

It cold be the jumper is dirty. Just take it off and on a few times to clean it.

A likely problem is the ribbon cable is weak. There are 40 pins and almost any one could cause this symptom. This is seldom visible. You check it by using another.

Now, havering said that, from his post it would not be a hardware issue at all. Somehow Windows was told to urmount the drive.

As Patio said, he has to look in the Disk Management tool and see if the drive is present but not assigned the right drive letter.