reading FAT32 drive in XP on NTFS main drive

Hi,

I just installed XP pro on an old machine and re-formatted my main (C)
drive to NTFS. I also have an old drive used to store my photos documents
mp3s etc out of harms way which is formatted to FAT32 (ME legacy) .

my problem is that although the system is reporting the drive as working
properly, and I can see it in the drive manager, I cannot see it under 'My
Computer' and cannot access it to retreve the data from it.

does anyone out there know of a way to persuade XP to read my drive, or will
I have to take it out and connect it to a PC running under FAT32 to recover
my files.

Thanks in advance

John

John,

I'm no expert but...

Try Administrative Tools>Computer Management>Disk Management and if you can
see the drive there, right click and assign it a drive letter.
Let me know if it works.

OMS


"John Stevens-Taylor" <John Stevens-Taylor@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote
in message news:FC48A9B1-D44E-4A98-AE0F-22C34F558CBE@microsoft.com...
> Hi,
>
> I just installed XP pro on an old machine and re-formatted my main (C)
> drive to NTFS. I also have an old drive used to store my photos documents
> mp3s etc out of harms way which is formatted to FAT32 (ME legacy) .
>
> my problem is that although the system is reporting the drive as working
> properly, and I can see it in the drive manager, I cannot see it under 'My
> Computer' and cannot access it to retreve the data from it.
>
> does anyone out there know of a way to persuade XP to read my drive, or
> will
> I have to take it out and connect it to a PC running under FAT32 to
> recover
> my files.
>
> Thanks in advance
>
> John

"John Stevens-Taylor" <John Stevens-Taylor@discussions.microsoft.com>
wrote:

>Hi,
>
> I just installed XP pro on an old machine and re-formatted my main (C)
>drive to NTFS. I also have an old drive used to store my photos documents
>mp3s etc out of harms way which is formatted to FAT32 (ME legacy) .
>
>my problem is that although the system is reporting the drive as working
>properly, and I can see it in the drive manager, I cannot see it under 'My
>Computer' and cannot access it to retreve the data from it.
>
>does anyone out there know of a way to persuade XP to read my drive, or will
>I have to take it out and connect it to a PC running under FAT32 to recover
>my files.
>
>Thanks in advance
>
>John

Windows XP is fully capable of reading files from disks that use FAT32
as well as NTFS, and using one does not in any way preclude also using
the other.

In other words there is absolutely no reason insofar as Windows XP is
concerned why the disk should not be readable.

The cause of your problems must therefore lie with the disk itself.
Possible causes would include:
1. The disk itself is defective in some way. The best way to test
this would be to temporarily install the disk into another computer
and see if it can be read there.
2. The two disks are connected as Master and Slave on the same IDE
channel and they are not compatible with each other when connected in
this way. However this would not be true if the two drives were
previously connected the same way and worked properly with your
previous version of Windows.
3. The drive(s) were originally configured using a Bios Overlay
utility such as Maxtor's MaxBlast to allow an older computer to access
large capacity drives that it otherwise could not recognize. When you
converted the drive to NTFS this software may have been removed,
resulting in the second drive no longer being accessible.

Hope this is of some assistance.

Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2006)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

Still no joy, the option to assign a drive letter is geyed out. though they
did work under ME they are connected as master/slave on the same IDE, so I'll
try connecting them differantly in the morning and see if that helps.

Thanks

John

"OMS" wrote:

> John,
>
> I'm no expert but...
>
> Try Administrative Tools>Computer Management>Disk Management and if you can
> see the drive there, right click and assign it a drive letter.
> Let me know if it works.
>
> OMS
>
>
> "John Stevens-Taylor" <John Stevens-Taylor@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote
> in message news:FC48A9B1-D44E-4A98-AE0F-22C34F558CBE@microsoft.com...
> > Hi,
> >
> > I just installed XP pro on an old machine and re-formatted my main (C)
> > drive to NTFS. I also have an old drive used to store my photos documents
> > mp3s etc out of harms way which is formatted to FAT32 (ME legacy) .
> >
> > my problem is that although the system is reporting the drive as working
> > properly, and I can see it in the drive manager, I cannot see it under 'My
> > Computer' and cannot access it to retreve the data from it.
> >
> > does anyone out there know of a way to persuade XP to read my drive, or
> > will
> > I have to take it out and connect it to a PC running under FAT32 to
> > recover
> > my files.
> >
> > Thanks in advance
> >
> > John
>
>
>

>> "John Stevens-Taylor" <John Stevens-Taylor@discussions.microsoft.com>
>> wrote
>> in message news:FC48A9B1-D44E-4A98-AE0F-22C34F558CBE@microsoft.com...
>> > Hi,
>> >
>> > I just installed XP pro on an old machine and re-formatted my main
>> > (C)
>> > drive to NTFS. I also have an old drive used to store my photos
>> > documents
>> > mp3s etc out of harms way which is formatted to FAT32 (ME legacy) .
>> >
>> > my problem is that although the system is reporting the drive as
>> > working
>> > properly, and I can see it in the drive manager, I cannot see it under
>> > 'My
>> > Computer' and cannot access it to retreve the data from it.
>> >
>> > does anyone out there know of a way to persuade XP to read my drive, or
>> > will I have to take it out and connect it to a PC running under FAT32
>> > to
>> > recover my files.
>> >
>> > Thanks in advance
>> >
>> > John


> "OMS" wrote:
>> John,
>>
>> I'm no expert but...
>>
>> Try Administrative Tools>Computer Management>Disk Management and if you
>> can
>> see the drive there, right click and assign it a drive letter.
>> Let me know if it works.
>>
>> OMS
>>
>>


"John Stevens-Taylor" <john_r_taylor (dot) geo (at) yahoo (dot) com> wrote
in message news:57556C90-7104-402C-A593-8F1B254D12B5@microsoft.com...
> Still no joy, the option to assign a drive letter is geyed out. though
> they
> did work under ME they are connected as master/slave on the same IDE, so
> I'll
> try connecting them differantly in the morning and see if that helps.

> Thanks
>
> John


John:
Assuming that secondary HD is non-defective there should be no problem with
Windows XP accessing that FAT32 formatted drive as Ron Martell previously
informed you.

Unless the motherboard's IDE connector is defective (which is always a
possibility), it shouldn't make any difference whether that drive is
connected as a Primary Slave or connected anywhere on the Secondary IDE
channel. But there's no harm in trying different connections of course.

But your first course of action should be to re:check the
connection/configuration of that drive in terms of making sure you have a
secure connection of its IDE signal/data cable on both the motherboard's IDE
connector and the drive itself as well as making sure of a secure power
cable connection. And, of course, re:check your jumper setting on that
drive. Are you absolutely sure it's the correct setting?

And, if the problem still exists, download the HD diagnostic utility from
the drive's manufacturer and check out the drive.
Anna

still no joy, I've tried the jack plugs in every possible position, I dont
think the hardware itself is faulty, it worked just before the upgrade (I
know if it fails it has to fail at some time) and the drive manager is
reporting it as 'Health (Active)' it just doesn;t have a drive letter!?

I think I am going to have to hook it up to another PC and backup the data
on that. then I can delete the partition and format from scratch.

thanks for your input guys.

John

"John Stevens-Taylor" wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I just installed XP pro on an old machine and re-formatted my main (C)
> drive to NTFS. I also have an old drive used to store my photos documents
> mp3s etc out of harms way which is formatted to FAT32 (ME legacy) .
>
> my problem is that although the system is reporting the drive as working
> properly, and I can see it in the drive manager, I cannot see it under 'My
> Computer' and cannot access it to retreve the data from it.
>
> does anyone out there know of a way to persuade XP to read my drive, or will
> I have to take it out and connect it to a PC running under FAT32 to recover
> my files.
>
> Thanks in advance
>
> John

Sounds like a plan. Good luck and let us know the end of the story! If you
can see it on another PC, I wonder what is different on yours?
OMS

"John Stevens-Taylor" <john_r_taylor (dot) geo (at) yahoo (dot) com> wrote
in message news:43CC721A-38AA-431C-997D-9D9270B8109B@microsoft.com...
> still no joy, I've tried the jack plugs in every possible position, I dont
> think the hardware itself is faulty, it worked just before the upgrade (I
> know if it fails it has to fail at some time) and the drive manager is
> reporting it as 'Health (Active)' it just doesn;t have a drive letter!?
>
> I think I am going to have to hook it up to another PC and backup the data
> on that. then I can delete the partition and format from scratch.
>
> thanks for your input guys.
>
> John
>
> "John Stevens-Taylor" wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> I just installed XP pro on an old machine and re-formatted my main
>> (C)
>> drive to NTFS. I also have an old drive used to store my photos documents
>> mp3s etc out of harms way which is formatted to FAT32 (ME legacy) .
>>
>> my problem is that although the system is reporting the drive as working
>> properly, and I can see it in the drive manager, I cannot see it under
>> 'My
>> Computer' and cannot access it to retreve the data from it.
>>
>> does anyone out there know of a way to persuade XP to read my drive, or
>> will
>> I have to take it out and connect it to a PC running under FAT32 to
>> recover
>> my files.
>>
>> Thanks in advance
>>
>> John

No luck with that, I've taken the HD to a local repair shop. they have FAT32
boxes there, so are hopful that they will be able to copy my data to CD or
DVD for me. then I can delete the partition and re-format as NTFS. hopfuly
that will be the end of my problems.

interesingly, I found mention of a simalar problem on another board whilst
looking for a solution, so I'm not alone in this!!?

thanks for all your input guys.

John

"John Stevens-Taylor" wrote:

> still no joy, I've tried the jack plugs in every possible position, I dont
> think the hardware itself is faulty, it worked just before the upgrade (I
> know if it fails it has to fail at some time) and the drive manager is
> reporting it as 'Health (Active)' it just doesn;t have a drive letter!?
>
> I think I am going to have to hook it up to another PC and backup the data
> on that. then I can delete the partition and format from scratch.
>
> thanks for your input guys.
>
> John
>
> "John Stevens-Taylor" wrote:
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > I just installed XP pro on an old machine and re-formatted my main (C)
> > drive to NTFS. I also have an old drive used to store my photos documents
> > mp3s etc out of harms way which is formatted to FAT32 (ME legacy) .
> >
> > my problem is that although the system is reporting the drive as working
> > properly, and I can see it in the drive manager, I cannot see it under 'My
> > Computer' and cannot access it to retreve the data from it.
> >
> > does anyone out there know of a way to persuade XP to read my drive, or will
> > I have to take it out and connect it to a PC running under FAT32 to recover
> > my files.
> >
> > Thanks in advance
> >
> > John