Windows not recognizing my internal SATA drive

I recently reinstalled Windows due to a corrupt system file and although it's
booting fine now, it stopped recognizing an internal SATA drive I have
installed. The drive has always shown up in my computer in the past. It was
only after reinstalling Windows when it went missing. I can tell the drive
is running and the BIOS display shows that it's there (lists the model
name/number during start up before Windows boots). And now Windows wants to
charge me $59 to fix it because I've already called twice dealing with the
other BS that was also the fault of their software. So if anyone has ANY
idea what might be happening, give me a shout. Thankyou!

1st, make sure in Device Manager, IDE/ATAPI controllers that your
SATA channel ( still identified as a Primary or Secondary ), Advanced
(TAB) Auto Detect parameter is not set = None. This prevents XP
from enumerating/detecting the disk drive.

Next use DiskMgmt.Msc to verify the disk is mounted and what if any
drive letter(s) are assigned to volumes on it.

It's possible you've got a "Phantom" entry in either Disk Drives and the
Storage Volume categories that equate to your disk drive. Phantoms
appear in diminished tone ( Grayed out ).

"Smellhound" <Smellhound@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:325F95D8-E969-4C18-A318-DCF24F89612F@microsoft.com...
>I recently reinstalled Windows due to a corrupt system file and although
>it's
> booting fine now, it stopped recognizing an internal SATA drive I have
> installed. The drive has always shown up in my computer in the past. It
> was
> only after reinstalling Windows when it went missing. I can tell the
> drive
> is running and the BIOS display shows that it's there (lists the model
> name/number during start up before Windows boots). And now Windows wants
> to
> charge me $59 to fix it because I've already called twice dealing with the
> other BS that was also the fault of their software. So if anyone has ANY
> idea what might be happening, give me a shout. Thankyou!

"Smellhound" <Smellhound@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:325F95D8-E969-4C18-A318-DCF24F89612F@microsoft.com...
>I recently reinstalled Windows due to a corrupt system file and although
>it's
> booting fine now, it stopped recognizing an internal SATA drive I have
> installed. The drive has always shown up in my computer in the past. It
> was
> only after reinstalling Windows when it went missing. I can tell the
> drive
> is running and the BIOS display shows that it's there (lists the model
> name/number during start up before Windows boots). And now Windows wants
> to
> charge me $59 to fix it because I've already called twice dealing with the
> other BS that was also the fault of their software. So if anyone has ANY
> idea what might be happening, give me a shout. Thankyou!


Smellhound:
First of all I'm assuming that prior to your reinstalling the XP OS the
system detected your secondary SATA HDD without any problem. And it was
*only* after the reinstallation of the OS that this non-recognition problem
arose. So if that is so...

Most likely it's the absence of a SATA controller driver that's causing the
problem re your secondary SATA HDD. When you reinstalled the XP OS you
probably did not install the SATA controller driver (the F6 routine during
setup). While this would not affect the boot drive (I'm assuming it's a PATA
HDD, right?) it would cause the OS not to detect the SATA HDD.

So if the above *is* the cause of your problem, it will be necessary to
install the SATA controller driver. Read your motherboard's user
manual/guide which (hopefully) should provide instructions re installing the
SATA controller driver following installation of the OS, or contact the
motherboard's manufacturer for further assistance.
Anna