Hard Drive - Assigned Letter - NOT

[NJLOAD]

To make a long story short, I was running a 2 hard drive system under XP HOME one drive has the OS on it and the other data files both formatted NTFS. I bought a new drive and installed Vista Ulitmate and did the OS install without any other drives in the box. After everything was installed and running, I shut down and plugged in the data drive used under XP and it was seen but not assigned a drive letter. Under disk management in Vista the option to assign a drive letter was not possible. This has happened to me before and never was able to resolve. It happed before with XP systems, this is the first time I have used Vista. How do I assign a letter without reformatting and losing the data on the drive that I need?

Any help is appreciated.

NJLOAD

 

[Billb2]

First, don't install Vista that way, that causes the kind of problem you are seeing. Microsoft has specific directions on how to do what you did corredtly, and how to fix what you have done, but they're too long to post here, since I have no idea where to start explaining it to you because I don't know how much you know about how Post, Boot, and OS startup work and in order to answer your question more information is needed anyway.

 

[NJLOAD]

Billb2, I did an install of vista on a brand new hard drive installed all the drivers and the computer worked fine, now what you are saying is you can never add a new drive with data on it already and have the drive letter seen by vista? I don't know what more information you would need other than what I already explainded.

thanks for your reply.

 

[Jiggz]

In XP did you try assigning a drive letter using Disk Management?

 

[NJLOAD]

Jiggz, when going into disk management you could not even click on assign drive letter, it wasn't highlighted. Your talking about data drives already working fine, and just trying to load into another operating system. When I had the problem before in XP the only thing I could do was format the drive and when the system was restarted everything was fine.

Very strange indeed.

 

[Billb2]

Originally posted by: NJLOAD
Billb2, I did an install of vista on a brand new hard drive installed all the drivers and the computer worked fine, now what you are saying is you can never add a new drive with data on it already and have the drive letter seen by vista? I don't know what more information you would need other than what I already explainded.

thanks for your reply.

The simple version:
You have two HDD now, each with a MBR, Boot sector and Boot loader that point to different Os's (XP and Vista). Whichever drive is set a the boot device in the BIOS will boot whatever OS's are listed in it's boot loader and name the drives accordingly.

I think that if you change the boot device in the BIOS to the other drive, the drive letters will be as you want them...but then the other OS will not be a boot option.

You have to install XP and Vista with the same physical drive listed as the boot drive in the BIOS. You can put the OS files anywhere you like, but the last Os installed's boot loader will be what calls the OS (or gives a choice of OS's).

Look at the boot loaders in XP and Vista. Neither will list the other as a boot option.

And microsoft has articles on how to edit XPs boot.ini and/or Vista's BDC boot loader to fix what you have done.

 

[XBoxLPU]

Originally posted by: Billb2

Originally posted by: NJLOAD
Billb2, I did an install of vista on a brand new hard drive installed all the drivers and the computer worked fine, now what you are saying is you can never add a new drive with data on it already and have the drive letter seen by vista? I don't know what more information you would need other than what I already explainded.

thanks for your reply.

The simple version:
You have two HDD now, each with a MBR, Boot sector and Boot loader that point to different Os's (XP and Vista). Whichever drive is set a the boot device in the BIOS will boot whatever OS's are listed in it's boot loader and name the drives accordingly.

I think that if you change the boot device in the BIOS to the other drive, the drive letters will be as you want them...but then the other OS will not be a boot option.

You have to install XP and Vista with the same physical drive listed as the boot drive in the BIOS. You can put the OS files anywhere you like, but the last Os installed's boot loader will be what calls the OS (or gives a choice of OS's).

Look at the boot loaders in XP and Vista. Neither will list the other as a boot option.

And microsoft has articles on how to edit XPs boot.ini and/or Vista's BDC boot loader to fix what you have done.

Billb, he isn't booting the PC with the hard disc that had XP installed. He is using the new disc with Vista and his hard drive that had his data on it.

 

[XBoxLPU]

Originally posted by: Billb2
First, don't install Vista that way, that causes the kind of problem you are seeing. Microsoft has specific directions on how to do what you did corredtly, and how to fix what you have done, but they're too long to post here, since I have no idea where to start explaining it to you because I don't know how much you know about how Post, Boot, and OS startup work and in order to answer your question more information is needed anyway.

And further I have never had a problem installing an OS with only one hard drive installed while my data hard drives were not connected

 

[Lorne]

NJLOAD, Its part of NTFS protection/encryption, Ive gone throught this also and there is a way around it "if" you didnt enable windows encryption on your previous OS, Ill assume you didnt.

First you may have to be in Administrator mode (Not as a user with administrator rights)
Then administrator tools/ disk mamagement.
Its been awhile since I did this so I dont remember it all, right click in the partition area or the grey area next to it, There should be a setting to alow windows to mount the drive without destroying the existing partition.
Dont forget to assign a drive letter if needed, I suggest a letter proceding your CD drive as you have installed programs from it already and some (due to bad programming) dont like the drive they were installed from changing letters.

If you remember enabling encryption on your data drive during your previous OS you had better remember your settings or you may as well format it.

 

[NJLOAD]

XBoxLPU, thanks for your reply and you are correct, I am not booting to this drive it just has data on it and it never did have an OS on it. Lorne I did not enable encryption on this drive and it was only formated as a NFTS drive, but some of the information in these posts, are interesting. How do you load up in Administrator mode, not sure if I've ever seen this. I am the only user and the user account is set up for me as an administrator?

any further help is also appreciated.

 

[Billb2]

Originally posted by: NJLOAD
I am not booting to this drive it just has data on it and it never did have an OS on it.

Yes, but the MBR was written by XP and now you want Vista to read it.

While the version numbers of NTFS format used by XP and Vista are the same, there are functionalities added under Vista.

The Vista Startup Repair function may fix your problem.

 

[pallejr]

The layout of the MBR is the same, it is a standard. Even the boot strap code does the same job, even if it is not used when using it only as a data disk.

 

[Lorne]

NJLOAD, You could always try a external USB case, Im sure it will mount as a removable media, Then you can copy it off and install the drive internaly and let xp/vista format it clean then copy it back, Just a thought.

 

[Billb2]

Originally posted by: pallejr
The layout of the MBR is the same, it is a standard. Even the boot strap code does the same job, even if it is not used when using it only as a data disk.

Hey! I'm on the same team as you, just trying to help out the OP. Maybe it's the MFT. Anyway what he wants to do, pull the original data disk, load Vista and reinstall the dats disk should be dooable.

 

[NJLOAD]

Thanks for all the help folks.

Lorne, hooking up as a USB external drive does work and it was the only way to get the drive seen through Vista. I copied the data and did a re-format through Vista and now it is listed with a drive letter. I don't know what the glitch is but it's a pain in the Arse!!!

Thanks again for all the help.