Question Physical Drive vs. Logical Drive ( PCMech Forums Drives and Storage )
Updated: 2009-06-04 05:20:18 (10) |
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Physical Drive vs. Logical Drive
My XP computer was running fine, and then it started crashing on a daily basis (last error message was an F4 Stop). I've run antivirus and antispyware programs, but they found nothing, so I decided to run chkdsk.
I could run chkdsk itself from the command prompt, but not with the "/f" or "/r" parameters. It does not run from the graphical interface at all ("Windows was unable to complete the disk check"). Thinking there might be a problem with the drive, I put the Hitachi Drive Fitness Test on a cd and booted from that, but it would begin to run and then crash.
"SeaTools for Windows", which had run in the past, crashed with "Fatal Error: Drive Discovery". I then tried "WD Data LifeGuard Diagnostics" and discovered the problem: under "Physical Drive", nothing was listed! My "C" drive only shows up under "Logical Drive".
Indeed, going to "Disk Management" in Windows, only my CD-ROM drive is listed. Everything seems to work fine with the drive -- it shows up just fine in my BIOS, Device Manager and Explorer. Right-clicking on its Properties does not show any problems.
How do I get the drive to be recognized again as a Physical Drive?
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| Answers: Physical Drive vs. Logical Drive ( PCMech Forums Drives and Storage ) |
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Physical Drive vs. Logical Drive
Try running the disk diagnostics in dos, not windows and see what that says.
Note: You only have to run the diagnostics from the drives manufacturer, no need o run others on it.
shadowpr
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Physical Drive vs. Logical Drive
I've run chkdsk from the command line, which is DOS. I forgot to mention that I also tried to run it from Safe Mode, which also did not work.
If I hadn't run the WD diagnostics program, I never would have learned what the real problem was. I've only used programs that are certified to be run on any manufacturer's drives.
"DriveDetect" is a nice little program, and it also now fails to detect my hard drive.
Blacksuri
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Physical Drive vs. Logical Drive
Full system specs, please.
glc
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Physical Drive vs. Logical Drive
EliteGroup RS482-M754 motherboard, AMD processor, 1 gb RAM, 80 gb Hitachi IDE drive, running Windows Media Center 2005.
I'd like to supply more details, but "System Information" gives the message "Can't Collect Information". It says "Cannot access the Windows Management Instrumentation software. Windows Management files may be missing." This is even after turning on WMI Services.
I tried to use System Restore, but nothing happens after the first couple of screens, even when in Safe Mode.
I have another 80gb drive in an external USB case, so I plugged that in. It too is recognized as a Logical Drive, instead of a Physical Drive.
Both drives are recognized in "Disk Defragmenter", but both give the error message that "Disk Defragmenter could not start".
Blacksuri
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Physical Drive vs. Logical Drive
The proper diagnostic for that drive is Hitachi Drive Fitness Test. I wouldn't believe anything Seagate or WD's diags say. If that passes, either that ECS board is screwed up, you have ram problems (use memtest86+ to check that) or you need a Windows wipe and reinstall.
glc
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Physical Drive vs. Logical Drive
glc wrote "The proper diagnostic for that drive is Hitachi Drive Fitness Test."
Thanks, but as I explained in my first message, "I put the Hitachi Drive Fitness Test on a cd and booted from that, but it would begin to run and then crash."
It crashed because the system doesn't think there are any hard drives present. It thinks there are only Logical Drives now.
The BIOS recognizes the hard drive. No changes to the cables have been made since the hard drive was installed. Something has happened so that the wrong signal is being sent between the BIOS and the System Boot. I don't have a clue as to what it might be, how it might have happened, or how to correct the problem.
I can't even return the computer to when there wasn't a problem, because System Restore won't restore a disk that isn't there.
Blacksuri
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Physical Drive vs. Logical Drive
Without being able to play with it myself, I'd say that the ECS board is failing.
glc
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Physical Drive vs. Logical Drive
The following is from Hard Drive Profile, Bootstrap/MBR, Partitioning, and Drive Assignments (http://www.dslreports.com/faq/1604)
Drive Assignment
MS-DOS/Windows assigns drive letters to the first two physical floppy disk drives and hard disk drives it finds at boot time in a fixed sequence, including multiple partitions and logical drives on the hard disks. You cannot change this sequence.
The following occurs at startup:
• MS-DOS checks all installed disk devices, assigning the drive letter A to the first physical floppy disk drive that is found.
• If a second physical floppy disk drive is present, it is assigned drive letter B.
• MS-DOS then assigns the drive letter C to the primary MS-DOS partition on the first physical hard disk.
• If a second physical hard disk is found, and a primary partition exists on the second physical drive, the primary MS-DOS partition on the second physical hard drive is assigned the letter D.
•MS-DOS/Windows will continue to search for more physical hard disk drives at this point and if a third physical hard disk is found with a primary partition it will be assigned to the letter E.
• After all Drives have been searched for a Primary Partition, MS-DOS will return to the first physical hard disk drive and assigns drive letters to any additional logical drives (in extended MS-DOS partitions) on that drive in sequence.
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So that's how it's supposed to work. So why is my system finding my installed and USB drives, assigning them drive letters, and then acting like they don't exist?
Blacksuri
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Physical Drive vs. Logical Drive
According to Microsoft, "A basic disk is a physical disk that contains primary partitions, extended partitions, or logical drives." There are no logical partitions on my hard drive.
The following is from the "PowerQuest PartitionMagic" (http://www.thirdstar.net/beeline/comppartitionmagic.htm) (I don't use the product, so this is NOT an endorsement.):
About hard drive partitions...
A hard drive partition masquerades to your operating system as a distinct and separate hard drive. Although there's just a single physical hard drive attached, the computer sees a new hard drive installed for each new partition. These are called logical drives, and they only exist deep in the interface between your hardware and system software.
This isn't even a Windows thing. It happens down below the DOS level, and the only "built in" way you have to get at it is FDISK and FORMAT from a DOS floppy boot, then reinstall everything that was on the hard drive, or restore it from a backup.
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I have recently installed Acronis True Image Home 2009 (I am wary that this may be causing my problems), and it is able to see both hard drives. It shows a ST380011A with a "IDE(2) Primary Master" interface (so it's really a Seagate disk, and not a Hitachi as I originally thought), and a WDC WD800JB with a "USB" interface. The BIOS shows the first disk as "Ch0 M." (Both drives are NTFS.)
The only reasonable solution that I see right now is to backup everything to the USB hard drive, reformat the installed hard drive, then restore everything from the backup.
But if the problem is "below the DOS level", will this really help? Or would I just be moving the problem from one disk to another, and then back again?
Could a Network think it is a Logical Drive, even though it is disconnected from all networks, except a wireless connection? I noticed a few days ago that "1394 Connection" was enabled in Network Properties, even though I don't have any Firewire devices.
Blacksuri
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Physical Drive vs. Logical Drive
1394 is enabled in XP whether you have Firewire or not.
Rather than restoring a backup, I'd do a clean install and just restore your data.
glc
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