When i opened "my computer", my 80 GIG hard disk with 2 partition has question mark on it, what is that?

Question

i have 2 hard disk, a 40gig(where my OS is located) and other 80 GIG hard disk with 2 partition. But when i opened it, the 1st partition of my 80gig hard disk has question mark icon on it and cant be open, but the other one is working properly

why is it like that?

Answer 1

check the cables and power. those are the most likely culprits, especialy if the computer has been moved or jarred. failing that go into bios and see if the computer recognizes the hard drive as there and can read it. if you need files from it, attach it as a slave and see if you can access it....if not its probably a screwed pooch from a virus and needs to be replaced.

Answer 2

Is the question mark yellow, if so the hdd is probably on the way out (wearing out). You might want to think about getting a newer hdd to transfer files to.....I had same thing happen to me. They haven't made any hdd under 120gb in over 2yrs. The ones you see in new computers or on sale at computer stores that are 120gb or less are excess stock they are trying to move quickly...Thanks

Answer 3

you might want to go to the device manager and make sure that the drive is functioning properly. if so then right click my computer and click manager. Then go to disk management and look at your first partition to insure that the partition is active and functioning, if not then in that area you should be able to fix it. beyond that you might need to know something about dos to format it through fdisk in the cmd prompt.