I really really hope someone can help me with this because I'm lost for anything else to try and it's making me supremely depressed.

Okay, I run Windows XP. I have two hard disks, one 30 gig, which Windows is on, and one 60 gig, which I use for storing pretty MUCH everything (digital pics, music, my stories, my colored drawings, etc.).

I had to format the smaller drive recently because the viruses, adware, etc. were getting rediculous. Everything seemed to start after I did this, although it could be a coincidence.

My larger drive started to spontaneously go missing. It would be there, working fine, and then the next time I turned on my computer, it would be gone. I had it last night, so I did a bunch of DIFFERENT scans on it, but in order to try Scandisk, I was told to restart the computer, and when I did, the drive disappeared again. I've shut down and restarted a dozen times since then, but I can't get it back anymore.

It's being detected on startup, and when you enter Device Manger or Disk Management, it IS there; it just can't be seen in Windows, or ACCESSED through command prompt.

When looking at it through Disk Management, I found that it wasn't online, and was also showing "Unallocated". I simply right-clicked and chose the option to turn it online, but there was no option for "Allocate", no matter how hard I looked. Putting it "online" did nothing. I still can't find it. A friend of mine told me that the "Unallocated" thing is probably the problem, but I've searched and can't find any help as to how to allocate.

I was also told that the disk probably just needs to be formatted, but I just can't do that. There are GIGS of files on there that are absolutely IRREPLACEABLE: digital photos of relatives who have since passed away, art that I spend hours digitally coloring on the computer, books that I'm in the process of writing, not to mention many other random things.

All I want is to be able to get the drive up long enough to backup the most important files, but no matter what I try, I can't get it to come back again. Is there anything at all that I can do???what make is the 60 gig?? have you downloaded SP2? re-boot pc... now type sfc /scanow in the run box..it may work??is the 30 gig the master drive or is it the 60 gig...The 60 gig drive is a Maxtor 6Y060L0. I don't know what you mean by sp2. The 30 gig is the master drive and the 60 gig is the slave, but the 60 gig is where all of my files are. I'll try the sft/scanow thing and get back to you.Naw, it didn't help. Tracey Clarke.....  "I had to format the smaller drive recently because the viruses, adware, etc. were getting rediculous. Everything seemed to start after I did this, although it could be a coincidence. "    I can't understand how this situation can occur with all the good virus scanners and spyware/aware scanners ........
particularly if you have a lot of data which may not be able to be replaced......and no backup done.  Moving on ....there are several things you might try .....If you are certain that your drive containing your operating system is 100 % virus free  I would try using the system restore feature...... Start / All Programs/Accessories/System Tools/System Restore  
Set the resore date to just before the problem started .....if that works .....then immediatly back up the info you dont want to loose.  
The other thing you can do is ......remove the storage drive from that pc and install it in a friends pc as a slave .......make backups of your important data on that drive .   Another thought just popped into my head......have you checked to be certain you don't have a loose or faulty IDE cable that connects to that drive . I also wonder if you have checked in the bios to be certain the drive in question shows up in there ?

let us know

dl65  
Believe me, I know my own stupidity. Although, in my defense, I have a newer version of Norton, plus a copy of AdAware and Spybot, and my computer still managed to get infested with nasty things.

Negating my own defense, I'm one of those stupid people who never imagines that anything bad will happen to her files, so it never ever occured to me to make backups of anything. I am, in fact, a moron. -_-

That said, I tried the system restore and it didn't help. I can't install the drive in a friend's computer right at this moment in time, but may try it later this week. I did check to make sure the cables weren't loose, but I would have no idea how to tell if they were faulty. And lastly, the bios, disk manager, drive manager, etc, all show the drive as existing; I just can't get into it. >_<

If I can't get it working by the end of the night, I think I'm going to suck up my pride and head to Soundafex. There's a guy there who is a total computer genius. Maybe he can save my files somehow. -_-Hey, I just thought I'd let you guys know that when I turned my computer on this morning, the D drive had returned. I'm assuming that the thing is dying, so I am currently backing up everything that's on it in case it disappears again the next time I reboot. I'll bring it into the shop to find out if it's dead or what. Thanks for all the help though. ^_^ I'll know where to come next time I have an emergency.