Windows 7: Disk offline -- Sig collision with another disk

Hi all
Plugged a second USB drive into the machine and got the following message

Disk offline -- Signature collision with another disk

What do I do -- I need BOTH disks to be on line. I haven't seen this error before. Both discs totally OK NTFS formatted - no Windows system partitions on them --just DATA.

Cheers

jimbo

Hey jimbo, do those drives have external power supply or are they drawing their power through the usb bus ?
If so you might need a split cable to connect to multiple ports the same time to overcome the 500mA at 5V limit.

In case it's not a power issue you could try this solution (which I found on the net):

1. Open Command Prompt.
2. type DISKPART - a new window will open.
3. enter command : LIST DISK. This will show you all the connected disk with the offline one.
4. Now select the offline disk using the next command SELECT DISK <disk_no> wheredisk_no is the offline disk number which you can get from step 3 result.
5. Now you have selected the offline disk. Now enter command ONLINE DISK.


-DG

Hi there
These are two identical self powered WD 1 TB disks.

After a bit of googling I managed to get it to work by using the DISKPART command in this link

How to Change the Disk Signature of a Drive Without Losing Existing Data or Reformatting (howtohaven.com).

It took a while to find this but it worked.

I've been using computers for YEARS -- this is the FIRST time I've ever seen this error.

Shows that you never stop learning

Cheers
jimbo

I haven't seen that kind of error ever in over 30 years . I guess randomizing those IDs in general works, and you just were the exception of the rule

If I were you i would play lotto (chances to hit the jackpot between 1:5.000.000 and 1:14.000.000) and avoid the next lightning storm (chance of being struck ~1:280.000)

Anyways...glad you got it sorted out.
I bookmarked the link..just in case

-DG

Thank you! I've been pulling my hair out for days trying to see my old drive. this just worked. better praise can't be had
cheers
alyssa

glad it worked for you, Alyssa. You're very welcome and thanks for the feed back

-DG

Hope this old post is still active.

The HDD I am trying to connect has a Windows 7 bootable partition.
After changing the uniqueid in Diskpart this HDD becomes unbootable when I try to use it in its normal workstation.
Only after repair with the Windows 7 install disk will it work normally again.

Any way around this problem?

This thread is rather old, and you are not likely to get a response. Please start your own thread and describe your problem in more detail.

Thanks much, Sledge!!

You may have found your answer on another thread, which I cannot find without a link here. For others with similar question , I found this that may help: Fixing Disk Signature Collisions - Mark's Blog - Site Home - TechNet Blogs If I read it correctly, essentially, the answer is to change it back to the original and shows how to find the original signature, in case you lost track of it.