External Hard Drive (USB) recognizes hardware but not drives - help

[aribloch]

I pulled a IBM Travelstar disk from a T21 (I know it works fine, the
problem on the laptop was with the motherboard). I connected it to a
Argosy HD260 external hard disk case (USB connection). On connecting to
an XP box, the system recognizes an IBM-DJSA-220 USB Device, but no
drive letter appear (the disk was used on Win2K, so I assume it is
NTFS, and has two partitions).

How can I see the two volumes on the disk to access the data?

Thanks

 

[Anna]

I pulled a IBM Travelstar disk from a T21 (I know it works fine, the
problem on the laptop was with the motherboard). I connected it to a
Argosy HD260 external hard disk case (USB connection). On connecting to
an XP box, the system recognizes an IBM-DJSA-220 USB Device, but no
drive letter appear (the disk was used on Win2K, so I assume it is
NTFS, and has two partitions).

How can I see the two volumes on the disk to access the data?

Thanks

aribloch:
These USB external HDD non-recognition problems in the XP environment have
been a source of continuing irritation (not to say aggravation) to many of
us. For what it's worth we've put together a kind of checklist for
troubleshooting this kind of problem which I've listed below.

But before getting to them you might want to try the following...

I'm assuming your reference to a "XP box" is a desktop PC. Assuming it is...

Why not temporarily install the 2 1/2" HDD in that machine using one of
those mounting kits designed for that purpose? They're cheap enough and are
generally available from a local PC repair shop (although I don't know if
the Office-type stores carry them). Here's one from an online source...
http://www.provantage.com/datastor-104432~7DTTS02L.htm and they're available
from many online vendors.
Assuming you're dealing with a non-defective HDD you should be able to
access its data.

Here's the troubleshooting tips...
1. Access Disk Management and see if the USB device is listed. If so, and
there's no drive letter assigned, see if you can assign a drive letter to
the device.
2. If the USB device is listed in Disk Management with an assigned drive
letter, right-click on its listing and select Explore from the submenu.
Hopefully, Windows Explorer will open and the device will be listed.
3. Connect the USB device *directly* to a USB port on the computer, not via
a USB hub. Try different USB ports should your computer have multiple ports.
4. Avoid using a USB extension cable.
5. Try connecting a USB device (that does not contain an auxiliary power
supply) to a USB port both before and after the boot operation.
6. Where a USB (or Firewire) external HDD is involved, access Device
Manager, highlight the Disk drives listing and click on the Action menu item
and then the "Scan for hardware changes" sub-menu item. Do the same in Disk
Management > Action > Rescan disks.
7. Try alternate powering on/off methods. If the USB device contains its own
power supply, try booting up with its power on, then try powering on only
*after* the system has booted to a Desktop.
8. Try a different USB cable.
9. In the USB controllers section of Device Manager, uninstall all the USB
controllers listed and reboot.
10. If the device in question is a HDD which you installed in a USB
enclosure, jumper the USB external HDD as Master (or Single if the HDD is a
Western Digital disk). A number of users have reported that jumper
configuration corrected their non-recognition problem. In my own experience
it didn't seem to matter how a USB external HDD was jumpered. But it may be
worth a try.
11. If the device in question is a USB external HDD, first check out the HDD
with the hard drive manufacturer's diagnostic utility. If it checks out OK,
and you can remove the HDD from its enclosure (without voiding any
applicable warranty), do so and install the HDD as an internal HDD to
determine if there are problems with the drive.
12. If the USB device is connected to a USB 2.0 PCI card, try changing the
PCI slot to which it's currently connected to another one.
13. Access the website of the manufacturer of the USB device to determine if
there's any firmware update or info re the problem you're experiencing or
there's any possibility that the USB enclosure itself might be defective.
14. Determine from the manufacturer of your motherboard whether there's a
BIOS upgrade affecting USB device recognition.

P.S.
A number of posters have reported they've found useful information re
troubleshooting USB devices on this site...
http://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbtrouble_e.html

Anna

 

[aribloch]

Thanks Anna very much. I think I jumped too soon to say that the "disk
is OK". Yes the error code on the defunked laptop did clearly indicate
a BIOS problem, but maybe I was too quick to judge.

Facts:
- In the Device Manager, it does appear as a IBM-DJSA-220 (and says
working OK)
- It does NOT appear in the Disk Management window (of Computer
Management console)

BUT.....

I downloaded and installed a tool called PTDD Partition Table Doctor.
Immediately on running the program, it said that it "cannot read MBR on
HDD 2". On selecting HDD 2 (the No. 1 is the disk in my laptop), it
displays it as a "Bad Disk" and says that there is an error on the
partition table. When trying to rebuild it, it does not succeed. Also,
when running a surface check it fails like a gazillion times.

So, now I am very confused. Because Windows says the device (physical
disk) is "working fine" and indeed it was not a disk error that crashed
the laptop it came from. Still, there is the above data from the PTDD
program.

Very confused.....

Comments?

Thanks

 

[Anna]

(e-mail address removed)> wrote in message

Thanks Anna very much. I think I jumped too soon to say that the "disk
is OK". Yes the error code on the defunked laptop did clearly indicate
a BIOS problem, but maybe I was too quick to judge.

Facts:
- In the Device Manager, it does appear as a IBM-DJSA-220 (and says
working OK)
- It does NOT appear in the Disk Management window (of Computer
Management console)

BUT.....

I downloaded and installed a tool called PTDD Partition Table Doctor.
Immediately on running the program, it said that it "cannot read MBR on
HDD 2". On selecting HDD 2 (the No. 1 is the disk in my laptop), it
displays it as a "Bad Disk" and says that there is an error on the
partition table. When trying to rebuild it, it does not succeed. Also,
when running a surface check it fails like a gazillion times.

So, now I am very confused. Because Windows says the device (physical
disk) is "working fine" and indeed it was not a disk error that crashed
the laptop it came from. Still, there is the above data from the PTDD
program.

Very confused.....

Comments?

Thanks

I suppose it would be best at this point if you would download the Hitachi
Drive Fitness Test - see http://www.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm
and check out the disk.
Anna

 

[Rod Speed]

Thanks Anna very much. I think I jumped too soon to say that the "disk
is OK". Yes the error code on the defunked laptop did clearly indicate
a BIOS problem, but maybe I was too quick to judge.

Facts:
- In the Device Manager, it does appear as a IBM-DJSA-220 (and says
working OK)
- It does NOT appear in the Disk Management window (of Computer
Management console)

BUT.....

I downloaded and installed a tool called PTDD Partition Table Doctor.
Immediately on running the program, it said that it "cannot read MBR
on HDD 2". On selecting HDD 2 (the No. 1 is the disk in my laptop), it
displays it as a "Bad Disk" and says that there is an error on the
partition table. When trying to rebuild it, it does not succeed. Also,
when running a surface check it fails like a gazillion times.

So, now I am very confused. Because Windows
says the device (physical disk) is "working fine"

Thats a rather misleading status, all its saying is that there
are no resource conflicts, not that the drive itself is fine.

and indeed it was not a disk error that crashed the laptop it came
from. Still, there is the above data from the PTDD program.

I'd put the drive inside a normal desktop system, using an adapter
and run Hitachi/IBM's Drive Fitness Test on the drive to get a clear
idea about the health of the drive, without any complicating extras
involved like the USB/ATA bridge in the external housing etc.

 

[aribloch]

Yes I looked at that utility. But since it runs under DOS, and my disk
is in an external USB case, I don't think it will work - will it?

 

[Arno Wagner]

Thanks Anna very much. I think I jumped too soon to say that the "disk
is OK". Yes the error code on the defunked laptop did clearly indicate
a BIOS problem, but maybe I was too quick to judge.

Facts:
- In the Device Manager, it does appear as a IBM-DJSA-220 (and says
working OK)
- It does NOT appear in the Disk Management window (of Computer
Management console)

I downloaded and installed a tool called PTDD Partition Table Doctor.
Immediately on running the program, it said that it "cannot read MBR on
HDD 2". On selecting HDD 2 (the No. 1 is the disk in my laptop), it
displays it as a "Bad Disk" and says that there is an error on the
partition table. When trying to rebuild it, it does not succeed. Also,
when running a surface check it fails like a gazillion times.

So, now I am very confused. Because Windows says the device (physical
disk) is "working fine" and indeed it was not a disk error that crashed
the laptop it came from. Still, there is the above data from the PTDD
program.

Very confused.....

Comments?

Windows has very low standards for claiming it "works fine".

Get the SMART attributes and post them here.

Arno

 

[Arno Wagner]

Yes I looked at that utility. But since it runs under DOS, and my disk
is in an external USB case, I don't think it will work - will it?

Ah, no. It will not work. You have to connect it directly to an IDE
interface for any furter analysis. This also helps rule out the
case were the electonics of the encolosure is bad or incompatible
with the disk (unlikely but possible).

Arno

 

[Anna]

Don't know. Why not simply give it a try? Not much to lose huh?
And if there's some way you can create a bootable CD from the .iso image,
that would be a possible option, no?
Anna

 

[Eric Gisin]

Windows has very low standards for claiming it "works fine".

No cretin, it does not test USB devices at all.