"My Computer" does not display external USB 2.0 hard drive

[Guest]

Under Windows XP Home Edition; after connecting an external USB 2.0 external hard drive, the drive does not appear in either “My Computer†or “Disk Managementâ€. The drive is shown in “Device Manager†(as Mass Storage Device). Also, when I plug in the device I am taken though all the step to install a new hardware device. In addition, an icon in the System Tray displays that I can “Safely Remove Hardwareâ€. I made sure that I have all the SP, updated the BIOS (I have a Dell Dimension 2350), and downloaded and install drivers. Any suggestions?

 

[Pavel A.]

Is your disk formatted?

Under Windows XP Home Edition; after connecting an external USB 2.0 external hard drive, the drive does not appear in

either “My Computer” or “Disk Management”. The drive is shown in “Device Manager” (as Mass Storage Device). Also, when
I plug in the device I am taken though all the step to install a new hardware device. In addition, an icon in the
System Tray displays that I can “Safely Remove Hardware”. I made sure that I have all the SP, updated the BIOS (I have
a Dell Dimension 2350), and downloaded and install drivers. Any suggestions?

 

[Guest]

Yes, the disk is formatted. When I purchased the disk, the tech assembled, formatted and tested the HD. It displayed on his test PC (which was running Win2000).

 

[Pavel A.]

Ok, now check the power. If your drive has external power supply, connect it.
Otherwice plug the disk thru a powered hub.

Yes, the disk is formatted. When I purchased the disk, the tech assembled, formatted and tested the HD. It displayed

on his test PC (which was running Win2000).

 

[Epyon2050]

I have the exact same problem, except my hard drive shows up in compute
management, however, I can't assign a drive letter. Can anyone help??
http://img31.exs.cx/img31/22/hdd7hs.jpg

A picture for refernce to what I mean..

 

[Guest]

Firstly you need to initialize new disks and then format them.

Using Disk Management system utility [for managing hard disks and the
partitions or volumes that they contain] you can create volumes, and format
volumes with the FAT, FAT32, or NTFS file systems.

Disk Management enables you to perform most disk-related tasks without
shutting down your computer; most configuration changes take effect
immediately.

 

[Epyon2050]

I've formatted it before. For some reason, this time when I booted m
computer the drive letter is unassigned and my drive did not show up i
My Computer. I formatted it and assigned it to drive R:. The pictur
shows that I've already used about 30 GB of that HDD already

 

[Leo]

Do you have Tweakui installed. If so you may have to go to the
drives section of Tweakui and place a check mark in the drive
designation for your external drive.

 

[Epyon2050]

All of the drives are checked in Tweakui... but my removable drive isn't
on any of those letters...

 

[Epyon2050]

I found the problem! There's something wrong with my partician table
How can I fix it so that it will boot again

 

[Leo]

What is the drive letter?

 

[William \(Bill\) Vaughn]

I've seen this when the USB port does not support the required
voltages/currents needed for high-powered devices. Mice and keyboards (and
other low-current hardware devices) seem to work, but the high-current
drives don't. Try one of the USB ports that's driven from a powered USB hub
(hopefully 2.0) or the motherboard directly.

--
____________________________________
William (Bill) Vaughn
Author, Mentor, Consultant
Microsoft MVP
www.betav.com
Please reply only to the newsgroup so that others can benefit.
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
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