USB External Hard Drive

[Guest]

When I plug in my Freecom external hard drive, the device does not appear in
'My Computer' though my PC recognises a device has been installed.

A new 'USB Mass Storage device' appears in the Device Manager and when I
double click on the device, XP says 'No drivers installed for this device'

When trying to update the driver from the Freecom installation CD no driver
is found - the Freecom website has an updated driver but this doesn't work
either when I install the upgrade on PC. Connection to Windows Update does
not find a more appropriate driver. How can I install an appropriate driver?
Suggestions please.

 

[T. Waters]

When I plug in my Freecom external hard drive, the device does not
appear in 'My Computer' though my PC recognises a device has been
installed.

A new 'USB Mass Storage device' appears in the Device Manager and
when I double click on the device, XP says 'No drivers installed for
this device'

When trying to update the driver from the Freecom installation CD no
driver is found - the Freecom website has an updated driver but this
doesn't work either when I install the upgrade on PC. Connection to
Windows Update does not find a more appropriate driver. How can I
install an appropriate driver? Suggestions please.

First, never go to the Windows Update site for updated drivers, as the
drivers from Update are usually not the latest.
Please describe in step-by step detail what has happened in your attempts so
far to install the driver. All we know so far is that the CD appears not to
have the driver on it (not very likely) and that the upgraded driver was
"installed" to your PC but "doesn't work either." Little of this makes sense
so far. Tell us exactly what you tried and what happened when you did.

 

[NotMe]

Did the external enclosure come with a driver CD?
If so, you may need to run it.
I just installed a USB2 external HDD tonight on a laptop.
The procedure was as follows:
Install the driver as necessary from the driver CD supplied with the
enclosure.
Install the HDD in the enclosure per manufacturer's instructions.
Plug the USB cable into the enclosure then into the computer.
Plug the power supply into the external HDD enclosure.
If the enclosure has a power button, turn it on now.
After the USB mass storage device or similar appears as installed;
go to control panel, admin tools, computer management, disk management.
The new external HDD should show there, possibly as 'uninitialized'. (all
the other HDDs and partitions will show too...get the right one)
Right click and initialize it from the drop menu.
Then you should be able to right click and format it if nexessary and assign
a drive letter, etc.
THEN it will show in My Computer.

 

[Tecknomage]

When I plug in my Freecom external hard drive, the device does not appear in
'My Computer' though my PC recognises a device has been installed.

A new 'USB Mass Storage device' appears in the Device Manager and when I
double click on the device, XP says 'No drivers installed for this device'

When trying to update the driver from the Freecom installation CD no driver
is found - the Freecom website has an updated driver but this doesn't work
either when I install the upgrade on PC. Connection to Windows Update does
not find a more appropriate driver. How can I install an appropriate driver?
Suggestions please.

Hummm...

Could be your Freecom drive. I have an AcomData external
USB2/FireWire hard drive and XP Home didn't even need the XP install
CD. Recognized and running in seconds. Does your motherboard have
USB2? If it's an older board it may only have USB (AKA USB1).

Additional comment. I was lucky in that my AcomData drive was the
USB2/FireWire combo. I found USB connection very unstable. The
biggest problem was not being able to optimize, I would loose the USB
connection every try. This same problem happened occasionally under
normal use. Installed a IEEE 1394 adapter (AKA FireWire) card
(Adaptec, low cost) and all problems solved. I've also added an
external FireWire DVD recorder. I highly suggest FireWire over USB
for hard drives and CD devices.


==== Tecknomage ====
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that
we are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic
and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."
Theodore Roosevelt

 

[Guest]

Just fixed the problem. Upgrading the driver on the USB Controllers, caused
the hardware to be detected and a device driver installed for the external
Hard Drive.

Thanks to everybody who offered their advice and assistance