2nd Post: Please help me find my External HD

[Guest]

I bought a Western Digital external hard drive. I set it up and used it.
Now my computer won't find it. In Device Manager, my computer shows an
"Unknown USB Device." Perhpas that's it?

USB ports are all working properly. The External |HD powers up. But I
can't find it!

Any help will be appreciated ...

 

[Brett I. Holcomb]

Did you try looking in Storage Manager?

I bought a Western Digital external hard drive. I set it up and used it.
Now my computer won't find it. In Device Manager, my computer shows an
"Unknown USB Device." Perhpas that's it?

USB ports are all working properly. The External |HD powers up. But I
can't find it!

Any help will be appreciated ...

 

[Justin Brown - SYNACS]

Brett's got the right idea. It's actually called Disk Management.
Right-click My Computer, select Manage. Disk Management is under the
"Storage" container.

 

[Brett I. Holcomb]

Arrghh - Disk Management is right. Too many systems to keep track of! <G>.

 

[Guest]

Thanks guys. I sure hope you stay with me till this gets fixed.

I went to Disk Management. I see my computer's internal hard drive at 0.
It's got two partitions -- one is unnamed and apparently unaccessible. It's
about 9 MG. I believe it is the Toshiba software restore partition. The
other partition is my main C:/ drive.

There is a CD-ROM also at 0. Must be some kind of a virtual drive?

There's another CD-ROM at 1. I think that's the physical CD/DVD internal.

Nothing else.

NO EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE ANYWHERE!

 

[sdlomi2]

Thanks guys. I sure hope you stay with me till this gets fixed.

I went to Disk Management. I see my computer's internal hard drive at 0.
It's got two partitions -- one is unnamed and apparently unaccessible.
It's about 9 MG. I believe it is the Toshiba software restore partition.
The other partition is my main C:/ drive.

There is a CD-ROM also at 0. Must be some kind of a virtual drive?

There's another CD-ROM at 1. I think that's the physical CD/DVD internal.

Nothing else.

NO EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE ANYWHERE!

Please try physically disconnecting the drive from USB & ensurung its
power is off; restarting your system; turning off system; attaching the hd
via USB; restarting system & letting it detect AND install the hd? One
other idea: try installing it via USB, of course, to another computer & see
if that comp. sees it. HTH, s

 

[Anna]

Thanks guys. I sure hope you stay with me till this gets fixed.

I went to Disk Management. I see my computer's internal hard drive at 0.
It's got two partitions -- one is unnamed and apparently unaccessible.
It's about 9 MG. I believe it is the Toshiba software restore partition.
The other partition is my main C:/ drive.

There is a CD-ROM also at 0. Must be some kind of a virtual drive?

There's another CD-ROM at 1. I think that's the physical CD/DVD internal.

Nothing else.

NO EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE ANYWHERE!

fishy:
The USB non-recognition problems have been frustrating for all of us. Here
are some troublehooting tips you may want to try...

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 not a commercial USB external HDD but
rather one in which you installed a HDD in a USB enclosure, jumper the 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.

Also, take a look at this site for some troubleshooting tips re USB
devices...
http://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbtrouble_e.html

There's always the possibility that your USBEHD is defective. If you still
have return privileges from the vendor perhaps it would be wise to simply
return it for exchange with a similar WD unit.
Anna

 

[Guest]

I've already tried all that -- no joy.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the suggestions -- my responses are inline:

fishy:
The USB non-recognition problems have been frustrating for all of us. Here
are some troublehooting tips you may want to try...

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.

RESPONSE: Not listed. No drive letter. (There is an "Unknown USB
Device" -- no drive letter)

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.

RESPONSE: No device 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.

RESPONSE: Tried that; all USB ports work fine with other hardware.
External HD will not work on any USB port.

4. Avoid using a USB extension cable.

RESPONSE: It's directly connected to the computer -- no hubs or extension
cables.

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.

RESPONSE: Tried that; no difference.

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.

RESPONSE: Tried that.

8. Try a different USB cable.

9. In the USB controllers section of Device Manager, uninstall all the USB
controllers listed and reboot.

RESPONSE: Tried that.

10. If the device in question is not a commercial USB external HDD but
rather one in which you installed a HDD in a USB enclosure, jumper the 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.

RESPONSE: Device and cables came from Western Digital -- new out of the
box. No customizations involved.

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.

RESPONSE: Diagnostic Utility runs, closes, no difference.

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.

RESPONSE: On a laptop?

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.

RESPONSE: Been there. Done that.

14. Determine from the manufacturer of your motherboard whether there's a
BIOS upgrade affecting USB device recognition.

Also, take a look at this site for some troubleshooting tips re USB
devices...
http://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbtrouble_e.html

There's always the possibility that your USBEHD is defective. If you still
have return privileges from the vendor perhaps it would be wise to simply
return it for exchange with a similar WD unit.

RESPONSE: I moved 13 GIG of data to the external HD. I need to access the
data.

 

[Jonny]

Thanks for the suggestions -- my responses are inline:


RESPONSE: Not listed. No drive letter. (There is an "Unknown USB
Device" -- no drive letter)


RESPONSE: No device listed.


RESPONSE: Tried that; all USB ports work fine with other hardware.
External HD will not work on any USB port.


RESPONSE: It's directly connected to the computer -- no hubs or extension
cables.


RESPONSE: Tried that; no difference.



RESPONSE: Tried that.


RESPONSE: Tried that.


RESPONSE: Device and cables came from Western Digital -- new out of the
box. No customizations involved.


RESPONSE: Diagnostic Utility runs, closes, no difference.

Yep, the WD windows version utility can checkout external WD drives.
Question is, how did it access the drive when XP could not?
The utility can't fix anything if that's what you're inferring.

 

[Guest]

I uninstalled the three most recent updates, rebooted, unplugged the
External HD USB cord and electrical cord, waited 5 minutes, plugged in the
HD, and NOW I CAN SEE IT!

This has got to be the weirdest thing ever. I just hope it keeps working.

Are you fellows aware of any updates that cause USB recognition problems?

<*(((><

 

[Anna]

Based on our experience over the past three years or so with USB devices in
an XP environment, it will get weirder & weirder.

I really don't think the fact that you uninstalled recent updates has
anything to do with your system's new-found recognition of your USB device.
Just count your blessings (at least for the moment - who knows what tomorrow
may bring...)

BTW, why the last three updates? That's when your problem began? Probably
just a coincidence, but who knows?
Anna

 

[Flyear]

try this to see if it works or not:

SOLUTION!!!
(This particular drive has the drivers pre-installed, great if the PC
can recognise the drive, crap if it can't.)
Loaded the drive up at work, copied the driver files down onto a USB
Pendrive.
Came home, loaded the driver files onto my PC and ran the autorun
drivers.
They installed, then I rebooted with the Drive plugged in.