External Drive not recognized in XP Media Edition

[BillTobin]

I have just purchased a Seagate External Desktop Drive to use with my Compaq
Media Computer. The computer is running XP Media Center Edition 2005 with SP
3. When I plug the USB cable in, the computer prompts to install what it is
calling "Desktop" and when I tell to install the device, it tries looking for
what is needed for "Desktop", but eventually reports it cannot install the
hardware. When I check Device Manager and then Disk Drives, this new drive
is not listed. If I scroll down the list of hardware, there is a listing for
"Other Devices" that has a yellow ? before it. Under this is a device called
"Desktop" with both a yellow ? and a yellow !. It seems the external drive
is not being recognized as a drive at all.

I have tried the drive on my other desktop and the laptop (both usinf XP
Home) and it works fine. I also took the drive to work and plugged it into
my computer there (running Vista) and it worked fine.

At work I asked one of the tech guys about and he asked if I used a jup
drive on the media computer, which I have been able to use for awhile. His
comment was that it did not make sense, since he would have figured both the
jump drive and the external drive would use the same drivers.

If that is true, the one thing that I could come up with is that XP Media
Center Edition (or the BIOS) does not recognize a 500GB drive. Is there
anthing to this conclusion? I remember in the old days windows did have
limitation on disk size, but I thought that was eliminated many versions ago.
I also remember the workaround was to partition the too big drive into sizes
that the computer would be capable to recognize. Does the size limitation
amke sense to anyone? Does anyone know what the limit would be for this
computer (it came with a 260 GB drive, but I think that was partitioned into
one 250 GB and another at 10GB.

Does any of this make sense? Any suggestions or help to get this drive to
work on this computer would be appriciated.

 

[Willard]

I have just purchased a Seagate External Desktop Drive to use with my Compaq
Media Computer. The computer is running XP Media Center Edition 2005 with SP
3. When I plug the USB cable in, the computer prompts to install what it is
calling "Desktop" and when I tell to install the device, it tries looking for
what is needed for "Desktop", but eventually reports it cannot install the
hardware. When I check Device Manager and then Disk Drives, this new drive
is not listed. If I scroll down the list of hardware, there is a listing for
"Other Devices" that has a yellow ? before it. Under this is a device called
"Desktop" with both a yellow ? and a yellow !. It seems the external drive
is not being recognized as a drive at all.

I have tried the drive on my other desktop and the laptop (both usinf XP
Home) and it works fine. I also took the drive to work and plugged it into
my computer there (running Vista) and it worked fine.

At work I asked one of the tech guys about and he asked if I used a jup
drive on the media computer, which I have been able to use for awhile. His
comment was that it did not make sense, since he would have figured both the
jump drive and the external drive would use the same drivers.

If that is true, the one thing that I could come up with is that XP Media
Center Edition (or the BIOS) does not recognize a 500GB drive. Is there
anthing to this conclusion? I remember in the old days windows did have
limitation on disk size, but I thought that was eliminated many versions ago.
I also remember the workaround was to partition the too big drive into sizes
that the computer would be capable to recognize. Does the size limitation
amke sense to anyone? Does anyone know what the limit would be for this
computer (it came with a 260 GB drive, but I think that was partitioned into
one 250 GB and another at 10GB.

Does any of this make sense? Any suggestions or help to get this drive to
work on this computer would be appriciated.

Bill:
I had a similar problem on my Dell Vostro 1510 Laptop with a 1394
Firewire plug in drive that stopped working..
I returned the unit to Dell for warranty repair, and when received back,
there was no report on what was done, but I am sure the problem was
with the 1394 card or its connection, since I completely reinstalled my
backup XPproSP3 system, and it now works just fine...

 

[Anna]

I have just purchased a Seagate External Desktop Drive to use with my
Compaq
Media Computer. The computer is running XP Media Center Edition 2005 with
SP
3. When I plug the USB cable in, the computer prompts to install what it
is
calling "Desktop" and when I tell to install the device, it tries looking
for
what is needed for "Desktop", but eventually reports it cannot install the
hardware. When I check Device Manager and then Disk Drives, this new
drive
is not listed. If I scroll down the list of hardware, there is a listing
for
"Other Devices" that has a yellow ? before it. Under this is a device
called
"Desktop" with both a yellow ? and a yellow !. It seems the external
drive
is not being recognized as a drive at all.

I have tried the drive on my other desktop and the laptop (both usinf XP
Home) and it works fine. I also took the drive to work and plugged it
into
my computer there (running Vista) and it worked fine.

At work I asked one of the tech guys about and he asked if I used a jup
drive on the media computer, which I have been able to use for awhile.
His
comment was that it did not make sense, since he would have figured both
the
jump drive and the external drive would use the same drivers.

If that is true, the one thing that I could come up with is that XP Media
Center Edition (or the BIOS) does not recognize a 500GB drive. Is there
anthing to this conclusion? I remember in the old days windows did have
limitation on disk size, but I thought that was eliminated many versions
ago.
I also remember the workaround was to partition the too big drive into
sizes
that the computer would be capable to recognize. Does the size limitation
amke sense to anyone? Does anyone know what the limit would be for this
computer (it came with a 260 GB drive, but I think that was partitioned
into
one 250 GB and another at 10GB.

Does any of this make sense? Any suggestions or help to get this drive to
work on this computer would be appriciated.

Bill:
First of all it's doubtful whether the problem you're experiencing has
anything to do with the disk size of the HDD in the USB external enclosure.
At a much earlier point in time - going back at least six years of so - we
did run into a number of problems with these USB external HDD devices where
the system's motherboard BIOS failed to detect a USB HDD > 300 GB. Actually
it wasn't so much a problem of the BIOS as it was with the design of the USB
device itself.

Let me say at the outset that these USB non-recognition problems have been
vexing all of us for some time now. Hardly a day passes where queries
similar to yours are not posted to this and other newsgroups dealing with XP
issues. We've become increasingly convinced that the relatively large number
of problems in this area involving the non-recognition of USB devices that
we've all been experiencing is an indication that there is something
seriously flawed with respect to either the USB 2.0 specifications, possibly
involving quality control issues affecting the manufacturer of these USB
devices as well as supporting components such as motherboards and other
USB-related components. Then too, we've become increasingly suspicious of
the XP OS as it relates to its recognition of and interaction with these USB
2.0 devices.

We have encountered far too many unexplained problems affecting
detection/recognition of these devices and their erratic functioning not to
believe that something is seriously amiss in this area.

We continually encounter situations where a USB 2.0 device - generally
involving a flash drive or USB external hard drive - will work perfectly
fine in one machine and not in another. And, in far too many cases, we're
unable to determine why this is so since we're unable to detect any
hardware/software problem in the balking machine that should cause this
non-recognition effect.

Anyway, with that out of the way...

Here are a few "troubleshooting" tips for you to try or be aware of (in no
particular order)...
1. 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.
2. Avoid using a USB extension cable.
3 (It probably isn't, but on the off-chance that it is...) 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. 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.
4. 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.
5. Access the BIOS and disable the "boot from USB device" option should that
setting be present in the BIOS. Ditto for "USB legacy support" or similar
setting if present.
6. Try alternate powering ON/OFF methods. Try booting up with the device's
power on, and if the USBEHD is not detected, then try powering on the device
only *after* the system has booted to a Desktop.
7. Try a different USB cable.
8. In the USB controllers section of Device Manager, uninstall all the USB
controllers listed and reboot.
9. Get in touch with Seagate 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 (even though the device "works" in
another machine. We've come across a number of USB external enclosures that
were finally determined to be defective even under these circumstances.)

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

 

[BillTobin]

Anna,

Thank you for your reply. I appreciate your explanation and "tips". I will
try them and see what happens. (BTW It probably no surprise, but Seagate was
not much help, blaming either MS or the motherboard manufacturer.

Bill