External HD not recogized but it used to work.

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Guest

Dear all. I've got a Maxtor Personal Storage 3100 200G USB drive that is not
recognized by my computer anymore. It used to work and then it stopped. It
won't work on my home or work computer but it will work on my Laptop. Home
computer is P4 2.4 1g ram, work 2.5 p4 512R not sure about laptop. All
computers have windows XP, home has home edition, work has proffesional and
same with laptop. ALL have SP2.

I've never "played" with configurations or bios or stuff like that. The
normal windows update i install but i have tried uninstalling the last few of
those to see if that was the problem. My laptop is hardly ever hooked up to
the internet so the updates for that wouldn't be coming through as regularly
as the other two.

If you can help me that would be great as I'm about to take a hammer to this
drive and just put a new internal drive in as this thing is p*$$@n me off.
 
Dear all. I've got a Maxtor Personal Storage 3100 200G USB drive that is not
recognized by my computer anymore. It used to work and then it stopped. It
won't work on my home or work computer but it will work on my Laptop. Home
computer is P4 2.4 1g ram, work 2.5 p4 512R not sure about laptop. All
computers have windows XP, home has home edition, work has proffesional and
same with laptop. ALL have SP2.

I've never "played" with configurations or bios or stuff like that. The
normal windows update i install but i have tried uninstalling the last few of
those to see if that was the problem. My laptop is hardly ever hooked up to
the internet so the updates for that wouldn't be coming through as regularly
as the other two.

If you can help me that would be great as I'm about to take a hammer to this
drive and just put a new internal drive in as this thing is p*$$@n me off.
Click to expand...

General USB Troubleshooting in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=310575

USB device does not function after connecting device to a Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=870893
 
Not sure if this will help.. BUT I have a machine that will not boot
with my Maxtor attached. Have you tried to 1) boot the machine
2) plug-in the Maxtor 3) attach it to the PC and see if it then
will recognize it. Also if you have a cable attached to your
USB port(s) on the machines that do not work you can see if there
is a cable problem by the Maxtor attaching directly to the the
usb connection. FINALLY the a/c adaptor is differnet for different
drives even though it will connect you can also check this e.g.
does the dri ve spin-up..

Bill
 
Thanks bill,

I've tried everything you have said but still no avail. What do you mean by
connect it directly to the usb connection? I have 4 usb ports on the
computer and I'm not using a powered hub or anything like that. The Ac
adaptor came with the unit and when plugged, i can hear the unit spin and the
light comes on. The cords must be fine as it all works on the laptop, the
only reason I don't use the laptop as it is a work one and does not have a
burner, programs, etc etc.

Could it be that the laptop does not need as much power? The drive did work
for quite a while(1 year) before it stopped working completly at home but
even when it was working sometimes it would "drop" the connection and I would
need to unplug the power and plug it back in again and it would work.

I wonder if I could have this installed as an internal drive....

Oh yeah one other thing is that when you look at device properties when it'
connected it says there is no driver installed for this device but on the
laptop it shows that it has a driver.

Many thanks

Michael
 
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