External HD

[Guest]

-- I bought an external HD on Ebay. It worked perfectly when I plugged it
in. When I was done playing around with it I decided to format it and get rid
of all the junk I had stored on it. I went to my computer and did a right
click on the drive and did a format. Now I can not find it again. I can find
it in device manager and it says it is working. It does not show up in my
computer anymore. Originally it was drive H. I have tried to reload the
drivers, but nothing works.

I am running XP pro. The drive is a Platinum 250GB 5400rpm. ATA/133 HDD.
Other numbers on the drive are: E-H011-02-3880 3.5 series ER: +5v 670ma
+12v 960ma. It is in a Sapphire Octopus link USB 2.0-3.5†external enclosure.

Any ideas?

Fred

 

[Shenan Stanley]

-- I bought an external HD on Ebay. It worked perfectly when I
plugged it in. When I was done playing around with it I decided to
format it and get rid of all the junk I had stored on it. I went to
my computer and did a right click on the drive and did a format. Now
I can not find it again. I can find it in device manager and it says
it is working. It does not show up in my computer anymore. Originally
it was drive H. I have tried to reload the drivers, but nothing works.

I am running XP pro. The drive is a Platinum 250GB 5400rpm. ATA/133
HDD. Other numbers on the drive are: E-H011-02-3880 3.5 series
ER: +5v 670ma +12v 960ma. It is in a Sapphire Octopus link USB
2.0-3.5" external enclosure.

First off, a USB hard drive that needs drivers.. Weird.
Secondly - if you see it in Device Manager - have you tried just giving it a
driver letter there?

 

[Guest]

How do I do that?
--
Fred

First off, a USB hard drive that needs drivers.. Weird.
Secondly - if you see it in Device Manager - have you tried just giving it a
driver letter there?

 

[Shenan Stanley]

-- I bought an external HD on Ebay. It worked perfectly when I
plugged it in. When I was done playing around with it I decided to
format it and get rid of all the junk I had stored on it. I went to
my computer and did a right click on the drive and did a format. Now
I can not find it again. I can find it in device manager and it says
it is working. It does not show up in my computer anymore.
Originally it was drive H. I have tried to reload the drivers, but
nothing works.

I am running XP pro. The drive is a Platinum 250GB 5400rpm. ATA/133
HDD. Other numbers on the drive are: E-H011-02-3880 3.5 series
ER: +5v 670ma +12v 960ma. It is in a Sapphire Octopus link USB
2.0-3.5" external enclosure.

First off, a USB hard drive that needs drivers.. Weird.
Secondly - if you see it in Device Manager - have you tried just
giving it a driver letter there?

How do I do that?

Short version - In Disk Management - right-click on the drive in question,
the menu should answer your question. =)

--------
Start -> Help and Support -> Search

assign a drive letter
--------

That came up with this (should be the same on your PC.)

1. Open Computer Management (Local).
2. In the console tree, click Disk Management.
Where?
Computer Management (Local) -> Storage -> Disk Management

3. Right-click a partition, logical drive, or volume, and then click Change
Drive Letter and Paths.
4. Do one of the following:
- To assign a drive letter, click Add, click the drive letter you want to
use, and then click OK.
- To modify a drive letter, click it, click Change, click the drive letter
you want to use, and then click OK.
- To remove a drive letter, click it, and then click Remove.

* Important *

Be careful when making drive-letter assignments because many MS-DOS and
Windows programs make references to a specific drive letter. For example,
the path environment variable shows specific drive letters in conjunction
with program names.

* Notes *

- To open Computer Management, click Start, and then click Control Panel.
Double-click Administrative Tools, and then double-click Computer
Management.
- You must be logged on as an administrator or a member of the
Administrators group in order to complete this procedure. If your computer
is connected to a network, network policy settings might also prevent you
from completing this procedure.
- A computer can use up to 26 drive letters. Drive letters A and B are
reserved for floppy disk drives, but you can assign these letters to
removable drives if the computer does not have a floppy disk drive. Hard
disk drives in the computer receive letters C through Z, while mapped
network drives are assigned drive letters in reverse order (Z through B).
- You cannot change the drive letter of the system volume or boot volume.
- An error message may appear when you attempt to assign a letter to a
volume, CD-ROM drive, or other removable media device, possibly because it
is in use by a program in the system. If this happens, close the program
accessing the volume or drive, and then click the Change Drive Letter and
Paths command again.
- Windows 2000 and Windows XP allow the static assignment of drive letters
on volumes, partitions, and CD-ROM drives. This means that you permanently
assign a drive letter to a specific partition, volume, or CD-ROM drive. When
you add a new hard disk to an existing computer system, it will not affect
statically assigned drive letters.
- You can also mount a local drive at an empty folder on an NTFS volume
using a drive path instead of a drive letter. For more information, click
Related Topics.

 

[Guest]

That worked! Thank you very much!
--
Fred

Short version - In Disk Management - right-click on the drive in question,
the menu should answer your question. =)

--------
Start -> Help and Support -> Search

assign a drive letter
--------

That came up with this (should be the same on your PC.)

1. Open Computer Management (Local).
2. In the console tree, click Disk Management.
Where?
Computer Management (Local) -> Storage -> Disk Management

3. Right-click a partition, logical drive, or volume, and then click Change
Drive Letter and Paths.
4. Do one of the following:
- To assign a drive letter, click Add, click the drive letter you want to
use, and then click OK.
- To modify a drive letter, click it, click Change, click the drive letter
you want to use, and then click OK.
- To remove a drive letter, click it, and then click Remove.

* Important *

Be careful when making drive-letter assignments because many MS-DOS and
Windows programs make references to a specific drive letter. For example,
the path environment variable shows specific drive letters in conjunction
with program names.

* Notes *

- To open Computer Management, click Start, and then click Control Panel.
Double-click Administrative Tools, and then double-click Computer
Management.
- You must be logged on as an administrator or a member of the
Administrators group in order to complete this procedure. If your computer
is connected to a network, network policy settings might also prevent you
from completing this procedure.
- A computer can use up to 26 drive letters. Drive letters A and B are
reserved for floppy disk drives, but you can assign these letters to
removable drives if the computer does not have a floppy disk drive. Hard
disk drives in the computer receive letters C through Z, while mapped
network drives are assigned drive letters in reverse order (Z through B).
- You cannot change the drive letter of the system volume or boot volume.
- An error message may appear when you attempt to assign a letter to a
volume, CD-ROM drive, or other removable media device, possibly because it
is in use by a program in the system. If this happens, close the program
accessing the volume or drive, and then click the Change Drive Letter and
Paths command again.
- Windows 2000 and Windows XP allow the static assignment of drive letters
on volumes, partitions, and CD-ROM drives. This means that you permanently
assign a drive letter to a specific partition, volume, or CD-ROM drive. When
you add a new hard disk to an existing computer system, it will not affect
statically assigned drive letters.
- You can also mount a local drive at an empty folder on an NTFS volume
using a drive path instead of a drive letter. For more information, click
Related Topics.

 

[Shenan Stanley]

-- I bought an external HD on Ebay. It worked perfectly when I
plugged it in. When I was done playing around with it I decided to
format it and get rid of all the junk I had stored on it. I went to
my computer and did a right click on the drive and did a format. Now
I can not find it again. I can find it in device manager and it says
it is working. It does not show up in my computer anymore.
Originally it was drive H. I have tried to reload the drivers, but
nothing works.

I am running XP pro. The drive is a Platinum 250GB 5400rpm. ATA/133
HDD. Other numbers on the drive are: E-H011-02-3880 3.5 series
ER: +5v 670ma +12v 960ma. It is in a Sapphire Octopus link USB
2.0-3.5" external enclosure.

First off, a USB hard drive that needs drivers.. Weird.
Secondly - if you see it in Device Manager - have you tried just
giving it a driver letter there?

How do I do that?

Short version - In Disk Management - right-click on the drive in
question, the menu should answer your question. =)

<snipped>

That worked! Thank you very much!

Anytime. Glad it worked!

 

[Guest]

I had same problem. Thank you Ms. Stanley. I do have another question for you
and that is "Why doesn't the new drive show up in 'My Coputer'"? How do you
get it to show up?

 

[Shenan Stanley]

-- I bought an external HD on Ebay. It worked perfectly when I
plugged it in. When I was done playing around with it I decided to
format it and get rid of all the junk I had stored on it. I went to
my computer and did a right click on the drive and did a format. Now
I can not find it again. I can find it in device manager and it says
it is working. It does not show up in my computer anymore.
Originally it was drive H. I have tried to reload the drivers, but
nothing works.

I am running XP pro. The drive is a Platinum 250GB 5400rpm. ATA/133
HDD. Other numbers on the drive are: E-H011-02-3880 3.5 series
ER: +5v 670ma +12v 960ma. It is in a Sapphire Octopus link USB
2.0-3.5" external enclosure.

First off, a USB hard drive that needs drivers.. Weird.
Secondly - if you see it in Device Manager - have you tried just
giving it a driver letter there?

I had same problem. Thank you Mr. Stanley.
I do have another question for you and that is
"Why doesn't the new drive show up in 'My Computer'"?
How do you get it to show up?

Do you see it in Disk Management?
Have you given it a drive letter?

Although it should technically just "get one", it may not be able to for
various reasons. One being that Windows is very particular with external
USB devices and will sometimes not give them letters if you already have use
of C, D, E, F and G.. It's very random and sometimes works - but something
just isn't right there. I have had to - in the past - change peoples CD
drive letters to "Y" and "Z" and reboot before hooking the USB drive into
the machine to grab "E" or "F". All this can be done in the Disk Manager..

To start Disk Management:
1. Log on as administrator or as a member of the Administrators group.
2. Click Start, click Run, type compmgmt.msc, and then click OK.
3. In the console tree, click Disk Management. The Disk Management window
appears. Your disks and volumes appear in a graphical view and list view. To
customize how you view your disks and volumes in the upper and lower panes
of the window, point to Top or Bottom on the View menu, and then click the
view that you want to use.

 

[Guest]

It shows up there but not in "MY COMPUTER"/. The letter has been assigned.

 

[Guest]

I just reread my question and am sorry about the wrong letter MS STANLEY,

 

[Guest]

I just noticed something else. My internal h/d shows that it is a NTFS and my
external h/d is a FAT32. How do I change the external to NTFS?

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I just reread my question and am sorry about the wrong letter
MR STANLEY,

 

[Beach]

Did you format in NTFS or Fat32, it sounds like you have formatted it under
the FAT32 file system instead of NTFS

 

[Guest]

If you would have read what I wrote, I SAID THAT I BOUGHT AN EXTERNAL H/D AND
IT IS FORMATTED WITH FAT32 AND I NEED TO REFORMAT IT WITH NTFS. I NEED TO
KNOW HOW TO THAT.

Did you format in NTFS or Fat32, it sounds like you have formatted it under
the FAT32 file system instead of NTFS

 

[johnf]

I suggest you bite your lip, rethink & answer in a polite way - unless you
are used to upper caps to vent your feelings - which is not acceptable on
NGs & stops people responding. Don't forget, this is a volantery NG.


--

johnf

If you would have read what I wrote, I SAID THAT I BOUGHT AN EXTERNAL
H/D AND IT IS FORMATTED WITH FAT32 AND I NEED TO REFORMAT IT WITH NTFS.
I NEED TO KNOW HOW TO THAT.

 

[Guest]

I know this is ALL volantery, but when they don't read what the problem is
and give some response that isn't helpful.....

I suggest you bite your lip, rethink & answer in a polite way - unless you
are used to upper caps to vent your feelings - which is not acceptable on
NGs & stops people responding. Don't forget, this is a volantery NG.


--

johnf

If you would have read what I wrote, I SAID THAT I BOUGHT AN EXTERNAL
H/D AND IT IS FORMATTED WITH FAT32 AND I NEED TO REFORMAT IT WITH NTFS.
I NEED TO KNOW HOW TO THAT.

 

[Tony Cooper]

I know this is ALL volantery, but when they don't read what the problem is
and give some response that isn't helpful.....

1. Right click on your "My Computer" icon on the desktop.

2. Click "Manage".

3. In the dropdown, go down to "Disk Management".

4. Look for the disk you want to re-format in the lower panes.
Highlight that disk.

5. Right click in that area and select "Format"

6. Bring up NTFS in the box and check "Quick Format".

7. Click OK.

This will reformat your hard drive to NTFS but it will erase any files
you have on that disk. If it's a new disk, that shouldn't be a
problem.

Had you been more polite in the way you asked, you'd probably have
received this information sooner.