External USB Hard Drive Can't be Accessed

[Sokd21]

Hello. I have searched the posts in this group and have found similar
situations to this, but not the same. I have a HP Pavilion a1730n with
Vista Home Premium :-( I am trying to hook up a USB 2.0 external hard
drive (a Maxtor drive, set to Master, placed in a hard drive
enclosure). When I hook it up and go into Windows Explorer, Explorer
stops running. Same with trying to access the drive using the Computer
icon. As soon as I turn off the drive, Explorer comes right back. When
I plug in the drive and turn it on, I get the familiar tone indicating
that the drive was detected, but I can't access any function that
would show the drive. Any advice as to what to check? I'd appreciate
any help.

Thank you

 

[Me]

Have you formatted it before?

 

[Sokd21]

I have formatted it before. I'm not sure how to format it now, since I
can't access it. I think I'll hook it up to my old XP machine to
format it. Not sure if it'll make a difference, but it's worth a shot.
Thanks.

 

[Sokd21]

I have formatted it before. I'm not sure how to format it now, since I
can't access it. I think I'll hook it up to my old XP machine to
format it. Not sure if it'll make a difference, but it's worth a shot.
Thanks.

Looks like I was a victim of coincidence. When I tried to format the
drive on my old XP machine (to which the drive had been attached and
used for a few months previously), it didn't work there, either. After
testing in another machine, seems the drive is dead. Just happened to
occur when I hooked it up to Vista. Bummer. Oh, well. Thanks.

 

[Steve Urbach]

Looks like I was a victim of coincidence. When I tried to format the
drive on my old XP machine (to which the drive had been attached and
used for a few months previously), it didn't work there, either. After
testing in another machine, seems the drive is dead. Just happened to
occur when I hooked it up to Vista. Bummer. Oh, well. Thanks.

Look for bent pins,
Look for Misplaced Master|Slave|CS jumper
try a different IDE cable.
And make sure the BIOS re-detects the drive (Setup).

Steve