External WD USB Hard Drive Recognized Only as Unknown Device

[Guest]

Hello!

I had a previous external Western Digital hard drive which worked perfectly
on this system until the hard drive mechanism died.

I purchased a new external WD USB 250GB hard drive which has problems with
one of my XP Pro SP2 system. On one system, it works fine, every time. On
the other system, it has been recognized twice by the system, even allowing
me to re-partition and format it in NTFS, so I thought the problem was
solved. I moved the drive to the other system, where it had always worked
(another XP Pro SP2 system), used it for backup, and then brought it back to
this system and is now recognized by Device Manager as an Unknown Device
again. When I check the properties, it states there is no device driver
loaded (which should be supplied by XP itself, not any external drivers). If
I uninstall the device and then reconnect it, I get the same result.

It seems that the problem is constant, which the exception of two times when
it did work for that connection. One of the times it was working, I even
logged out and back in as the same user and it still was there without a
problem. I'm totally lost as to why it will not recognize the USB Mass
Storage Device properly, other than the two random times that it has.

I have used confirmed working USB cables and the USB port has been changed
several times and all USB ports are directly connected to the motherboard.
Western Digital won't help -- the drive works, it can't possibly be their
problem, nor could they ever have seen this happen before. They are useless.
Dell (the computer by the way is a XPS Gen2, P4 EE) tells me to talk to
Western Digital.

Can anyone help me? I'm going crazier... Thanks in advance!

 

[Ghostrider]

Hello!

I had a previous external Western Digital hard drive which worked perfectly
on this system until the hard drive mechanism died.

I purchased a new external WD USB 250GB hard drive which has problems with
one of my XP Pro SP2 system. On one system, it works fine, every time. On
the other system, it has been recognized twice by the system, even allowing
me to re-partition and format it in NTFS, so I thought the problem was
solved. I moved the drive to the other system, where it had always worked
(another XP Pro SP2 system), used it for backup, and then brought it back to
this system and is now recognized by Device Manager as an Unknown Device
again. When I check the properties, it states there is no device driver
loaded (which should be supplied by XP itself, not any external drivers). If
I uninstall the device and then reconnect it, I get the same result.

It seems that the problem is constant, which the exception of two times when
it did work for that connection. One of the times it was working, I even
logged out and back in as the same user and it still was there without a
problem. I'm totally lost as to why it will not recognize the USB Mass
Storage Device properly, other than the two random times that it has.

I have used confirmed working USB cables and the USB port has been changed
several times and all USB ports are directly connected to the motherboard.
Western Digital won't help -- the drive works, it can't possibly be their
problem, nor could they ever have seen this happen before. They are useless.
Dell (the computer by the way is a XPS Gen2, P4 EE) tells me to talk to
Western Digital.

Can anyone help me? I'm going crazier... Thanks in advance!

External WD USB hard drives may have some quirky requirements.
Read the literature that came with it and visit the website to
check for any patches. And from experience, the sequence for
attaching the WD external USB drive is supposed to be:

(a) Connect to power supply; (b) Power on; (c) With HD spinning
at proper speed, connect USB (or Firewire) to running computer.
XP should see it as a running USB (or Firewire) device.

 

[Guest]

Thanks. I've checked the order before and it doesn't make any difference.
Does a USB device that has been used on a system before keep any record of
itself in the registry? What I am thinking is that when the device was
attached the first time, it did not load the standard USB Mass Storage Device
Driver correctly, and left an entry in the registry for the drive. Now,
every time it is connected, it goes back to the registry and looks at the
incorrect information and does the same thing over again -- is this true? If
so, if I could find the registry entry for the device, I could delete the
entry and allow for an absolute clean start. Western Digital says every time
a USB device is attached it works like it is a new device in loading the
drivers, and I disagree, but won't pay Microsoft the $35 to find out.
Whenever I load any USB device that has been loaded before, it doesn't go
through the process of saying, "New USB device detected...", giving the name
of the device, and saying that it has been properly loaded and is ready to
use. It is different if it has been attached to the system before. It just
loads the device drivers that are needed and goes, that's it. No messages.
Am I right or am I crazy?

Thanks again!

 

[Ghostrider]

Thanks. I've checked the order before and it doesn't make any difference.
Does a USB device that has been used on a system before keep any record of
itself in the registry? What I am thinking is that when the device was
attached the first time, it did not load the standard USB Mass Storage Device
Driver correctly, and left an entry in the registry for the drive. Now,
every time it is connected, it goes back to the registry and looks at the
incorrect information and does the same thing over again -- is this true? If
so, if I could find the registry entry for the device, I could delete the
entry and allow for an absolute clean start. Western Digital says every time
a USB device is attached it works like it is a new device in loading the
drivers, and I disagree, but won't pay Microsoft the $35 to find out.
Whenever I load any USB device that has been loaded before, it doesn't go
through the process of saying, "New USB device detected...", giving the name
of the device, and saying that it has been properly loaded and is ready to
use. It is different if it has been attached to the system before. It just
loads the device drivers that are needed and goes, that's it. No messages.
Am I right or am I crazy?

Thanks again!

The description is essentially correct provided that the [USB] device
has been enumerated into the Windows Registry. If enumerated and if it
is causing trouble, then all of the links to it should be removed. The
place to start looking would be HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001.
Easiest way would be to do a search using the WDC's drive size, e.g.,
WD1200** for a 120 GB HD. There are going to be a lot of key entries,
including USBSTOR, etc., that will have values relating to the HD.

If there is an easier way other than going through the Windows Registry,
it make be through Disk Management, particularly if the WDC USB external
drive is listed there. Just delete it, turn off computer and re-start it.

HTH and good luck.

 

[Guest]

Thanks again. I actually did the hunting last night. The only location that
showed the device was under CurrentControlSet in the USBSTOR section and I
deleted the records for it. When the device was attached and being shown in
the Device Manager as an Unknown Device, it had an entry with top key with a
VID of 0000 and PID of 0000, instead of valid numbers. When the device was
uninstalled, the entry, as it should have been, was gone, but it still will
not detect the device properly. It seems to only randomly detect the device
correctly on this machine.

Is there any other reason why is would detect it incorrectly only on this
machine, when I've eliminated the port, cable, drive, drive controller (at
least in the external casing), and power source as the cause (mainly by using
very successfully on another machine)?

Thanks again!
--
Jim, B.S.
"ontherebound"
CompTIA A+ and MCDST Certification-bound within the next two months!

Thanks. I've checked the order before and it doesn't make any difference.
Does a USB device that has been used on a system before keep any record of
itself in the registry? What I am thinking is that when the device was
attached the first time, it did not load the standard USB Mass Storage Device
Driver correctly, and left an entry in the registry for the drive. Now,
every time it is connected, it goes back to the registry and looks at the
incorrect information and does the same thing over again -- is this true? If
so, if I could find the registry entry for the device, I could delete the
entry and allow for an absolute clean start. Western Digital says every time
a USB device is attached it works like it is a new device in loading the
drivers, and I disagree, but won't pay Microsoft the $35 to find out.
Whenever I load any USB device that has been loaded before, it doesn't go
through the process of saying, "New USB device detected...", giving the name
of the device, and saying that it has been properly loaded and is ready to
use. It is different if it has been attached to the system before. It just
loads the device drivers that are needed and goes, that's it. No messages.
Am I right or am I crazy?

Thanks again!

The description is essentially correct provided that the [USB] device
has been enumerated into the Windows Registry. If enumerated and if it
is causing trouble, then all of the links to it should be removed. The
place to start looking would be HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001.
Easiest way would be to do a search using the WDC's drive size, e.g.,
WD1200** for a 120 GB HD. There are going to be a lot of key entries,
including USBSTOR, etc., that will have values relating to the HD.

If there is an easier way other than going through the Windows Registry,
it make be through Disk Management, particularly if the WDC USB external
drive is listed there. Just delete it, turn off computer and re-start it.

HTH and good luck.

 

[GHalleck]

Thanks again. I actually did the hunting last night. The only location that
showed the device was under CurrentControlSet in the USBSTOR section and I
deleted the records for it. When the device was attached and being shown in
the Device Manager as an Unknown Device, it had an entry with top key with a
VID of 0000 and PID of 0000, instead of valid numbers. When the device was
uninstalled, the entry, as it should have been, was gone, but it still will
not detect the device properly. It seems to only randomly detect the device
correctly on this machine.

Is there any other reason why is would detect it incorrectly only on this
machine, when I've eliminated the port, cable, drive, drive controller (at
least in the external casing), and power source as the cause (mainly by using
very successfully on another machine)?

Thanks again!

In the realm of "plug and play", it is a bios or eprom chip
on the device's card that identifies it along with possibly
setting up the Windows Registry to manage it. It is rare but
can happen...this device simply does not communicate with the
computer and the issue could also involve the computer's chipset.
Too bad that life is just that more complicated.