Getting windows to recognise my portable hard drive

[MartinW]

Hi,

I have a Lacie 500Gb portable hard drive which I use for
back-up purposes. Every time I hook it up Windows will
not recognise it, it just shows as Local Disc (F in windows
explorer, when I click on it, I get a message saying the 'device
is not accessible'.

When I restart the PC with the device still running, windows
explorer will recognise it and display it as Lacie (F and then
allow me to access it.

The device hooks up via a USB port and I have tried different
combinations of turning it on hooking it up, not turning it on
hooking it up etc. but nothing seems to work.

What am I doing wrong? How can I avoid having to do a
restart every time I want to use it? I don't have this problem
with my 1Gb flash drive.

I'm using WinXP home edition.

Thanks
Martin

 

[FrankV]

I also have a Lacie plugged in a USB port but do not have a problem. You
should see a button next to clock called "Safely Remove Hardware". Click the
"stop" before you disconnect it and it might fix your problem.

Frank