Giving up on External Hard Drive

[Guest]

No solution(s) that I read so far have helped so here goes;

WindowsXP SP2 Laptop HPXH545

I have a new USB External Hard Drive (from LaCie).
My Computer(right click)->Manage->Drive Managment, Drive is there.
I can make it active
Partion it
Change Drive Letters

CANT FORMAT OR USE IT

Error says Drive not enabled restart computer to enable drive

Restart same same same.

Drive does not show in My Computer (icon)

Removed-> attached to desktop (home built system)
No problems
Moved some files onto drive from desktop
Removed-> attached to laptop

Laptop cant see them.

ALL DRIVERS UPDATED.

Acronis True Image 9 will write to disk. Laptop still won't recognize drive
in My Computer or under Disk Managment.

Any new ideas or is it time to buy a MAC?

 

[Shenan Stanley]

No solution(s) that I read so far have helped so here goes;

WindowsXP SP2 Laptop HPXH545

I have a new USB External Hard Drive (from LaCie).
My Computer(right click)->Manage->Drive Managment, Drive is there.
I can make it active
Partion it
Change Drive Letters

CANT FORMAT OR USE IT

Error says Drive not enabled restart computer to enable drive

Restart same same same.

Drive does not show in My Computer (icon)

Removed-> attached to desktop (home built system)
No problems
Moved some files onto drive from desktop
Removed-> attached to laptop

Laptop cant see them.

ALL DRIVERS UPDATED.

Acronis True Image 9 will write to disk. Laptop still won't recognize
drive in My Computer or under Disk Managment.

Any new ideas or is it time to buy a MAC?

Using Windows XP to initialize the drive - assign it a letter - then use the
tool below to...

Format the drive FAT32:
http://www.mager.org/mkdosfs/

 

[compsalvage_cscs]

Check your laptop's device manager for usb problems when the drive is
plugged in without a hub.

Your laptop usb port may lack sufficient power.
If you have a powered usb hub plug that in to the laptop first.

 

[Enkidu]

No solution(s) that I read so far have helped so here goes;

WindowsXP SP2 Laptop HPXH545

I have a new USB External Hard Drive (from LaCie).
My Computer(right click)->Manage->Drive Managment, Drive is there.
I can make it active
Partion it
Change Drive Letters

CANT FORMAT OR USE IT

Error says Drive not enabled restart computer to enable drive

Restart same same same.

Drive does not show in My Computer (icon)

Removed-> attached to desktop (home built system)
No problems
Moved some files onto drive from desktop
Removed-> attached to laptop

Laptop cant see them.

ALL DRIVERS UPDATED.

Acronis True Image 9 will write to disk. Laptop still won't recognize drive
in My Computer or under Disk Managment.

Any new ideas or is it time to buy a MAC?

No, time to buy a *powered* external drive. OK, if it is a
powered drive my guess is off, but I've *never* reliably
connected to an external drive powered off the PC, even a tower.

Cheers,

Cliff

 

[Treeman]

mr ed wrote:-
No solution(s) that I read so far have helped so here goes;

WindowsXP SP2 Laptop HPXH545

I have a new USB External Hard Drive (from LaCie).
My Computer(right click)-Manage-Drive Managment, Drive is there.
I can make it active
Partion it
Change Drive Letters

CANT FORMAT OR USE IT

Error says Drive not enabled restart computer to enable drive

Restart same same same.

Drive does not show in My Computer (icon)

Removed- attached to desktop (home built system)
No problems
Moved some files onto drive from desktop
Removed- attached to laptop

Laptop cant see them.

ALL DRIVERS UPDATED.

Acronis True Image 9 will write to disk. Laptop still won't recognize
drive
in My Computer or under Disk Managment.

Any new ideas or is it time to buy a MAC?
-
No, time to buy a *powered* external drive. OK, if it is a
powered drive my guess is off, but I've *never* reliably
connected to an external drive powered off the PC, even a tower.

Cheers,

Cliff

Cliff,
You'll have the same problems with ext. firewire drive after SP2. In
device manager my drive came up as; "unreadable, 0bytes, 0data, this
drive is functioning properly." No fix so far from MS. It's the drivers
and a lot more!
Reverted back to SP1, device works properly.
"Make sure you've updated the drivers for this device." Hmmm, they are
native MS drivers for firewire, drivers only needed if your using Win
ME or lower. Can't help, but many posts about USB devices being lost
after SP2.
Treeman

 

[Enkidu]

Cliff,
You'll have the same problems with ext. firewire drive after SP2. In
device manager my drive came up as; "unreadable, 0bytes, 0data, this
drive is functioning properly." No fix so far from MS. It's the drivers
and a lot more!
Reverted back to SP1, device works properly.
"Make sure you've updated the drivers for this device." Hmmm, they are
native MS drivers for firewire, drivers only needed if your using Win
ME or lower. Can't help, but many posts about USB devices being lost
after SP2.
Treeman

Well, the USB drive shows apparently, but any activity
related to writing to it fails. I still think that it is
most likely a power problem. I've got SP2 (on beige
hardware) and I've used a dozen or so USB devices on it
without problems. Pre-SP2 I had problems with an unpowered
external device that was fixed with a powered hub.

Cheers,

Cliff

 

[Guest]

Sorry Guys had lost the thread there...

(thought after my Mac comment I was kicked out of the windows family )

Anywho,
Shenan can't get that prog to run..... Did however point to something I
hadn't tried. Did a diskpart in the command prompt and was able to do a clean
on the drive. Restarted Disk Managment and COULD FINALLY Initialize the
drive. YES PROB SOLVED!

WRONG.

Still won't partion/format from D.Mngt. Error is "drive not enabled Restart
computer to enable" etc. Restarting helps nothing especially not my blood
pressure (cheers).

Drive has it's own power supply. Using USB 2.0 on a PCMCIA card or the USB
1.1 on the laptop problem's the same.

So going to have to do a file and settings X'fer to desktop then delete the
files off of here I guess (2.5 gb free is all thats left ).

Hmmm.... One thing.. I do have an external 2.5 that runs off of a PCMCIA and
this machine has no problem with it at all. In fact it carries a full backup
image of this disk and I did swap them and booted fine. Could that have
written something to the register that isn't allowing the USB drive to
work????

Thanks for the work so far guys I do appreciate it.


mr ed

(back online after 2 weeks of nah I wont work yeah I'll work for a few sites
nah I'll quit again)