HELP!!! Error when installing USB Mass Storage Device

[Guest]

Every time I try to connect my external hard drive, it comes up with a
error. I've never had an external hard drive before, but I recently got a
laptop and I don't want to use up all the free space on the C Drive. I've
tried uninstalling the device and then disconnecting it and rebooting. This
works for about 2 minutes, then I get a balloon at the bottom of the screen
saying that there was a problem during installation. It's actually only shown
the device once under Disk Magagement and for some reason it showed that
there was no free space available (even though it's only a slightly used hard
drive). The rest of the time it's located under USB Controllers with a pretty
yellow circle with an exclamation point in the middle. When viewing the
properties, the device status is: Code 10 "This Device Cannot Start". I don't
know is the device isn't starting because it thinks the hard drive is full,
or what. If this is the case, then I would need to know how to erase the
whole external drive as there isn't anything on there that I need.
I would greatly appreciate any suggentions. Thanks!

 

[Jim]

Every time I try to connect my external hard drive, it comes up with a
error. I've never had an external hard drive before, but I recently got a
laptop and I don't want to use up all the free space on the C Drive. I've
tried uninstalling the device and then disconnecting it and rebooting.
This
works for about 2 minutes, then I get a balloon at the bottom of the
screen
saying that there was a problem during installation. It's actually only
shown
the device once under Disk Magagement and for some reason it showed that
there was no free space available (even though it's only a slightly used
hard
drive). The rest of the time it's located under USB Controllers with a
pretty
yellow circle with an exclamation point in the middle. When viewing the
properties, the device status is: Code 10 "This Device Cannot Start". I
don't
know is the device isn't starting because it thinks the hard drive is
full,
or what. If this is the case, then I would need to know how to erase the
whole external drive as there isn't anything on there that I need.
I would greatly appreciate any suggentions. Thanks!

The yellow exclamation mark means that there is a problem with the driver.
I would try to fix the problem by uninstalling the driver followed by a
reboot.

The device cannot start because the driver has a problem.

Jim

 

[Guest]

Do you know how one would go about fixing the driver or where to go to find
out what the problem is?

 

[Elmo]

Every time I try to connect my external hard drive, it comes up with a
error. I've never had an external hard drive before, but I recently got a
laptop and I don't want to use up all the free space on the C Drive. I've
tried uninstalling the device and then disconnecting it and rebooting. This
works for about 2 minutes, then I get a balloon at the bottom of the screen
saying that there was a problem during installation. It's actually only shown
the device once under Disk Magagement and for some reason it showed that
there was no free space available (even though it's only a slightly used hard
drive). The rest of the time it's located under USB Controllers with a pretty
yellow circle with an exclamation point in the middle. When viewing the
properties, the device status is: Code 10 "This Device Cannot Start". I don't
know is the device isn't starting because it thinks the hard drive is full,
or what. If this is the case, then I would need to know how to erase the
whole external drive as there isn't anything on there that I need.
I would greatly appreciate any suggentions. Thanks!

Is the hd formatted? Try these sites:

Troubleshooting for USB drives
http://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbtrouble_e.html

Other USB Help sites:
http://www.usbman.com/WinME USB Guide.htm

General USB troubleshooting in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310575

 

[Jim Cladingboel]

Do you know how one would go about fixing the driver or where to go to
find
out what the problem is?

The best pointer I can give you is to ascertain that you have the following
'genuine' MS USB 2.0 drivers in your Windows\System32\Drivers folder and use
the Device Manager to make sure you have these drivers operating your
external HDD :

c:\windows\system32\drivers\usbehci.sys
c:\windows\system32\drivers\usbhub.sys
c:\windows\system32\drivers\usbport.sys
c:\windows\system32\hccoin.dll
c:\windows\system32\usbui.dll

All are: Provider: Microsoft; Version: 5.1.2600.2180
(xpsp_sp2_rtm040803-2158). These are all dated 01/06/2002, or similar.

If you double-click on the USB hub with the yellow circle, then select
Driver and then go down and left and click on Driver Details, (not the
Driver Details tab at the top) a full description of what driver is being
used by that device will appear.
Below Driver Details is the option to Update Driver, which brings up the
Wizard.
Allowing it to search the Net is useless, so you need to choose to show
where the wizard should look, and you _should_ eventually get XP to load
the list above.
In order to - eventually - induce XP to use the latest MS drivers, I copied
them all to a floppy and repeatedly directed the "Wizard" to Drive A.
You didn't mention whether your device has been allocated a drive letter,
which is rather important.

Good luck,

Jim C.

 

[Guest]

No, it has not been allocated a drive letter. As I stated in my original
question, it has only appeared in Disk Management once. It's normally located
under USB controllers. It would need to be under Disk Maganagement in order
for it to have a drive letter, right? I'm goning to try some of the
suggestions that I've already received and hopefully something will work.

 

[Jim]

Do you know how one would go about fixing the driver or where to go to
find
out what the problem is?

What you are doing when you delete a driver is remove the file from the
\windows...\ chain of folders. On reboot, XP will look in the \i386\ chain
of folders for a driver.
Jim
Jim