Help Needed: recognize external hard drive

[pope1140]

I've used a Maxtor One-Touch HD for about a year. Couple of weeks ago, my
desktop (with XP home) would recognize it; I could not boot with it plugged
in; after plugging it in, it slowed down any manipulation of My Computer. To
make a long story shorter, I've moved the Maxtor to my laptop (also XP home)
where it is working happily - with no changes.

I bought a new external HD - Seagate model - could not get it to work on
either computer. So I took it back and bought a Western Digital My Book,
home edition. It works perfectly on the laptop. When I plug it into the
desktop, it appears to be normal: the usual new equipment beeps, it shows up
as Drive F: on My Computer (although with a generic HD icon; on the laptop it
has a blue WD icon). When I right-click on My Computer from the start menu,
it appears by name under Device Manager, and "properties" indicates it is
functioning normally. BUT - it does not appear under Disk Management . If
I try to send a file using the "send to" command (which shows the drive as
F or by "save as", I get an error message "Cannot copy..... Cannot find
the specified file. Make sure you specify the correct path and file name"

I talked to WD's installation support and was told there is something wrong
with my operating system (conclusion because it will work on one computer and
not the other).

Anyone ever experienced this ? Or have any suggestions?

 

[M]

I've used a Maxtor One-Touch HD for about a year. Couple of weeks ago, my
desktop (with XP home) would recognize it; I could not boot with it
plugged
in; after plugging it in, it slowed down any manipulation of My Computer.
To
make a long story shorter, I've moved the Maxtor to my laptop (also XP
home)
where it is working happily - with no changes.

I bought a new external HD - Seagate model - could not get it to work on
either computer. So I took it back and bought a Western Digital My Book,
home edition. It works perfectly on the laptop. When I plug it into the
desktop, it appears to be normal: the usual new equipment beeps, it shows
up
as Drive F: on My Computer (although with a generic HD icon; on the laptop
it
has a blue WD icon). When I right-click on My Computer from the start
menu,
it appears by name under Device Manager, and "properties" indicates it is
functioning normally. BUT - it does not appear under Disk Management .
If
I try to send a file using the "send to" command (which shows the drive as
F or by "save as", I get an error message "Cannot copy..... Cannot find
the specified file. Make sure you specify the correct path and file name"

I talked to WD's installation support and was told there is something
wrong
with my operating system (conclusion because it will work on one computer
and
not the other).

Anyone ever experienced this ? Or have any suggestions?

This is what I call Plug 'n' Pray! Some times it works and sometimes it
doesn't. Seems to be a particular problem on some PCs with larger external
drives. On my PC it helps to connect the drive and switch on before the PC
is booted. I have found that Firewire drives are more reliable but that
might just be my PC. You could try Rescan Disks in Disc Management from the
Action menu, it sometimes works.

 

[chk3]

The exact same thing has happened to me during November/December2007. My One
Touch Maxtor II 100MB drive was functioning normally and all the sudden the
system would not boot unless I unplugged every USB connection. I even
installed another USB 2.0 card with no luck and downloaded a Microsoft
Hotfix. No drive recognition whatsoever with all kinds of start-up variations
and software reloads.
I was thinking of purchasing another brand of external drive, but after
hearing the same trouble, I think I'll pass.
This seems to be a universal issue. Dell engineers could not assist either.
chk3

 

[pope1140]

thanks for responding. I'm convinced the problem is in my computer after
trying 2 more different vendor hard drives with somewhat different symptoms
but no success in solving. I bought a utility program today to check my
registry for errors but haven't had time to try it. by the way, I ran across
several other comments about Maxtor OneTouch when I was reading various
reviews to decide what to buy next - all reporting similar failures. and no
one reported success in solving.

 

[pope1140]

thanks for the response. I tried your ideas but no help. don't have a
Firewire connector on my PC but I think that might have a chance. Odd that
the USB ports will recognize flash drives and printer but not disk drives.