I/O error on USB Drive under Windows XP SP2

[Deano]

I recently "upgraded" my wife's computer to SP2. Since then, her
Maxtor 500LE external USB Hard Drive has not been accessible at all. No
matter what we do, we get a generic, non-specific I/O error message.
Have tried updated drives, reinstall, etc. Maxtor indicates that there
was a specific Hotfix for such problems from Microsoft, but I can't seem
to find it anywhere. My wife has some important items on this HD that
cannot be replaced. She was actually in the process of starting a
backup of the drive on CD when this happened. Any help? Thanks.
;-Deano

 

[Treeman]

I recently "upgraded" my wife's computer to SP2. Since then, her Maxtor
500LE external USB Hard Drive has not been accessible at all. Deano

Hi Deano,
I had a Maxtor DV external F.Wire drive that I left plugged in, when I
tried to upgrade to SP2. Results: had to throw the drive in the trash.
In Drive Management, the Maxtor came up with, "0 bytes, 0 Data, the
drive is unreadable. This device is working correctly."

This was pretty early into the odoption of SP2. Maxtor was clueless, MS
which supplied the updated firewire drivers said the drivers were o.k.
(MS has since posted updates to the firewire drivers which is supposed
to work with SP2 now)

In your case, the only links I found which may help are these:
'Fast swap of USB devices ' (http://tinyurl.com/97elg)

'General USB troubleshooting ' (http://tinyurl.com/io1e)

'USB port may stop working '
(http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=817900)

Many posts have come by that suggest that you disconnect and uninstall
all usb devices in device manager, reboot the computer, and let XP
reinstall the drivers. Then plug your external USB devices back in and
let XP enumerate them again. Since you didn't say what make/model of
computer you have, I assume the motherboard chipset controller drivers
have been updated.

That's all I have for now, let me know what I/O messages your getting,
and if the drive get's to a usable status. Here are the digitally
signed drivers for the Maxtor 5000LE for XP: 'Maxtor 5000LE'
(http://tinyurl.com/dh3t5)
Best,
Treeman