Problem with external storage device.

[Peter Jason]

Win7 SP1

I have a 2005 250GB Maxtor One Touch II HDD that
has been running on a Firewire 1394 cable direct
to the motherboard.

After being idle for 3 months I tried it today but
it gave the error message "Driver not found". I
tried reinstalling this and the driver was
installed in the Programs86 folder, but still the
same error appeared.

In desperation and as a last resort I disconnected
the Firewire cable and tried the USB option, and
then it all worked perfectly. Presumably the
Firewire cable itself is OK because the drive is
recognized in Computer Management albeit with a
"driver missing" message.

Why does this happed? Peter

 

[Paul]

Win7 SP1

I have a 2005 250GB Maxtor One Touch II HDD that
has been running on a Firewire 1394 cable direct
to the motherboard.

After being idle for 3 months I tried it today but
it gave the error message "Driver not found". I
tried reinstalling this and the driver was
installed in the Programs86 folder, but still the
same error appeared.

In desperation and as a last resort I disconnected
the Firewire cable and tried the USB option, and
then it all worked perfectly. Presumably the
Firewire cable itself is OK because the drive is
recognized in Computer Management albeit with a
"driver missing" message.

Why does this happed? Peter

There is a suggestion here, to try an older driver (legacy)
in Windows 7.

http://social.technet.microsoft.com...e/thread/65cb7a25-2a84-4875-aa27-b084537e8da1

I don't know if you should be "in desperation" or not.
The Maxtor needs two drivers. I think the SBP2
might handle things like Mass Storage over Firewire.
It's possible that is the driver that they're playing with,
in the above thread. You can see some examples of what
may appear in Device Manager (too bad all the important
parts weren't thrown open here). The standard parts of
Firewire, like dealing with hard drives, or capturing video
from a camcorder Firewire, should be built into the OS.

http://www.justanswer.com/uploads/z...ta_device_manager_external_drive_numbered.png

The other driver component, is likely Maxtor specific. You
look in the 1394 folder of the Maxtor software (ZIP perhaps),
and in there should be the Front Panel or Button driver. That
would be used, so pressing the button on the Maxtor, causes
Retrospect backup software to run. It's not the end of the
world, if that doesn't work. You can likely work around it.

So the most important thing would be, can you access the
drive over Firewire, without the thing throwing lots of
errors ? If so, it's a disk drive, and that's the important
part (being able to access your data).

If you simply cannot get the Maxtor Front Panel driver to install,
it could be that you need a Windows 7 version of the driver.
If there is no Windows 7 driver, perhaps you can "disable" the
device in Device Manager, so it no longer "quacks like a duck".
Check in Windows Update, and see if any Windows 7 version of
driver for the Maxtor Front Panel, is waiting for you. If there
is no driver, just disable the "Button", where ever the thing
is hiding in Device Manager (so it won't keep asking for a
driver).

Paul

 

[philo]

Win7 SP1

I have a 2005 250GB Maxtor One Touch II HDD that
has been running on a Firewire 1394 cable direct
to the motherboard.

After being idle for 3 months I tried it today but
it gave the error message "Driver not found". I
tried reinstalling this and the driver was
installed in the Programs86 folder, but still the
same error appeared.

In desperation and as a last resort I disconnected
the Firewire cable and tried the USB option, and
then it all worked perfectly. Presumably the
Firewire cable itself is OK because the drive is
recognized in Computer Management albeit with a
"driver missing" message.

Why does this happed? Peter

Have a look in device manager and see if the driver is listed with a
warning, then opt to update it

 

[Peter Jason]

There is a suggestion here, to try an older driver (legacy)
in Windows 7.

http://social.technet.microsoft.com...e/thread/65cb7a25-2a84-4875-aa27-b084537e8da1

I don't know if you should be "in desperation" or not.
The Maxtor needs two drivers. I think the SBP2
might handle things like Mass Storage over Firewire.
It's possible that is the driver that they're playing with,
in the above thread. You can see some examples of what
may appear in Device Manager (too bad all the important
parts weren't thrown open here). The standard parts of
Firewire, like dealing with hard drives, or capturing video
from a camcorder Firewire, should be built into the OS.

http://www.justanswer.com/uploads/z...ta_device_manager_external_drive_numbered.png

The other driver component, is likely Maxtor specific. You
look in the 1394 folder of the Maxtor software (ZIP perhaps),
and in there should be the Front Panel or Button driver. That
would be used, so pressing the button on the Maxtor, causes
Retrospect backup software to run. It's not the end of the
world, if that doesn't work. You can likely work around it.

So the most important thing would be, can you access the
drive over Firewire, without the thing throwing lots of
errors ? If so, it's a disk drive, and that's the important
part (being able to access your data).

If you simply cannot get the Maxtor Front Panel driver to install,
it could be that you need a Windows 7 version of the driver.
If there is no Windows 7 driver, perhaps you can "disable" the
device in Device Manager, so it no longer "quacks like a duck".
Check in Windows Update, and see if any Windows 7 version of
driver for the Maxtor Front Panel, is waiting for you. If there
is no driver, just disable the "Button", where ever the thing
is hiding in Device Manager (so it won't keep asking for a
driver).

Paul

Thank you. I am buying another Firewire cable to
test the old one. The driver seems OK now that
the USB option works. I'll test and report back.