seagate usb device not recognised in xp

[perky]

hello.
I am running xp pro, fully updated. I have a seagate freeagent external hd,
250 gig. it has worked fine until yesterday.
now windows does not detect it. it is detected in device manager and all
shows working. if i right click on my computer,select manage and then select
disc manage it shows in bottom half of window as disc 1 basic 232gig,
online. no drive letter and *unallocated*. The drive in question (seagate)
has been tried on another usb port and with a different usb cable. other usb
devices are working(such as usb card reader). any help would be appreciated.
this device has only ever been used for storing my back-ups
thank you

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

hello.
I am running xp pro, fully updated. I have a seagate freeagent external
hd, 250 gig. it has worked fine until yesterday.
now windows does not detect it. it is detected in device manager and all
shows working. if i right click on my computer,select manage and then
select disc manage it shows in bottom half of window as disc 1 basic
232gig, online. no drive letter and *unallocated*. The drive in question
(seagate) has been tried on another usb port and with a different usb
cable. other usb devices are working(such as usb card reader). any help
would be appreciated. this device has only ever been used for storing my
back-ups
thank you

To find out if there is a problem with the USB case or with the
file system, you could run these tests:
- Connect the disk to some other PC.
- Take the disk out of the USB case and connect it directly
to the IDE or SATA cable inside your PC.

 

[perky]

i will try it on another machine first chance i get.i cannot take it out of
case. it is a external disk drive and not an internal one fitted into a
case.
thanks for the reply

 

[smlunatick]

Can you try this drive on a different PC?

Do you happen to have Service Pack 3 (SP3)? SP3 has been known to "drop"
external drives.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

i will try it on another machine first chance i get.i cannot take it out of
case. it is a external disk drive and not an internal one fitted into a
case.
thanks for the reply

There is no difference between an external and an internal
disk. They use exactly the same connections. However,
there are two physical sizes: 3.5" and 2.5". To connect
a 2.5" disk to a standard IDE cable you need a small adapter.

 

[perky]

i have installed sp3 and can i uninstall sp3 and try again

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

i will try it on another machine first chance i get.i cannot take it out of
case. it is a external disk drive and not an internal one fitted into a
case.

A clarification here: although you may have bought it as external
drive rather than mounting it in a case yourself, it still *is* an "an
internal one fitted into a case."

That's all an external drive is. The only difference is that the
manufacturer mounted the drive into a case, rather than your doing it
yourself. The drive inside the box is the same either way.

 

[perky]

hi everybody
I have just tried the seagate on my friend's machine and his machine says
the device is faulty and cannot be recognised. I connected to his usb and it
said found new hardware but there was a fault with it and so could not be
used properly. So it seems like it has given up the ghost. I tried it more
than once to be sure. before I get any snide remarks, yes, I also have the
contents of this back-up drive written to dvd's (thank god)
thank you all for trying to help
perky

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

hi everybody
I have just tried the seagate on my friend's machine and his machine says
the device is faulty and cannot be recognised. I connected to his usb and
it said found new hardware but there was a fault with it and so could not
be used properly. So it seems like it has given up the ghost. I tried it
more than once to be sure. before I get any snide remarks, yes, I also
have the contents of this back-up drive written to dvd's (thank god)
thank you all for trying to help
perky

Thanks for the feedback. I don't think you would get any snide
remarks about this issue. For private use it is usually sufficient
to keep two copies of important files: One on the PC itself, the
other on the backup medium. It is possible that the main disk
fails or that the backup disk fails but the chances of both of them
failing at the very same time are very remote.

 

[Big Al]

hi everybody
I have just tried the seagate on my friend's machine and his machine says
the device is faulty and cannot be recognised. I connected to his usb and it
said found new hardware but there was a fault with it and so could not be
used properly. So it seems like it has given up the ghost. I tried it more
than once to be sure. before I get any snide remarks, yes, I also have the
contents of this back-up drive written to dvd's (thank god)
thank you all for trying to help
perky

You are smart to make 2 copies!
Let anyone laugh at you, you have your data, you can have the last
laugh.

 

[Anna]

hi everybody
I have just tried the seagate on my friend's machine and his machine says
the device is faulty and cannot be recognised. I connected to his usb and
it said found new hardware but there was a fault with it and so could not
be used properly. So it seems like it has given up the ghost. I tried it
more than once to be sure. before I get any snide remarks, yes, I also
have the contents of this back-up drive written to dvd's (thank god)
thank you all for trying to help
perky

perky:
Just one other thing...

It's conceivable that the problem is a defective USB external enclosure, but
the HDD contained therein is still good. Assuming the device is no longer
under warranty so it can't be returned for an exchange or refund, you may
want to consider removing the HDD from the enclosure and determine if that
drive is still usable. Since I take it this is a commercial unit, it's
sometimes quite difficult to remove the disk from the enclosure without
literally destroying the enclosure in the process. But if you were planning
to discard the unit anyway, you may want to consider this option.
Anna

 

[Unknown]

Have you tried deleting the driver and then reinstalling the driver? If so,
or if you do, disconnect the HD and do not connect till told to do so or
after the driver is installed.