Trouble with USB connections

[Walter R.]

Running Win XP SP2. Normally, when I connect a USB device, Windows goes
ding-dong and connects. Was working fine for my USB connection to my
external SATA drive, which I use as a backup drive. I use an internal SATA
drive as the boot drive. No problems.

Since yesterday, it just sits there without making any connective noises and
without recognizing the drive.

I do not see this drive in the Bios, or in Windows Explorer. Device Manager
shows no problems.

The external SATA drive is formatted in NTFS, all other drives are formatted
in Fat 32. Could this be a factor?

There must be something wrong with my USB system/connection. Any suggestions
would be appreciated.

 

[Patrick Keenan]

Running Win XP SP2. Normally, when I connect a USB device, Windows goes
ding-dong and connects. Was working fine for my USB connection to my
external SATA drive, which I use as a backup drive. I use an internal SATA
drive as the boot drive. No problems.

Since yesterday, it just sits there without making any connective noises
and without recognizing the drive.

I do not see this drive in the Bios, or in Windows Explorer. Device
Manager shows no problems.

The external SATA drive is formatted in NTFS, all other drives are
formatted in Fat 32. Could this be a factor?

There must be something wrong with my USB system/connection. Any
suggestions would be appreciated.

The problem isn't likely to have any relationship to the disk format if
Windows is not recognising the connection of the drive. At that point,
Windows, or your PC, is looking for the USB circuitry, not at the disk drive
at all.

Does the drive work if attached to other systems? If it does, the USB port
on your system may have failed, or been overloaded. In the worst case,
you might have to replace the ports via a PCI to USB2 card. These are
around $20 and are trivial to install.

HTH
-pk

 

[Andrew E.]

Connecting devices like that is called "hot-plugging",unless youre pc is
designed for that the results could/will be destructive to the hardware & the
software...As for the problem(s),go to the pc hardware home page "intel,amd,
etc" downloads,chipset,software,locate the chipset installation utility for
youre
boards chip set.This utility gives windows instructions on chip-set
files,which
include USB controller.

 

[M.I.5¾]

Connecting devices like that is called "hot-plugging",unless youre pc is
designed for that the results could/will be destructive to the hardware &
the
software...As for the problem(s),go to the pc hardware home page
"intel,amd,
etc" downloads,chipset,software,locate the chipset installation utility
for
youre

Not at all. The USB plugs and sockets are specifically designed to be hot
plugged without damage. The software also specifically supports this
functionality.

 

[smlunatick]

Running Win XP SP2. Normally, when I connect a USB device, Windows goes
ding-dong and connects. Was working fine for my USB connection to my
external SATA drive, which I use as a backup drive. I use an internal SATA
drive as the boot drive. No problems.

Since yesterday, it just sits there without making any connective noises and
without recognizing the drive.

I do not see this drive in the Bios, or in Windows Explorer. Device Manager
shows no problems.

The external SATA drive is formatted in NTFS, all other drives are formatted
in Fat 32. Could this be a factor?

There must be something wrong with my USB system/connection. Any suggestions
would be appreciated.

Does it show up in Disk Management?

Is the external drive connected at start-up?

You may need to reset the USB device in Device Manager. I have seen
XP mix up device drivers and a working device can show up as an
"unknown" device or a "ghost" device.