USB drive won't assign drive letter

[Pdigmking]

I've got a maxtor USB external hard drive. I think it's fried but I'd like
to double check. When I connect it, the pc recognizes it, but won't assign
it a drive letter, so I can't access it. I first noticed I was having a
problem when I realized that this thing was busy when it shouldn't have
been, and when I went to investigate, that sucker was hot, so I unplugged
it.

Is this something I can fix or is it just trash?

TIA

Paul.

 

[Dee]

I've got a maxtor USB external hard drive. I think it's fried but I'd like
to double check. When I connect it, the pc recognizes it, but won't assign
it a drive letter, so I can't access it. I first noticed I was having a
problem when I realized that this thing was busy when it shouldn't have
been, and when I went to investigate, that sucker was hot, so I unplugged
it.

Is this something I can fix or is it just trash?

TIA

Paul.

Is the drive initialized and formatted? If it's not, the OS can't
recognize it and assign a drive letter. Which version of Windows are
you using?

 

[Pdigmking]

Is the drive initialized and formatted? If it's not, the OS can't
recognize it and assign a drive letter. Which version of Windows are
you using?

I'm using windows xp with all the updates. I've been using the drive for a
couple years now, I'm not connecting it for the first time, it was working
as of yesterday so it was formatted and initialized then. The hardware
administator says it's there, and it identifies it as a maxtor usp drive..
but there's no drive letter.

Paul.

 

[Dee]

I'm using windows xp with all the updates. I've been using the drive for a
couple years now, I'm not connecting it for the first time, it was working
as of yesterday so it was formatted and initialized then. The hardware
administator says it's there, and it identifies it as a maxtor usp drive..
but there's no drive letter.

Paul.

I would venture the hard drive has died based on your description of
what has happened.

 

[Pdigmking]

I would venture the hard drive has died based on your description of
what has happened.

NO!!!!! Well, that's what I figured, but always nice to get a second
opinoin. At any rate, in the meantime, I took the drive apart, not the HD,
but the box it's in. Well I discovered that all I have to do is replace
the HD. It looks like I can just get another HD and pop it in the box.
This is nice to know because external HD's are expensive, for half the
price I can replace the HD and I've a got a new USB external drive. The HD
in this thing just plugs in. Of course I'm prolly the last guy on the
planet to figure that out.. but I thought I'd pass it along.

Paul.

 

[o-chan]

I'm using windows xp with all the updates. I've been using the drive for a

couple years now, I'm not connecting it for the first time, it was working
as of yesterday so it was formatted and initialized then. The hardware
administator says it's there, and it identifies it as a maxtor usp drive..
but there's no drive letter.

Paul.

Before you do anything crazy like junk it, try this:
Go to control panel
Choose administrative tools
Open computer management
On the left, under storage, click disk management
Right click on your USB drive
Click on "change drive letter"
See if you can assign a letter
Then, see if you can get into it normally

Right now there's no reason to think the drive is bad.

 

[Art]

Paul writes...
I've got a maxtor USB external hard drive. I think it's fried but I'd like
to double check. When I connect it, the pc recognizes it, but won't assign
it a drive letter, so I can't access it. I first noticed I was having a
problem when I realized that this thing was busy when it shouldn't have
been, and when I went to investigate, that sucker was hot, so I unplugged
it.
Is this something I can fix or is it just trash?
TIA
Paul

NO!!!!! Well, that's what I figured, but always nice to get a second
opinoin. At any rate, in the meantime, I took the drive apart, not the
HD,
but the box it's in. Well I discovered that all I have to do is replace
the HD. It looks like I can just get another HD and pop it in the box.
This is nice to know because external HD's are expensive, for half the
price I can replace the HD and I've a got a new USB external drive. The
HD
in this thing just plugs in. Of course I'm prolly the last guy on the
planet to figure that out.. but I thought I'd pass it along.

Paul:
Well, Dee *was* right in her/his? analysis. Presumably the drive did "die".
Your USB enclosure is fine apparently. That's a reason why many of us do not
purchase a USB external hard drive as a single unit, i.e., the hard drive +
enclosure. Rather we buy the enclosure separately and install our own HD.
The advantages of this is that it's usually cheaper (although that's not
necessarily true nowadays with the falling prices of USB EHDs) and the
enclosures are designed to facilitate the installation (and removal) of the
drives within the unit.
One other thing I wanted to mention to you. If you haven't already done so,
don't discard the "dead" HD unless you're absolutely sure it's gone to HD
heaven (hell?). Install it in your computer and see if there's any life
there. I mention this because I have experienced situations where
occasionally the "dead" drive used as a USB device miraculously sprung back
to life when connected as an internal HD.
Art

 

[Ed Medlin]

Before you do anything crazy like junk it, try this:
Go to control panel
Choose administrative tools
Open computer management
On the left, under storage, click disk management
Right click on your USB drive
Click on "change drive letter"
See if you can assign a letter
Then, see if you can get into it normally

Right now there's no reason to think the drive is bad.

Just had that problem myself and did the above and it did the trick. Good
info.

Ed

 

[Pdigmking]

Just had that problem myself and did the above and it did the trick.
Good info.

Ed

Unfortunately, it didn't work for me. I'll try plugging it into a PC as
a second drive and see what happens, but I'm not holding my breath.

Thanks

Paul.

 

[Plasma BOY]

He bought a maxtor BAHAHAHAHAHAHAH.