USB Harddrive not recognized under XP

[Guest]

For the last 4 month I have been using my new Maxtor External Hard Drive
(160GB, 5000DV) with no problems. I have saved alot of data on the drive and
I have had absolutely no problems with it. I have a PCI USB/Firewire card
connected.

Then I installed XP SP2 still no problems everything worked fine for a few
weeks then suddenly I had problems with the drive disappearing from My
Computer or windows explorer.

Also noticed that when the drive is connected that windows hangs on start up
before the computer has finished booting. When this happens if you disconnect
the power or usb cable for a second the computer continues to boot as normal.

I have tried looking for the drive under Computer Management/Disk Management
but it does not show up there at all. I have the most up to date BIOS and I
have tried to re-install XP.....all to no avail.

I am not sure what else to try as I can't even re-format the drive and start
again, even though this is not my preferred option.

I also tried connecting it to my laptop which previously recognized it as
well and it is gone from there too.....

Any Ideas???

Computer Spec is:

Dell Computer Corporation XPST550
Board: Intel Corporation SE440BX-3 AA722396-108
1000 megahertz Intel Pentium III
32 kilobyte primary memory cache
256 kilobyte secondary memory cache
Belarc PC Management shows the following information:

102.64 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
34.95 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space
TOSHIBA DVD-ROM SD-M1212 [CD-ROM drive]
IBM-DJNA-372200 [Hard drive] (22.61 GB) -- drive 0, s/n GX0GXFN4269, rev
J71OA30K, SMART Status: Healthy
Maxtor 5000DV v01.00.00 USB Device [Hard drive] (163.92 GB) -- drive 3
MAXTOR 6L080L4 [Hard drive] (80.05 GB) -- drive 1, s/n 664210318247, rev
A93.0500, SMART Status: Healthy
SanDisk SDDR33USB/SDMMC USB Device -- drive 2

Intel(r) 82371AB/EB PCI to USB Universal Host Controller
NEC PCI to USB Enhanced Host Controller (B1)
NEC PCI to USB Open Host Controller
NEC PCI to USB Open Host Controller

 

[Bob Harris]

If two different computer that used to recognize the drive can not see it,
then start thinking about the drive being bad.

But, before tossing it away (1) try a third PC that is known to handle USB
drives, any PC running XP shoud suffice, (2) try a new USB cable, (2) try a
new power cord and/or power transformer for the USB drive.

 

[Guest]

Bob,

Thanks for the post. I am waiting until a friend comes back from holiday to
test my harddrive with them. I have tried a new USB cable to no avail. The
power cable seems fine.

Is there any diagnostics software that I can use to test the drive myself.
I bought it by mail order from US and don't want to return it unless
absolutely necessaru, plus been onto Maxtor and they deny that it is a drive
issue......well they would wouldn't they...

If two different computer that used to recognize the drive can not see it,
then start thinking about the drive being bad.

But, before tossing it away (1) try a third PC that is known to handle USB
drives, any PC running XP shoud suffice, (2) try a new USB cable, (2) try a
new power cord and/or power transformer for the USB drive.

For the last 4 month I have been using my new Maxtor External Hard Drive
(160GB, 5000DV) with no problems. I have saved alot of data on the drive
and
I have had absolutely no problems with it. I have a PCI USB/Firewire card
connected.

Then I installed XP SP2 still no problems everything worked fine for a few
weeks then suddenly I had problems with the drive disappearing from My
Computer or windows explorer.

Also noticed that when the drive is connected that windows hangs on start
up
before the computer has finished booting. When this happens if you
disconnect
the power or usb cable for a second the computer continues to boot as
normal.

I have tried looking for the drive under Computer Management/Disk
Management
but it does not show up there at all. I have the most up to date BIOS and
I
have tried to re-install XP.....all to no avail.

I am not sure what else to try as I can't even re-format the drive and
start
again, even though this is not my preferred option.

I also tried connecting it to my laptop which previously recognized it as
well and it is gone from there too.....

Any Ideas???

Computer Spec is:

Dell Computer Corporation XPST550
Board: Intel Corporation SE440BX-3 AA722396-108
1000 megahertz Intel Pentium III
32 kilobyte primary memory cache
256 kilobyte secondary memory cache
Belarc PC Management shows the following information:

102.64 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
34.95 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space
TOSHIBA DVD-ROM SD-M1212 [CD-ROM drive]
IBM-DJNA-372200 [Hard drive] (22.61 GB) -- drive 0, s/n GX0GXFN4269, rev
J71OA30K, SMART Status: Healthy
Maxtor 5000DV v01.00.00 USB Device [Hard drive] (163.92 GB) -- drive 3
MAXTOR 6L080L4 [Hard drive] (80.05 GB) -- drive 1, s/n 664210318247, rev
A93.0500, SMART Status: Healthy
SanDisk SDDR33USB/SDMMC USB Device -- drive 2

Intel(r) 82371AB/EB PCI to USB Universal Host Controller
NEC PCI to USB Enhanced Host Controller (B1)
NEC PCI to USB Open Host Controller
NEC PCI to USB Open Host Controller

 

[Frank]

As an aside. The Computer (440BX chipset) is really dated.
Since you have tried it on different computers I would think that
the drive went bad. Try it on a third more up to date computer
to verify. The drive should still be under warranty.