USB port will not accept ext hard disk's or pend drives

[simonbrentford]

I have a PC with XP on it that currently has 4 USB ports. 2 are being
used with the mouse and wireless adapter. I have tried to plug in a
small external hard disk to copy some data. When I plug it in, a small
status message states it is recognised as USB media. It does not
appear in explorer though.

The same is the case for a USB pen drive.

Any ideas folks?

Regards, Simon

 

[Noozer]

I have a PC with XP on it that currently has 4 USB ports. 2 are being
used with the mouse and wireless adapter. I have tried to plug in a
small external hard disk to copy some data. When I plug it in, a small
status message states it is recognised as USB media. It does not
appear in explorer though.

The same is the case for a USB pen drive.

What does the Disk Manager show you? They could be getting the same drive
letter as a shared drive.

What if you plug two drives in at once?

 

[RJK]

Look out for front USB ports connected to a pin header on motherboard, which
"shares" a single USB port at the rear panel. i.e. you can't have USB
devices plugged into both at the same time.

regards, Richard