"I read a fix for this specific problem (upgrade to SP3 for XP) somewhere, I can't remember which forum, that said the solution was to disable the Firewire 1384 connection under Network connections in Control Panel and restarting.
I hope that helps you out.
-Paul"
From http://en.kioskea.net/forum/affich-21877-windows-xp-won-t-recognize-wd-ext-hard-drive
i guess i screwed up. trying to make my machine run more efficiently, i removed several programs that i thot were not being used.
now, the computer runs much faster, but i can no longer access my external hard drive. it appears fine in tray and device manager, but not in my computer or disk management. i tried to use tweakiu, but it lists all drives, with ? marks (cept c and d drive). i tried unchecking and checking "f" drive (where my external had worked before), but to no avail. i tried different usb ports, to no avail. mouse and keyboard working fine in usb ports. no other problems, at least so far....
obviously not extremely computer literate here. any suggestions?
here's my specs:
dell dimension DMO51. pentium r (d) 2.79 Gmz, one gig ram. running xp media center, service pack 3
simpletech, simple drive external hard drive

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