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General discussion

Problems with an external hard drive!

Dec 9, 2003 7:36PM PST

I've been having problems installing drivers for my external hard drive. I bought an external enclosure and hard drive seperately. The external enclosure is using a usb cord, the hard drive just connects into the enclosure. Everything seems fine, the hard drive gets warm which let's me know it's working. The problem is that when I plug in the drive, my computer will recognize it as a usb disk. When I click properties and look in the device status window, it says that no drivers are installed even though I put in the cd and windows installs it. I do get a message saying how the software doesn't pass windows logo testing, but I don't think that would cause this problem. Everytime I want to uninstall the device, the window freezes and doesn't respond. What I would like to know is how do I make windows recognize the hard drive? or how do I uninstall the drivers if it keeps freezing? I've read everywhere that windows should have automatically recognized it. It does the same thing on every other computer I have tested it on.

here is more information:
Windows XP professional
Hard drive: MAXTOR 120gb ATA/EIDE (unformatted)
external enclosure: USB2.0
Driver date: 7/1/2001

Discussion is locked

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Re:Problems with an external hard drive!
Dec 9, 2003 7:50PM PST

1. I must ask why not partition and format this drive?
2. Is XP up to date? (Needed for USB 2.0 support.)
3. Stop giving it the CD for the drivers. Proceed with partition and format. Many just don't know that you use Disk Management (look in Start, Help and Support) to prepare the drive.

I have a few USB 2.0 drives (not your model, in fact, the USB enclosure make/model was never revealed, could be a defective) and I would not consider it odd that you would have problems when you haven't prepared the drive yet. Work the issues.

Bob

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Re:Re:Problems with an external hard drive!
Dec 9, 2003 7:56PM PST

I went out an bought a usb2.0 card. I have it plugged into it. How do I format the drive if windows will not read it? I have been in disk management and see no such drive besides what I had to begin with.

The enclosure is a no name brand, is it best if I get a trusted brand?

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Re:Re:Re:Problems with an external hard drive!
Dec 9, 2003 8:23PM PST

Maybe I am too subtle in my hints.

1. You must have Windows XP SP1 in to have the OS ready for this.
2. "Noname" is bad. It should have some maker on it and web site, but it doesn't matter at the moment since you may have not updated XP or you tried to load drivers and didn't need to.

Work your issues, be verbose about the hints I drop.

Bob

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Re:Re:Re:Re:Problems with an external hard drive!
Dec 10, 2003 12:44AM PST

I have the service pak installed already. Should it of come with drivers? I have every possible update right now. I don't know how to format the drive still. help and support sent me around in loops.

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Then you have a warranty issue.
Dec 10, 2003 1:13AM PST

If the unit doesn't work on your machine or any other machine, you contact the person who sold it to you for return/exchange.

It could be just "busted."

Bob

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Regard drivers.
Dec 10, 2003 1:17AM PST

I have yet to use the driver CD that comes with such units EXCEPT for Windows 98. In ME, 2000 and XP, I just plug it in.

Your attempts to use the driver CD may have flummoxed the works which is why you need to see if the unit works elsewhere. It's also important to follow directions. One unit would not work if the drive was set to master (the instructions were to set to CS) and another unit was asking for ... MASTER. Your attention to detail and "is it plugged in?" could be key to the issue.

I've seen a lot of things like drives installed with the power connected only and the owner wondering why it does work... "It spins up, shouldn't it work?" Don't laugh. At this point we have to cover obvious.

Bob

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Re:Regard drivers.
Dec 10, 2003 3:11PM PST

At first I didn't use the drivers... but when I noticed that windows popped up a box from the task bar saying that the new device could have problems. I checked and it showed no drivers installed. I inserted the cd and it installed the software. after that it just never read it. everything is plugged in and working. Should I take the hard drive in to a service center and see if they can troubleshoot it? I can't send back the items because it was through ebay a while ago. Any suggestions will help!

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Then motherboard drivers and HAVE YOU TESTED ON ANOTHER MACHINE?
Dec 10, 2003 8:37PM PST

I meant to shout this because I think I've hinted that such a test is needed more than once. If you won't or can't, do tell since that test determines if you fix your machine or go work the drive and box.

The only new thought is about your USB connections. What else do you plug in there?

Some are unaware that Microsoft doesn't load motherboard drivers in all instances. Via, Sis and other boards require the OS maintainer to fetch and install drivers. Does this apply to you? I don't know unless I read every post. But I'm going to take a pass until I get an answer to my question.

Bob

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Re:Re:Regard drivers.
Dec 10, 2003 11:31PM PST

Hi,
This is just a possibility and may not apply to your problem in particular, but thought I would mention maybe you don't have all the drivers that should be installed in your PCI USB 2.0 card.

I installed a external USB 2.0 40GB hard drive on my other Win98se computer about 2 years ago. This was before USB 2.0 was popular and standard on most computers. Mine had the older USB 1.1. I bought the Adaptec PCI high speed 4 port USB 2.0 card. It had an installation CD and what I thought was drivers in the CD. Well, it turns out that other drivers had to be downloaded from Adaptec and a total of 5 drivers were installed in the Device Manager. They were difficult (for me at the time) to follow their instructions on installation of the drivers, and even were slightly wrong on one point that I was able to correct with trial & error.
If your PCI card doesn't have the right drivers you would probably only get USB 1.1 capability instead of USB 2.2. or maybe the problems you are having now.

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PS....The notice of
Dec 10, 2003 11:46PM PST

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