I recently got a 40-GB USB 2 hard drive and what a beauty!! When you plug it in you get the symbol in the systray that you would expect and Windows tells you it has detected new hardware. However, you cannot access it, it does not appear as a drive in MY COMPUTER. There is no driver with it. I have tried it on Win XP and ME so far.

Anyone any ideas???

Thanks :confused:

I've never used an external hard drive before, but it sounds to me like it needs to be partitioned and/or formatted. In Windows XP, that would be done in Computer Management (in the Administrative Tools folder of the Programs menu).

Yeah, I agree with exactly what pentachris said. You need to format it, as it's unlikely it came formatted since you can use external hdds, or any hdds for that matter, with windows, linux, whatever, so your OS determines the formatting. Lots of different ways to do that with windows, but via computer management is pretty easy (assuming you have XP; I DK with 2000, ME, etc. Did you not get some sort of instructions with the hdd for formatting, a floppy disk or CD to help you set it up? Good luck.

marty

In WinXP open the Run box and enter
diskmgmt.msc

That should show it up - even if not yet partitioned.

Hi
Thanks for all your answers. No, I did not get any instructions with it re formatting, it was on it's own in a box. I will try and do that and see what happens.
Thanks

Will let you know
M

Hi Guy:
Which version is your computer's USB?If your computer just has 1.0;you must add one power supply to your USB 2.0 hard drive.

The external hard drive is no different from a internal one. You need to format it. :)

I just got an external enclosure that holds an [old] 8GB IDE HDD. I partitioned & formatted it by connecting it to the on-board IDE Controller. Then I fitted it into the enclosure and connected that to a USB 1.1 connection. In the process of fitting a USB 2.0 controller card right now. The USB2 cable has circuitry built in and needed a driver installed from the supplied driver CD.
So far I've copied some files to the drive.
When I connected the drive up and switched on, the hardware was detected and a driver asked for. It originally showed up in both Windows Explorer and Device Manager [once the driver was installed], but the cable was faulty. Once that was replaced with a good one, it not only shows up, but also WORKS.

See the thread here http://www.pcguide.com/vb/showthread.php?t=36519

Maryn, does the computer to which you will be attaching this external drive already have usb2.0? And are you using winXP with at least SP1? If so, then all you should have to do is plug it in and format it, with the procedure described in some earlier posts. If your computer does not have a built-in usb2.0 controller and/or your OS is "less than" (for lack of a better expression) XP SP1, then it gets a bit more complicated and you may need to post back. Take it a step at a time.

I mention this because I looked at the thread that sylvander listed in his post, and it's downright scary going through that!! :D :D

Here is what I do in windows XP:

1. Right click on "My Computer" and select "Computer Management" to bring up the computer management interface.

2. In the computer management interface there will be two window panes.

3. In the left pane look for "Storage" then under it you will see"Disk Management".

4. Highlight "Disk Management", you will see two panes on the right side. Look at the bottom right pane. Your hard disk should be shown there as "Disk E" if you have a CD ROM Drive as "D". It all depends here. If you have your internal drive partitioned, then it would be : C= Your internal HD 1, D= Your 2nd Internal HD, E= Your CD/DVD Drive, and F= Your New External HD.

5. You have to right click on the new drive and initialize it. Then you are going to partition it as an Extended+ Logical Drive. Then you will format it as a "FAT/NTFS" drive.

6. THe drive should show up in My Computer after initilizing.

Hope it helps..

5. Then

Mary,
Your usb HDD, once connected, should look like this (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v294/M99ER/removabledisk2.jpg) in 'My Computer'. Same as any storage device on usb such as pen/thumb drives, card readers, etc.

The problem I have run into is in knowing what is 'backwards compatable' as it pertains to usb. I seem to be experiencing instances where usb2 devices simply refuse to work with older mobos (obviously usb1.1). But, when using usb1.1 hardware (a digital stillcam in this case), in either pc it works (even detected and autoinstalled in ME! :eek: ). Therein lies the compatability direction.

Unlike the mention in one above post, it does not require XP (SP1 or whatever) to make these auxiliary devices work because I have a dual boot with a newer board with usb2.2 and the drives work fine with 98 and XP equally. Trying a usb2 device (and/or controller) in an older board with 98 has only left me with a little less hair... :confused: :eek:

From a separate angle - the wiring from the front panel's mini-circuit board to the mobo header pins can also screw up USB2 functionality. At the simplest level, USB2 needs (for example) for the wiring to be screened. Anther problem can be attaching wires designed for an 8-pin header to what is actually a 9 or 10 pin header.

Such "misconnections" or a limited supply of power are things that can screw up such USB ports. There "should usually be" backwards compatibility and if there are problems I would suspect true hardware issues to be the likely root cause.

FAQs at http://www.everythingusb.com/usb2/faq.htm

"Trying a usb2 device (and/or controller) in an older board with 98 has only left me with a little less hair..."
I've just succeeded in installing [and getting to work] the USB2 controller card for the USB2 external drive enclosure with my old 8GB IDE HDD inside.
It works on the older USB 1.1 slot also. OS is Win98SE [no driver for Win98 1st edition]. It's an older PC made 1999. I don't know [haven't yet tested] how slow USB 1.1 is, but a 1.7MB file transferred in a fraction of a second using USB 2.

Getting the drivers properly installed was vital and rather tricky to get right.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;%5BLN%5D;329632

Fruss said you don't need XP for usb2.0. That is true (and is not what I said), but if you have XP and don't have SP1 installed and you don't have another usb2.0 driver installed, you'll have problems. The above link from Microsoft explains this.

Hi all!

Well, through computer management I located, formatted and partitioned the hard drive to use with my Win XP laptop. I actually couldn't find computer management on my desktop which has the (useless) Windows ME but what the hey, it works on my laptop.

The drive is USB 2 but my laptop is USB 1 - no problems though.
Also I have Win XP SP2

Thank you all so much once again for all your help

Mary :)

I actually couldn't find computer management on my desktop which has the (useless) Windows ME That's because it is a Win2K/XP family thing and why I specified WinXP in my original post.