external USB Hard Disk does not work in XP

[dafunk]

Hi, I have an external USB hard drive that I use on my laptop and my desktop. I works just fine but when I tried to use it on my brother's WinXP desktop, it will not work. The external drive runs fine on all XP computers except for my brothers. The USB ports on my brothers PC work because we tried a buch of different flash drives and they all show up fine.

[Paul Komski]

Is it a 2.5" or 3.5" drive and does it have its own/auxilary power supply or is it getting all its power from the USB port? Also is it attached to an on-board port or front panel or hub.

[dafunk]

Thank you for the responce :)
It's a 2.5" and is powered from the USB port,
I attached it to the USB ports on the back and front panel. No hub.

[Paul Komski]

Normally 2.5" drives get enough power from one USB port. Sometimes however this is not sufficient. There are Y-shaped cables with one end that fits into the drive and two ends that fit into two USB ports (one for data and power and one for auxiary power). No way of knowing if that is your problem unless you maybe try it out.

[dafunk]

Thanks for the info
Is this the correct product.
http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/8633/1216100303.th.jpg (http://img134.imageshack.us/i/1216100303.jpg/)



http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812161003

[Paul Komski]

That's the correct item but no guarantees that it will solve the problem.

An alternative approach is to take the drive out of the enclosure and try one of these multi-adapters (http://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-USB-DSC5-3-5-Inch-Converter-Adapter/dp/B000HJ99DI/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1254152349&sr=1-2).