External Hard Drive Problem

[ulakye]

Just bought a new external USB hard drive to back up all my stuff as my old one was too small.

When I connect the drive, Windows XP plug and play detects it OK and installs the correct drivers but when I go into Windows Explorer it doesn't appear on the list of drives so I can't do a drag n drop to back everything up.

If I go into device manager the external drive appears OK but when I go into properties it gives the following info :-

Type of drive : Unknown
Status : Not initialised
Partition Type : Not applicable

The only thing I can think of is that the drive needs to be formatted (should be pre-formatted) but other than that I'm at a loss.

Any suggestions?

[GreenV8S]

Did it come with a label on the USB cable that said "WARNING INSTALL THE DRIVERS BEFORE YOU PLUG THIS IN"? Mine did.

[ulakye]

The drivers seem to be OK. I've tried updating them but Windows tells me that they are the latest version.

[GreenV8S]

I should have said: Install the drivers that came with the disk rather than using the ones provided by Windows.

[arcturus]

I often get this one with customers who plug their new USB printers in without installing the drivers first. The PC can 'see' the printer but it wont work.

The procedure is uninstall the device from Device Manager or Control Panel (depending on the device).

Uninstall any related software you have installed recently using Add/Remove Programs.

Unplug the device from the PC.

Reboot.

Install the drivers from the supplied disc.

Plug in the device when prompted or when the installation has clearly finished.

You may need another reboot at this point - depends on how the software for the device is written.

[luca brazzi]

I plugged mine in through Firewire....but I guess the issue is the same.

Go to:
Control Panel
> Administrative Tools
>> Computer Management
>>> Storage
>>>> Disk Management

This should show what disks you have including your new one. The new one probably isn't "ready", as you need to format it and assign it a drive letter. From here the on screen prompts should be pretty clear.

Let us know how you get on.

LB

[LongQ]

ulakye said:

When I connect the drive, Windows XP plug and play detects it OK and installs the correct drivers but when I go into Windows Explorer it doesn't appear on the list of drives so I can't do a drag n drop to back everything up.

FWIW I have a couple of external Firewire drives which NEVER appear in the list of drives when I start them up but are there to be used. In other words the systems knows about them but for some reason the Explorer does not refresh to show them. (XP Home system - they seem to be OK with XP Pro iirc).

Once they have been explicitly accessed they sometimes appear OK. But not always (as tonight for example!)

I expect you can see the drive through the Search facility? Also the RUN facility?

I'm assuming that you have XP Home since you mention backup but not using the system made available with the XP Pro version.

Of course your problem could be something completely other ...

[ulakye]

Thanks guys - problem sorted. I did as Luca & Bob suggested and this sorted out the problem straight away - created a partition, asigned a drive name, formatted the drive - everything working.

[luca brazzi]

Excellent.