XP does not show external drive

[cjs]

I have some IDE HDDs from an old PC that I want to check to see what files are on them. I bought a USB adaptor and PSU so they act as an external HDD. When I plug in, XP recognises the device and installs the drivers etc, it then says new device is ready to use, however I cannot see the drive in 'My Computer', it does not show as 'F' for example.

What do I need to do to get the drive to show?

[Jinx]

Right click on "My Computer" and select "manage"
Select "Disk Management"
Find the new HDD and right click to "Change drive letter"
Pick a letter towards the end of the alphabet.
Ignore warning.

Edited by Jinx on Monday 12th July 11:46

[itsnotarace]

Go into disk management and check which drive letter has been assigned, it's probably allocated a letter that is already in use elsewhere

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307844/

[cjs]

Okay, have done the above, the drive does not show in 'Disk Management', only see the 'C' drive and 'D' drive (DVD) Cannot see th External Drive in the list.

Any more ideas?

The ext drive is showing as a USB Mass Storage Device. I can eject it and then reload it all okay, also all is running okay in the device properties.

ETA. This is happening on both my XP partition on my Mac and also on my XP PC.

Edited by cjs on Monday 12th July 13:04

[DeputyDawg]

cjs said:

Okay, have done the above, the drive does not show in 'Disk Management', only see the 'C' drive and 'D' drive (DVD) Cannot see th External Drive in the list.

Any more ideas?

What service pack are you running on XP?

Are you positive you can see no unused space under disk management that does not have a drive letter attached?
Have you tried leaving disk management utility open whilst you unplug/plug in the drive?

[cjs]

DeputyDawg said:

cjs said:

Okay, have done the above, the drive does not show in 'Disk Management', only see the 'C' drive and 'D' drive (DVD) Cannot see th External Drive in the list.

Any more ideas?

What service pack are you running on XP?

Are you positive you can see no unused space under disk management that does not have a drive letter attached?
Have you tried leaving disk management utility open whilst you unplug/plug in the drive?

XP service pack 3

I cannot see anything in disk management other that the C drive and the D drive, I've tried, unplugging/plugging whilst in disk Management, nothing changes.

[Road2Ruin]

If it says mass storage device it wont be listed with the Hard disk, it will be listed under devices with removable media. If it isn't then go to device manager and make sure it is installed ok, ie no exclamation marks next to the listing. If that is all ok and you still cant see it go to computer managment then disk management and at the bottom scroll down to reveal all disk attached to your computer. It will only show the internal HDD at the top so you need to look in the bottom box. Make sure it is activated.

[DeputyDawg]

You could try this (appears to be a registry issue after installing SP3). I presume you can see the disk appear in Device Manager? (don't confuse this with Disk Management)

Tweak UI
http://en.allexperts.com/q/Windows-XP-3282/Externa...

Edited by DeputyDawg on Monday 12th July 14:19

[cjs]

Still no luck. Drive is appearing in Device Manager both under 'Disk Drives' and 'USB Controllers'.

It appears as Maxtor Millennium USB device.

Tried the tweaking program from Microsoft, did not work unfortunately.

[Cerberus90]

What USB port have you got it plugged into?

if its in a front/top port, try plugging it into a port at the rear of the computer.

If you've got lots of other USB devices, try unplugging them.


Very strange problem.

This may sound silly, but, you haven't got a section of My Computer hidden?
I know in Vista/7 you can hide certain groups (removeable, hard disks), having not used XP as a main OS for a while I can't remember if its the same.

[cjs]

Cerberus90 said:

What USB port have you got it plugged into?

if its in a front/top port, try plugging it into a port at the rear of the computer.

If you've got lots of other USB devices, try unplugging them.


Very strange problem.

This may sound silly, but, you haven't got a section of My Computer hidden?
I know in Vista/7 you can hide certain groups (removeable, hard disks), having not used XP as a main OS for a while I can't remember if its the same.

I've tried all USB ports and only have this drive plugged in. It is a very strange problem!

I have also un-installed under device manager. I then plug into the USB again and XP goes through the process of installing the device and loading the drivers etc, it then appears ok in the Device Manger list, but not in My Computer!

[cjs]

A bit more info. This is the USB IDE adaptor I am using.

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/143274

The drive is out of an old pc and was not the main 'C' drive IIRC??

[mattley]

cjs said:

ETA. This is happening on both my XP partition on my Mac and also on my XP PC.

What does disk utility on the Mac show?

[PJ S]

May not make a blind bit of difference, but all ext HDDs I've put in enclosures have been set as Master with the jumpers.
If still no joy, then as above, check what DU shows when booted into OS X.
If FAT format, you'll be able to read/write, if NTFS, it's read only unless you've 3rd party software installed to let you write to that formatted drive.