Adding an external HD

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news.charter.net

Easy question.
On my old PC (W98) I had a Maxtor external HD attached to a Belkin USB hub
with the hub attached to the PC. I attached the hub to my new PC (XP) and
it connected perfectly (best I can tell). Plugged the Maxtor HD into the
hub and found two(?) problems.
1) received a message I was plugging a Hi-speed device into a
non-high-speed device. XP wants me I think) to disconnect the HD from the
hub and move it to a USB port on the PC.
2) but, the HD seems to kinda work. The HD was partitioned (4) and the
first partition shows up and can be accessed from Explorer. The other
partitions can not be accessed - Explorer complains they must be formatted.

Given all that, the easy questions.
Do I need to move the HD to an unused USB port on the PC?
If not, how do I get rid of the 'Safely remove hardware' icon in the
systray?
How do I (can I) get XP to see all the patitions?
And a bonus - in W98 I had three sections along the bottom of the screen -
Start menu, systray, and a section in the middle where I could place apps I
used frequently (hey, I'm and old guy unfamiliar with the lingo). Can I get
that middle section to appear in XP?
 
news.charter.net said:
Easy question.
On my old PC (W98) I had a Maxtor external HD attached to a Belkin
USB hub with the hub attached to the PC. I attached the hub to my
new PC (XP) and it connected perfectly (best I can tell). Plugged
the Maxtor HD into the hub and found two(?) problems.
1) received a message I was plugging a Hi-speed device into a
non-high-speed device. XP wants me I think) to disconnect the HD
from the hub and move it to a USB port on the PC.
2) but, the HD seems to kinda work. The HD was partitioned (4)
and the first partition shows up and can be accessed from Explorer.
The other partitions can not be accessed - Explorer complains they
must be formatted.

Given all that, the easy questions.
Do I need to move the HD to an unused USB port on the PC?
If not, how do I get rid of the 'Safely remove hardware' icon in the
systray?
How do I (can I) get XP to see all the patitions?
And a bonus - in W98 I had three sections along the bottom of the
screen - Start menu, systray, and a section in the middle where I
could place apps I used frequently (hey, I'm and old guy unfamiliar
with the lingo). Can I get that middle section to appear in XP?
Click to expand...

Here is your situation as I see it:
On your old PC you had USB 1.0/1.1 capability along with a USB 1.0/1.1 HUB.
You apparently recently purchased a Maxtor External Hard Drive which is USB
1.0/1.1/2.0 enabled. When you moved to your new PC [which is USB 1.0/1.1/2.0
enabled IF you have XP with SP1] you apparently just reconnected the devices
you had.
Windows XP is simply telling you that you have a USB high speed device [the
external hard drive] connected to a USB low speed device [the old Hub]. The
stuff will still work because of the backwards compatibility of USB devices.
In other words, the Maxtor external drive will function but only at USB 1.1
speed [USB 2.0 is much faster supposedly forty times faster].
If you have an available PC USB jack, plug the Maxtor external into it. You
will see much faster tranfer rates. Whethere that will solve said partition
problem I do not know but try it.
BUY a new USB Hub that is USB 2.0 enabled.
 
Gene K said:
news.charter.net said:
Easy question.
On my old PC (W98) I had a Maxtor external HD attached to a Belkin
USB hub with the hub attached to the PC. I attached the hub to my
new PC (XP) and it connected perfectly (best I can tell). Plugged
the Maxtor HD into the hub and found two(?) problems.
1) received a message I was plugging a Hi-speed device into a
non-high-speed device. XP wants me I think) to disconnect the HD
from the hub and move it to a USB port on the PC.
2) but, the HD seems to kinda work. The HD was partitioned (4)
and the first partition shows up and can be accessed from Explorer.
The other partitions can not be accessed - Explorer complains they
must be formatted.

Given all that, the easy questions.
Do I need to move the HD to an unused USB port on the PC?
If not, how do I get rid of the 'Safely remove hardware' icon in the
systray?
How do I (can I) get XP to see all the patitions?
And a bonus - in W98 I had three sections along the bottom of the
screen - Start menu, systray, and a section in the middle where I
could place apps I used frequently (hey, I'm and old guy unfamiliar
with the lingo). Can I get that middle section to appear in XP?
Click to expand...

Here is your situation as I see it:
On your old PC you had USB 1.0/1.1 capability along with a USB 1.0/1.1 HUB.
You apparently recently purchased a Maxtor External Hard Drive which is USB
1.0/1.1/2.0 enabled. When you moved to your new PC [which is USB 1.0/1.1/2.0
enabled IF you have XP with SP1] you apparently just reconnected the devices
you had.
Windows XP is simply telling you that you have a USB high speed device [the
external hard drive] connected to a USB low speed device [the old Hub]. The
stuff will still work because of the backwards compatibility of USB devices.
In other words, the Maxtor external drive will function but only at USB 1.1
speed [USB 2.0 is much faster supposedly forty times faster].
If you have an available PC USB jack, plug the Maxtor external into it. You
will see much faster tranfer rates. Whethere that will solve said partition
problem I do not know but try it.
BUY a new USB Hub that is USB 2.0 enabled.
Click to expand...
 
Easy question.
On my old PC (W98) I had a Maxtor external HD attached to a Belkin USB hub
with the hub attached to the PC. I attached the hub to my new PC (XP) and
it connected perfectly (best I can tell). Plugged the Maxtor HD into the
hub and found two(?) problems.
1) received a message I was plugging a Hi-speed device into a
non-high-speed device. XP wants me I think) to disconnect the HD from the
hub and move it to a USB port on the PC.
Click to expand...

This is a normal message when there is a mixed USB (1.x and 2.x) on a
system. The drive is capable of working under 2.x USB but is plugged in to
a 1.x hub. Hence the warning. Win98 does not support USB 2 so the warning
never came up.
2) but, the HD seems to kinda work. The HD was partitioned (4) and the
first partition shows up and can be accessed from Explorer. The other
partitions can not be accessed - Explorer complains they must be formatted.
Click to expand...

Some 2.x devices will operate off of a 1.x hub. Some won't. Check
specifications for the device to find out for sure.
Given all that, the easy questions.
Do I need to move the HD to an unused USB port on the PC?
Click to expand...

It will work better *if* that port is USB2. If it isn't USB2, you'll be in
the same boat that you're in now.
If not, how do I get rid of the 'Safely remove hardware' icon in the
systray?
Click to expand...

You don't. That icon is there for a reason. Especially with a USB drive,
you want to be sure that XP is ready to give up the device before
disconnecting it. If you disconnect without using that icon, you risk
corrupting data on the drive.
How do I (can I) get XP to see all the patitions?
Click to expand...

Try the drive on a USB 2 port and see if it's any better. If not, try
chkdsk on the drive and its partitions. And/or check out what Disk
Management has to say about the partition. You'll find Disk Management
under Computer Management in the Administrative Tools.
And a bonus - in W98 I had three sections along the bottom of the screen -
Start menu, systray, and a section in the middle where I could place apps I
used frequently (hey, I'm and old guy unfamiliar with the lingo). Can I get
that middle section to appear in XP?
Click to expand...

I think what you're looking for is the Quick Launch toolbar. Right click
the taskbar. Select Toolbars> QuickLaunch. By default the taskbar is locked
and Quick Launch shows 3 icons. You can resize by right clicking on the
taskbar and clicking "Lock the taskbar" if necessary. The toolbar's
"handles" will appear as vertical dotted bars. "Grab" one of those with the
mouse and pull the handle to extend the display area of the toolbar to your
liking.
 
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