External Hard Drive not recognised

  • Thread starter Thread starter Daniel
  • Start date Start date
D

Daniel

I recently bought an exterenal usb hard drive. When I
plugged it up to my computer a little box popped up
saying that it would run at lower speed because it's a
USB 2 device and I guess my computer only has USB 1.
However, when I go to my computer to try to access the
drive it doesn't appear there. In attempting to fix it I
accidentally uninstalled the USB Mass Storage Device
driver. So my question is: how can I get this driver back
and how can I get my computer to show my hard drive.

Thanks
 
First, unplug the drive from the PC. Next, use the device
manager to uninstall the USB controller. Then, use the
dvice manager to check for new hardware. It should find
the USB controller and automatically load a copy of the
drivers. Or, at worst, it will ask for a source of
files. Pay attention to exactly what it wants, either the
XPCDROM or one from your motherboard manufacturer. (A
floppy or disk file set will do, if the drivers it wants
are from the motherboard maker.)

Once the USB is working again, then attach the external
hard drive. However, you might first be wise to test the
USB controller and drivers with something simpler, like a
trackball or flash card reader. Normally, you should not
need any special drivers for a USB hard drive.

However, at this point you still will not be able to see
the drive in explorer. The reason is that it is probably
not partitioned and formated. Use the XP disk management
tool to first ceate one (or more) partition on the
external disk. This process may be called something like
initialization. Next format the partions as either FAT32
or NTFS. XP will demand NTFS if the partition is > 32
Gig. Now the disk should appear in explorer. You might
nedd to do a view, refresh, or perhaps a reboot, but
nothing more.
 
Back
Top