External Hard Drive

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dave Zass
  • Start date Start date
D

Dave Zass

I simply moved my PC to another location and now it won't recognize my
external drive. I have two internal drives and one external. The external
is in a USB/Firewire enclosure and was connected via the firewire. I never
had any problems.

Since I moved the PC, it no longer recognizes my external drive. In order
to make sure the drive didn't fail, I swapped it with my internal drive. It
read the label and allowed me access to the data, so I'm assuming my drive
is OK. I figured maybe the external enclosure failed, so I bought a
replacement, USB 2.0 only.

It does not recognize the hardware at all when I plug the USB cable into my
PC. I'm sure it's not the USB slot because I plugged another device in to
confirm.

The drive seems OK, yet it is no longer recognize by either USB 2.0 or 1394.
Any suggestions on what to check next? I'm stumped.
 
Any possibility that you can connect this external drive to another
computer and see if it's seen?
 
It's seen by my computer when I swapped them out to check it. It worked
fine, access to all of the data.

Just not in the original 1394 enclosure or the new (soon to be returned) USB
2.0 enclosure.

Jan Alter said:
Any possibility that you can connect this external drive to another
computer and see if it's seen?
Click to expand...
 
Dave Zass said:
It's seen by my computer when I swapped them out to check it. It worked
fine, access to all of the data.

Just not in the original 1394 enclosure or the new (soon to be returned)
USB 2.0 enclosure.

Jan Alter said:
Any possibility that you can connect this external drive to another
computer and see if it's seen?

--
Jan Alter
(e-mail address removed)
or
(e-mail address removed)12.pa.us
Click to expand...

let me guess you are running XP SP2.............

have you tried giving the drive a letter.

with the drive connected to a USB port go to Start, Perform and Main, Amin
Tools, Comp Management, Disk Management.

If you can see the drive unlettered, right click it and change drive
letter..........call it W say, click OK.

you may have to reboot to see if it appears in Explorer

if not its that old lost USB post problem with XP.

If this is the case you will either have to try Windows Repair or at very
worst (like I had to) a total reinstall.

or at very very worst, use http://www.explorerxp.com/

dj
Click to expand...
 
Dave Zass said:
I simply moved my PC to another location and now it won't recognize my
external drive. I have two internal drives and one external. The external
is in a USB/Firewire enclosure and was connected via the firewire. I never
had any problems.

Since I moved the PC, it no longer recognizes my external drive.
Click to expand...

Obviously, something got changed when you moved your PC.
Figure out what it was.

-- Bob Day
 
let me guess you are running XP SP2.............

Yes, I am.
have you tried giving the drive a letter.
Click to expand...

It has the same drive letter that was previously assigned. When I swapped
it with another internal data drive, the HD showed up fine.
with the drive connected to a USB port go to Start, Perform and Main, Amin
Tools, Comp Management, Disk Management.

If you can see the drive unlettered, right click it and change drive
letter..........call it W say, click OK.
Click to expand...

I can not get it recognized externally at all, even trying two different
enlosures and trying USB and 1394.
you may have to reboot to see if it appears in Explorer

if not its that old lost USB post problem with XP.
Click to expand...

The USB ports are working fine, as far as I can tell. I tried a the HD on
few different ports, no luck recognizing it. If I plug any other USB device
in, it sees it.
If this is the case you will either have to try Windows Repair or at very
worst (like I had to) a total reinstall.
Click to expand...

I don't seem to have lost my data on drive and was able to access it while
it was internal. I'm on the verge of building a new box, so I may not
devote a lot of time to figuring this out. I'm just stumped as to what may
have transpired.
 
Since I moved the PC, it no longer recognizes my external drive.
Obviously, something got changed when you moved your PC.
Figure out what it was.
Click to expand...

Obviously, you didn't read my post. I know exactly what got changed. The
desk it was sitting on.
 
with the drive connected to a USB port go to Start, Perform and Main, Amin
Tools, Comp Management, Disk Management.

If you can see the drive unlettered, right click it and change drive
letter..........call it W say, click OK.
Click to expand...

Well, now I see something else odd. Under Disk Management, I now show a new
DVD/CD-Rom drive. Sure enough, it is also listed in My Computer as a DVD
drive with a new drive letter assigned. I don't know what caused it to
detect a new drive, nothing has been added.

In the properties section for this new DVD icon, it looks like a SCSI CdRom
Device is active. Again, I haven't added any hardware or made any changes
to my system.
 
Dave Zass said:
Obviously, you didn't read my post. I know exactly what got changed.
Click to expand...

Obviously, you don't know what changed. If you did, you'd
know what needs to be fixed. Think back. Think hard.
When you discover what it was, it's likely a very simple fix.

-- Bob Day
 
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