External HD never shows up

  • Thread starter Thread starter LadyDungeness
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LadyDungeness

I've got a WD My Book external drive. I used it for about a month.
Now suddenly it will not show up. I have two boot systems, each one
on a separate itnernal HD. the External USB drive will not show up on
either of them. I'm using XP Home SP2 + patches.

I thought Western Digital made good products. I thought USB Hard
Drives were good choices for backing up. Apparently I was wrong. I'm
really frustrated.

`
Lady Dungeness
Crabby, but Delicious!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
Yes -- I've tried all the USB ports. Other USB devices work; the
external HD doesn't. The external HD used to.

I've tried powering the external HD up first, then connecting the USB;
I've tried connecting it first, then turning on the computer. I've
read that MyBook external drives are fussy in this regard. Either
way, I cannot get it to be recognized.

`
Lady Dungeness
Crabby, but Delicious!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~




|Have you tried connecting the drive to a different USB port?
|
|JS
|
||> I've got a WD My Book external drive. I used it for about a month.
|> Now suddenly it will not show up. I have two boot systems, each one
|> on a separate itnernal HD. the External USB drive will not show up on
|> either of them. I'm using XP Home SP2 + patches.
|>
|> I thought Western Digital made good products. I thought USB Hard
|> Drives were good choices for backing up. Apparently I was wrong. I'm
|> really frustrated.
|>
|> `
|> Lady Dungeness
|> Crabby, but Delicious!
|> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
 
Itse virkkoi, noin nimesi:
I've got a WD My Book external drive. I used it for about a
month. Now suddenly it will not show up. I have two boot systems,
each one on a separate itnernal HD. the External USB drive will
not show up on either of them. I'm using XP Home SP2 + patches.

I thought Western Digital made good products. I thought USB Hard
Drives were good choices for backing up. Apparently I was wrong.
I'm really frustrated.
Click to expand...

There might be more than one possible reason for this phenomenon, but
I have just found at least one of them.

I use WinXP SP2. My first discovery of the problem was when I tried
to read a USB-connected camera memory card. I was able to do that
only in DOS, that is, in "command line". In Windows I could not see
the card as a drive.

Later I bought a memory stick. I could not either see it as a drive.
I could not until I discovered, that it does show up in "Disk
management" in "Computer management". And from there I was able to
open it as a folder view. Not very practical, but now I managed to
use my memory stick.

Now I have bought a 500 GB Western Digital USB-drive. Same problem.
"My computer" showed the drives only up to F:, which was my DVD-drive.
It did not show WD. On WD I had drives G:, H:, I:, J: and K: all of
which properly showed up in "Disk management".

There was some notes in the web that it might help to change the drive
letter of the external drive. So I tried that. I changed the DVD-
drive to be K: and drives on WD to be from F: to J:.

Voilà, now the first drive of WD showed up as F:. But not the other
drives. And not the DVD-drive. Duh!

At this phase I remembered an old thing from Windows 3.11. There was
somewhere a list of drives up to Z: and check squares for them. And I
remembered Win3 to have some trouble if all the check marks were not
set. And they were not set by default.

I tried to find a similar place in XP but did not succeed. But then I
peeked in MicroSoft TweakUI, which is part of the Power Toys package.
And another voilà, there it was. And there were check marks up to F-
drive, no more. A plausible reason found!

I checked drives up to something more than K: and tried. All the
drives showed up perfectly and have done that since.

Problem solved! Hope this helps as many of you as possible.
 
That's a really good suggestion. Unfortunately, I had already tried
Disk Management. The external USB drive does not appear there.


Lady Dungeness
Crabby, but Great Legs!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


|Itse virkkoi, noin nimesi:
|
|> I've got a WD My Book external drive. I used it for about a
|> month. Now suddenly it will not show up. I have two boot systems,
|> each one on a separate itnernal HD. the External USB drive will
|> not show up on either of them. I'm using XP Home SP2 + patches.
|>
|> I thought Western Digital made good products. I thought USB Hard
|> Drives were good choices for backing up. Apparently I was wrong.
|> I'm really frustrated.
|
|There might be more than one possible reason for this phenomenon, but
|I have just found at least one of them.
|
|I use WinXP SP2. My first discovery of the problem was when I tried
|to read a USB-connected camera memory card. I was able to do that
|only in DOS, that is, in "command line". In Windows I could not see
|the card as a drive.
|
|Later I bought a memory stick. I could not either see it as a drive.
|I could not until I discovered, that it does show up in "Disk
|management" in "Computer management". And from there I was able to
|open it as a folder view. Not very practical, but now I managed to
|use my memory stick.
|
|Now I have bought a 500 GB Western Digital USB-drive. Same problem.
|"My computer" showed the drives only up to F:, which was my DVD-drive.
|It did not show WD. On WD I had drives G:, H:, I:, J: and K: all of
|which properly showed up in "Disk management".
|
|There was some notes in the web that it might help to change the drive
|letter of the external drive. So I tried that. I changed the DVD-
|drive to be K: and drives on WD to be from F: to J:.
|
|Voil?, now the first drive of WD showed up as F:. But not the other
|drives. And not the DVD-drive. Duh!
|
|At this phase I remembered an old thing from Windows 3.11. There was
|somewhere a list of drives up to Z: and check squares for them. And I
|remembered Win3 to have some trouble if all the check marks were not
|set. And they were not set by default.
|
|I tried to find a similar place in XP but did not succeed. But then I
|peeked in MicroSoft TweakUI, which is part of the Power Toys package.
|And another voil?, there it was. And there were check marks up to F-
|drive, no more. A plausible reason found!
|
|I checked drives up to something more than K: and tried. All the
|drives showed up perfectly and have done that since.
|
|Problem solved! Hope this helps as many of you as possible.
 
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