Window XP does not recognize external hard drive FAT32

  • Thread starter Thread starter kiran
  • Start date Start date
K

kiran

Hello,

I just got an external hard drive which is FAT32 format, when I plug it
in throug USB, XP see's the drive but not able to access it, it say the
drive is raw and need to format it.

However when I plug it into my laptop which is also Windows XP , I
have no issues at all.

Any one knows why this happening on my PC with windows XP.

Thank you.

Kiran
 
What size drive is it?
How large is the FAT partition?
Do you have more than one partition?

JS
 
I'm having the same problem. I wrote a post "connecting old hard drive to
new computer. It has the size and partitions. My computer is a laptop
running xp. Any advice???
 
kiran said:
Hello,

I just got an external hard drive which is FAT32 format, when I plug it
in throug USB, XP see's the drive but not able to access it, it say the
drive is raw and need to format it.

However when I plug it into my laptop which is also Windows XP , I
have no issues at all.

Any one knows why this happening on my PC with windows XP.

Thank you.

Kiran
Click to expand...
Are your PC and laptop both formatted with FAT 32? or both NTFS? or
one of each? s
 
kiran said:
Hello,

I just got an external hard drive which is FAT32 format, when I plug it
in throug USB, XP see's the drive but not able to access it, it say the
drive is raw and need to format it.

However when I plug it into my laptop which is also Windows XP , I
have no issues at all.

Any one knows why this happening on my PC with windows XP.
Click to expand...
Possibly it happens on your PC because you use it with other removable
devices like a camera. XP gets confused by changing drive letters all the
time and screws everything up. Often it cannot detect an external USB drive.
One of the many possible fixes is to assign it a permanent drive letter way
down the alphabet away from your C:> drive, CD/DVD, etc.
 
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