WinXP NTFS unable to see USB HDD FAT 32 drive

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dr Trainer
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Dr Trainer

Have WinXP, SP2 with all current updates and NTFS file format. An old machine broke down with Win 98SE and FAT 32 file system. I have placed the old HD in an external enclosure and am using USB 2 to read the drive. However, Win XP will not dispaly the HD. No drive letter is assigned but the Safely Remove Hardware dialogue box does come up.

WinXP will display other USB 2 drives that I have in NTFS format. I have downloaded the most current drivers from MS, motherboard maker and Intel. Still unable to see. Have about 160 Gigs in two partitions I would like to save. Outside of buring this data to DVD, can someone offer some suggestions?

Thank you,

DT


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Dr Trainer said:
Have WinXP, SP2 with all current updates and NTFS file format. An old
Click to expand...
machine broke down with Win 98SE and FAT 32 file system. I have placed the
old HD in an external enclosure and am using USB 2 to read the drive.
However, Win XP will not dispaly the HD. No drive letter is assigned but
the Safely Remove Hardware dialogue box does come up.
WinXP will display other USB 2 drives that I have in NTFS format. I have
Click to expand...
downloaded the most current drivers from MS, motherboard maker and Intel.
Still unable to see. Have about 160 Gigs in two partitions I would like to
save. Outside of buring this data to DVD, can someone offer some
suggestions?

Go into disk management and see if you can assign it a drive letter
 
XP will automatically "see" both FAT32 and NTFS partitions.

I have both on assorted USB devices and XP reads/writes with no problem.

So, your problem is not FAT32 vs NTFS.

I have also had very good luck with external enclosures, both for fresh hard
drive asn for hard drives from an old win98 machine.

But, in all my successes with external USB I had "simple" hard drives.
Nothing was RAIDed, and no special software was used to overcome BIOS
limitations. I assume that your win98 machine did not use RAID or SCSI or
anything like that, but did it have a large hard drive? By large I mean
large relative to the motherboard's capabilities. For a win98 vintage
machine that could be as small as 32 Gig. For a win95 ca\lass machine it
could be 8 Gig or even 4 Gig. If yes, then you might have been accessing
the hard drive with special software that was installed under win98. Such a
hard drive may not have a normal structure and thus may not be readable
directlyunder XP.

For a free second optinion, download a KNOPPIX ISO file and burn it to CD
using an option like burn form disk, not simply drag&drop. Boot the XP PC
using this CD and it will be running LINUX, not windows. By default,
KNOPPIX will NOT make changes to your hard drive, so this is a safe test.
Once it boots into KNOPPIX, attach the USB enclosure, being sure to also
connect the power cord and turn the enclosure on (if it has an on/off
switch). KNOPPIX may not recognize it when hot-plugged. If not, try
rebooting, leaving the KNOIPPIX CD in the tray. I have had 100% success
with KNOPPIX detecting pre-attached USB drives. If the drive still does not
showup (as an icon on the KNOPPIX desktop), then there is either a problem
with the cable, the enclosure, or the external hard drive itself.
 
Dr Trainer said:
Have WinXP, SP2 with all current updates and NTFS file format. An old
machine broke down with Win 98SE and FAT 32 file system. I have placed
the old HD in an external enclosure and am using USB 2 to read the drive.
However, Win XP will not dispaly the HD. No drive letter is assigned but
the Safely Remove Hardware dialogue box does come up.

WinXP will display other USB 2 drives that I have in NTFS format. I have
downloaded the most current drivers from MS, motherboard maker and Intel.
Still unable to see. Have about 160 Gigs in two partitions I would like
to save. Outside of buring this data to DVD, can someone offer some
suggestions?

Thank you,

DT
Click to expand...


Dr Trainer:
We've put together a more-or-less checklist for troubleshooting these USB
non-recognition problems that (hopefully) may be of some value to users
encountering this type of problem...

1. Access Disk Management and see if the USB device is listed. If so, and
there's no drive letter assigned, see if you can assign a drive letter to
the device.
2. If the USB device is listed in Disk Management with an assigned drive
letter, right-click on its listing and select Explore from the submenu.
Hopefully, Windows Explorer will open and the device will be listed.
3. Connect the USB device *directly* to a USB port on the computer, not via
a USB hub. Try different USB ports should your computer have multiple ports.
4. Avoid using a USB extension cable.
5. Try connecting a USB device (that does not contain an auxiliary power
supply) to a USB port both before and after the boot operation.
6. Where a USB (or Firewire) external HDD is involved, access Device
Manager, highlight the Disk drives listing and click on the Action menu item
and then the "Scan for hardware changes" sub-menu item. Do the same in Disk
Management > Action > Rescan disks.
7. Try alternate powering on/off methods. If the USB device contains its own
power supply, try booting up with its power on, then try powering on only
*after* the system has booted to a Desktop.
8. Try a different USB cable.
9. In the USB controllers section of Device Manager, uninstall all the USB
controllers listed and reboot.
10. If the device in question is not a commercial USB external HDD but
rather one in which you installed a HDD in a USB enclosure, jumper the HDD
as Master (or Single if the HDD is a Western Digital disk). A number of
users have reported that jumper configuration corrected their
non-recognition problem. In my own experience it didn't seem to matter how a
USB external HDD was jumpered. But it may be worth a try.
11. If the device in question is a USB external HDD, first check out the HDD
with the hard drive manufacturer's diagnostic utility. If it checks out OK,
and you can remove the HDD from its enclosure (without voiding any
applicable warranty), do so and install the HDD as an internal HDD to
determine if there are problems with the drive.
12. If the USB device is connected to a USB 2.0 PCI card, try changing the
PCI slot to which it's currently connected to another one.
13. Access the website of the manufacturer of the USB device to determine if
there's any firmware update or info re the problem you're experiencing or
there's any possibility that the USB enclosure itself might be defective.
14. Determine from the manufacturer of your motherboard whether there's a
BIOS upgrade affecting USB device recognition.

Also, a number of posters have reported they've found useful information re
troubleshooting USB devices on this site...
http://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbtrouble_e.html
Anna
 
Thanks to Anna for the very full checklist, copied below. I've checked all these and many more from the web besides. My problem is a little different but must be related:
My standard memory stick that contains all my test and recovery programs is FAT32 and has been read in *hundreds* of PCs and can still be read in my own Win7 PC.

But, today I have a client's XP PC that insists the stick is not formated although it gives it a drive letter and states it is RAW. I can change the drive letter OK but no change to the problem. It won't recognise any other FAT32 device either.

However, If I boot this same PC from a recovery CD then I can read the stick perfectly! So, the HW, BIOS, etc is all fine and the problem must lie with the WinXP intalled on the PC.

All this suggests a driver issue but there is no source for FAT32 memory stick drivers that I can find - they must be a standard part of Windows.

All this seems to have started following a fake virus scanner infection which has been fully cleaned off. How to fix this problem as I know the client has a FAT32 external backup drive?

Ideas anyone?

Anna said:
"Dr Trainer" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

1. Access Disk Management and see if the USB device is listed. If so, and
there's no drive letter assigned, see if you can assign a drive letter to
the device.
2. If the USB device is listed in Disk Management with an assigned drive
letter, right-click on its listing and select Explore from the submenu.
Hopefully, Windows Explorer will open and the device will be listed.
3. Connect the USB device *directly* to a USB port on the computer, not via
a USB hub. Try different USB ports should your computer have multiple ports.
4. Avoid using a USB extension cable.
5. Try connecting a USB device (that does not contain an auxiliary power
supply) to a USB port both before and after the boot operation.
6. Where a USB (or Firewire) external HDD is involved, access Device
Manager, highlight the Disk drives listing and click on the Action menu item
and then the "Scan for hardware changes" sub-menu item. Do the same in Disk
Management > Action > Rescan disks.
7. Try alternate powering on/off methods. If the USB device contains its own
power supply, try booting up with its power on, then try powering on only
*after* the system has booted to a Desktop.
8. Try a different USB cable.
9. In the USB controllers section of Device Manager, uninstall all the USB
controllers listed and reboot.
10. If the device in question is not a commercial USB external HDD but
rather one in which you installed a HDD in a USB enclosure, jumper the HDD
as Master (or Single if the HDD is a Western Digital disk). A number of
users have reported that jumper configuration corrected their
non-recognition problem. In my own experience it didn't seem to matter how a
USB external HDD was jumpered. But it may be worth a try.
11. If the device in question is a USB external HDD, first check out the HDD
with the hard drive manufacturer's diagnostic utility. If it checks out OK,
and you can remove the HDD from its enclosure (without voiding any
applicable warranty), do so and install the HDD as an internal HDD to
determine if there are problems with the drive.
12. If the USB device is connected to a USB 2.0 PCI card, try changing the
PCI slot to which it's currently connected to another one.
13. Access the website of the manufacturer of the USB device to determine if
there's any firmware update or info re the problem you're experiencing or
there's any possibility that the USB enclosure itself might be defective.
14. Determine from the manufacturer of your motherboard whether there's a
BIOS upgrade affecting USB device recognition.

Also, a number of posters have reported they've found useful information re
troubleshooting USB devices on this site...
http://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbtrouble_e.html
Anna
Click to expand...
 
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