Extrnal Hard drive not recognized

[matinmatin]

hi
I have bought an extrnal hard drive from ebay. when i connect the drive thought USB it does not recognize it. I am using Win XP Home edition. Please help with this prolem i am really stuck i tried Win XP help as well but it didn't solve the problem
thanks
matt

 

[noobtechie]

Can you verify that the external case is working? (swap it with another hard drive to make sure it is not the external case or cable) You might need to format the drive, right click My computer/Manage/Storage/Disk Management/see if it's listed there, if it is, right click and format to NTFS

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Hope this helps.

 

[kestrel1]

is the drive powered by the USB port or has it got an external power supply? If it is powered from the ports, make sure that you are plugging it directly onto the motherboards ports & not going via a USB hub.

 

[kestrel1]

Also what size is the drive? does it have a 3.5 or 2.5 inch HDD? If it has a 3.5 you could try checking the drive by removing it from its case & attaching it to a spare IDE port in the computer.

 

[matinmatin]

Thanks noobtechie and kestrel1
I have tried noobtechie steps it is not listed and when i right click there is no option of format to NTFS. I am quite new to these kind of staff. I am still having problem.
Yes kestrel1 the size 80GB and i think it is powered from USB port since the light of external HD turns on and make kind of fan sound. I don't understand 3.5 or 2.5 HDD? Sorry mate instruct me through some baby steps? I thank you again.

NB. I just tried the same steps in my laptop it is not listed there however when i plug it in the following message appears in my laptop:
The USB Mass Storage Device will function at reduced speed. You must add a HI-SPEED host controller to theis computer to obtain maximun performace.

 

[noobtechie]

2.5 refers to the size of the hard drive, usually for laptops, 3.5 is the standard hard drive size.

Can you just plug in the external hard drive to the computer without having the enclosure fully closed? (I hope I didn't lose you there) When you plug in the external hard drive, you get the lights and the fan going in the external device, but if you could touch the actual hard drive to make sure it is actually spinning, then we might be able to go from there. If it's not spinning, and you hear little clicks, sometimes not very audible, or tries to spin but it stops and tries to spin again then you might have a faulty drive. (don't be surprised, you might have encountered a bad batch, it happens) Return it and tell them that the hdd is not spinning, they shouldn't give you a problem.

If it spins, double click on My computer, and do you see an extra drive there? if you do, right click and format to NTFS

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Hope this helps.

 

[kestrel1]

It sounds like the external HDD is being recognised on your laptop, but your laptop only has USB1.1 not USB2. That is why you get that message.
Are you able to gain access to the HDD from your laptop? If not you will probably need to format it.
Also on your main PC if you go to the administrative tools in the control panel (Start/settings/control panel) You may have to switch to classic view to see the admin tools.
& from there choose 'Computer Managment' click on Disk Managment & you should see all the drives attached to your machine. If the drive is there but has no drive letter assigned to it you may need to format it. You can do this by selecting the drive & right clicking & select format.
Hope this make sense.

 

[matinmatin]

hi guys
noobtechie:
The lights turn on and i can feel a spinning of the drive, but when i go to Management the only drive is listed is C: drive nothing more so i i can't find Format to NTFS

kestrel1: The USB cable provided from seller one side has two plugs i tried both in and i do not get access to get. It is not display there , this problem is doing my headn now.
Thanks a lot guys for your replies any other suggestions, advice , help is appreciated.
thanks
matt

 

[kestrel1]

Have you tried disk managment on the laptop after you got the message?
What make is the drive caddy? It may well be a faulty caddy. I purchased a drive caddy so that I could use a spare laptop hard drive (2.5") & the first one that came through was faulty, so it was sent back & replaced.

 

[MusicEuphony]

Hello I am also having the same problem here. I purchased an Other World Computing Mercury Elite-AL Quad Interface enclosure (

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/MEFW924AL1K/)

and a Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 500GB SATA drive and plugged it all in. I connected the drive to the USB port on my computer.

The drive spins up, lights turn on, and when I plug it in I get messages in my task bar saying there's new hardware (USB storage device and such) but then when I go to install drivers I get the generic: "The hardware was not installed because the wizard cannot find the necessary software" message. I've put in the windows XP CD and tried to see if it'd find something there and haven't had luck.

I don't know what other useful information I can give in answering my question. I've tried the drive with both jumper configurations with no difference. The motherboard doesn't have to have SATA support to run a SATA drive out of an enclosure via USB does it? I'm at a loss right now and appreciate any attempt to solve the original poster and/or my question.

 

[MusicEuphony]

I actually figured out my own problem. I was using a USB 2.0 hub. I bypassed it and initialized the drive under My Computer -> Manage. It's all fine and dandy now. Whew what a load off my mind to have figured it out

 

[kestrel1]

MusicEuphony, Have you got the latest Windows updates installed? SP2 etc.
Did the OWC enclosure come with any software? Windows XP will normally find any new external hard drives & install the drivers automatically. Try visiting the Windows update site & chose Custom to see if any drivers are found for this device or any others. Have the drive plugged in at the time.

 

[mainegeek]

matinmatin,

Remove the drive from the USB enclosure and make sure the the drive is jumpered as Master.