hdd in external firewire/usb 2.0 enclosure not recognized in xp

[seezee]

just bought a seagate 250GB/7200/ultra-ata100/8MB internal drive & a masscool "uhb-fi310" ieee 1394/usb 2.0 enclosure to use on my sony pcg-grx560 laptop. sony has 4 pin firewire and usb 1.0. also boughta 6 pin to 4 pin cable. enclosure uses external power supply. os is win xp sp2. bios does not support firewire boot, but will boot from a floppy drive connected to a usb port. mfr's instructions say xp does not require installation of an additional driver under xp; s/b PnP (driver is provided for win98 only).

unit powers & spins up just fine, but is not recognized either when connected via firewire or usb. does not show up under "my computer" or disk management snap-in, not even if refreshed/rescanned. also does not appear in device manager. as such, i can't even partition & format the darned thing. haven't had access to a desktop to test the drive in another environment yet, so i can't rule out defective drive/enclosure/cable (the last is unlikely, since i've tested both usb & firewire).

this seems to be a common problem, according to google searches, but i haven't seen any satisfactory answers out there.

any help would be appreciated.

 

[seezee]

forgot to mention...drive came set for "cable select". after many failed attempts to get xp to recognize it, i set it to "master" (having found that suggestion on some of the forums), but that did not fix the problem.

 

[garebo]

In some bios's you have to enable usb, so check out your bios settings.


Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[paparazi]

seezee
Definately needs to be set as master.
Also, like any other NEW drive, it will need partitioning and formatting before use so go to:

Start/My computer/control panel/Administrative tools/computer management/Disk management: NOW click on the new drive, make partition and format.

You should now be able to see the new drive

Martin




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Participate and help others.

 

[seezee]

as noted in my original post, the drive does not show up in disk management, not even after refresh/rescan, so impossible to partition & format. also, usb is enabled, so that's not the problem either. any other thoughts?

thanks,

--cz

 

[garebo]

Are you connnecting directly to the computer or thru a usb hub?
If thru a hub try direct to computer.
Also try a spare cable if you have one.
It usually works best set as master in my experience anyway and as stated above by paparazi.
Go to device mgr and see if there are any marks in it, you know, red or yellow.
Check manual for any other possible bios setting as well.
Just looking for any possibility, its gotta be something.


Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[seezee]

connexion is direct to either firewire or usb port. usb port is known to work as i can use it w/ other devices. no other devices are connected at this time. spare cable test did not resolve problem.

device mgr shows no problems w/ usb or firewire controllers. also updated drivers for usb controllers; problem persists.

have been over bios w/ a fine-toothed comb, but don't see any settings that could possibly apply (no documentation furnished for bios).

nearing my wit's end,

--cz

 

[garebo]

Take data off and then get the hard drive mfgrs diagnostic software and run it. Go the the part that writes zeroes to the hard drive and run that.
First set the hard drive up as slave on your secondary ide, run the "write zero" program and then set it up as master usb and try it out. Has worked in the past for me, just remembered.



Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[seezee]

regarding the first part of proposed solution, there is no data on the drive...it's new.

as to the second, that would possibly work, except it's a laptop...only one ide controller for hard drives. the secondary controller, for the cd-rom, uses a different connector. also i don't have a long enough cable to connect to either, required since it's a 3.5 inch drive (won't fit in either bay). can't yank a cable from my desktop, since it's an old apple clone, which means SCSI. tomorrow i'm going to try hooking it up to a friend's laptop to see if it'll work there. if that doesn't work i'll take it to server class on tuesday and see if i can get it formatted from one of the workstations.

i'll let you know how it goes from there.

--cz

 

[garebo]

Yes, easiest way would be from a pc. Sorry, i didnt pay enough attention to your post.
The "zero write" program has repaired a lot of hard drive issues for me to the point where i use it all the time.


Good advice + great people = tek-tips