USB External Drives

[Ronniebootwest]

It is a good thing that I made a backup of the drive holding all my images and PTE shows because I seem to have another hard drive failure on my hands.

I have a usb Lacie external drive connected to my computer and it has been working fine for a few months, but now when I boot up my computer it does not recognise the drive (it doesn't show in 'My Computer')

I am not a computer wiz kid so am lost now. Can anyone help with some advice on what I should do now please?

Ron

[Ian]

The drive might still be okay. Right-click the "My Computer" icon on your desktop and select "Manage". See if it shows up in the external storage list. If so you can assign a new drive letter to it.

Ian

[Ronniebootwest]

Ian,

I run XP. There is no refererence to 'Manage' when I right click!

Ron

[Ian]

hmmm...

it should be there. I have XP Pro SP2 on the machine I'm currently using, and its there. Maybe its not available on XP Home, or if you're not logged in with admin rights.

What do you see on the list when you right-click "My Computer"?

Ian

[Ronniebootwest]

Right clicking on 'My Computer' found the 'Manage' file you are talking about, but It does not show me anything that I understand.

Let me have your email and I will send you a screenshot

ronniebootwest@ntlworld.com

[Ken Cox]

ron

i have xp home sp2 and r clicking my computer manage is the the list

it may be the way heve your system set up

i dont know how my tech set up my systems but

if i reboot in safe mode i have to select pbyk to be able to make changes or to see the usual things

if i select admin i cannot do anything

there is a site

http://www.blackviper.com/index.html

that yields many tips on setting up things

also

not trying to be a smart a__

but

is the power light on

or if it is a usb drive, have you tried another port

ken

[Maureen]

I have one external drive which I use very frequently & move around quite often.

Sometimes now the leads do not make a very tight connection and the computer doesn't recognise the drive.

I find if I then push the leads in firmly it all works once more and the drive is recognised.

Just a thought and worth a quick trial.

BW Maureen

[Conflow]

Hi Ronnie,

I see you lost your USB-HD Connection..It Could be a:-

* USB Cable Fault ?

* An Ext-HD Fault ?

* A lost HD-Driver ?

* The PC lost the Ext.HD Ini-Index. ?

Try as follows:-

a)

Turn-off the PC completely-wait a while-Now 'Cold-Start' it...During start-up see if the 'Led-Lamp' on The Ext.HD flashes contineously ? If it does,all's OK,you can rule out the USB.Cable and the Ext.HD Its now down to a Lost Driver or Lost INI.Indexer.

Double Click 'My Computer' on Desktop-->Find Control Panel Icon--> Double.Clk that--> now find,'Add/Remove Hardware Icon'--> Double.Clk that...The Install/Repair/Uninstall Wizard will open up-->Clk.'Next' and it will lead you (safely) into the Install/Repair process.

c)

If it finds 'New Hardware'- it will tell you, let in install it. Also check for New Driver,it will scan and tell you that 'Drivers' are not required for this device ~ otherwise it will tell you to reinstall Driver (From its own Library) - do that.

This should sort it out ~ This often happens when a Program is not 'shut-down' properly which confuses 'Win Explorer' which then kicks for touch.

Hope this helps...

Brian.Conflow