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External Hard Drive - Can't Access

Discussion in 'PC Hardware' started by Snape, 2005/05/12.

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  1. 2005/05/12
    Snape

    Snape Inactive Thread Starter

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    Hi all,
    I'm trying to access external hard drive from my laptop, which my friend just bought. The computer recognises that a device has been plugged into the USB drive, but for some reason I am unable to access the external drive. Is anyone able to give some advice as to how I can access the drive, or what I should do to get it working?
    I'm currently running Windows XP.
    The hard drive is recognised as: WDC WD2500JB-00KFA0 USB Device

    Many thanks,
    R
     
    Last edited: 2005/05/12
  2. 2005/05/13
    Welshjim

    Welshjim Inactive

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    Snape--Do you mean you really cannot access the USB external hard drive or that you cannot boot from it?
    If that is the case you should be able to access it by clicking on My Computer, picking out the letter for the external hard drive and clicking on it. Now the contents should be displayed and accessible and transferable.
    However, unless you have a very modern and specific BIOS, you will not be able use the external hard drive as a boot drive. It is just a large storage drive, like a very large flash drive. I had the same disappointment since the Western Digital ads and box do not say the external drive is essentially not bootable.
    You only learn that when you try to boot and/or read WD's FAQ's
    http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc...TEmcF9zZWFyY2hfdGV4dD1ib290&p_li=&p_topview=1

    Of course, if you cannot access the data on the hard drive, that is a different matter. Have you be able to load anything onto the drive? You get 30 days free techservice from WD. http://support.wdc.com/
     

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  4. 2005/05/14
    Snape

    Snape Inactive Thread Starter

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    That's the problem, I can't even access the drive from My Computer after it has been plugged into the USB drive. I have tried to access the drive from two different laptops and a desktop, but still no success. Is the drive stuffed? Should I tell my friend to return it?

    R
     
  5. 2005/05/14
    joeskys

    joeskys Inactive

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    External HD

    Just a thought> Is USB enabled in the CMOS?? ;)
    Joe R.
     
  6. 2005/05/14
    Welshjim

    Welshjim Inactive

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    Snape--joeskys has a good idea. You can reach your BIOS (CMOS) settings by holding down F2, or F8 or F12, or Control, etc. (whatever your PC maker says in the manual) at the very start of reboot.
    However, you say that the External Drive is already recognized. And the problem occurs on several PC's.
    Have you followed WD's "Setting up the Drive" instructions? You should have gotten a CD with the drive. You set up from the CD, before connecting the Drive.
    I would be inclined to call WD's tech support if the 30-day period is not yet up.
     
  7. 2005/05/14
    sparrow

    sparrow Inactive

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    Has it been formatted? Have you tried (if in XP) disk management (Rt-clk My Computer > manage)?
     
    Last edited: 2005/05/14
  8. 2005/05/14
    Welshjim

    Welshjim Inactive

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    External Western Digital Hard Drives generally are formatted in the FAT system as sold. If you run Win2000 or XP you can format as NTFS if desired. But if you cannot access, you cannot format.
    BTW--Western Digital's phone number for tech support is 1-800-ASK-4WDC.
     
  9. 2005/05/15
    Snape

    Snape Inactive Thread Starter

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    Yes, my USB works but I cannot access the hard drive.

    As my friend bought the device over the internet, it only came with a CD and no manual. The CD contains drivers, but only if you're running Win98, thus, I am flying in the dark :p

    Thanks for that, I tried accessing from 'manage' but still no luck. I haven't formatted the drive as the only way that it's recognised is through the USB 'Safely Remove Hardware' icon that appear on the lower right hand corner of windows (this is how I know that it's at least been detected, as my computer beeps whenever I plugin or unplug the device)
     
  10. 2005/05/15
    Pop.Gunna

    Pop.Gunna Inactive

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    Snape

    If the drive came without a warranty you may well have a nice little paper weight.
    If you, or a friend, is familar with going inside a desktop then you can buy an IDE adaptor for a few cents and try reading the drive through an IDE connection on a desktop. If successful, scan it with everything you can find.
    This may point to just the USB cabled External drive housing.

    Pop.
     
  11. 2005/05/17
    Snape

    Snape Inactive Thread Starter

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    Thanks Pop, it's an extremely ugly paperweight :p
    My friend is returning the hard drive anyway, so thanks everyone for your help and suggestions.
     
  12. 2005/08/12
    jaylach

    jaylach Inactive

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    As I run win 2000, not XP this may be totally dumb... but don't you have to go to a dialog in XP and 'initialize' the drive? I may be totally wrong but it is my understanding that XP has stricter and more involved hard drive control and an external drive has to be set up somewhere. Sorry I can't be more help but it may flash a light bulb with someone.
     
  13. 2005/08/13
    savagcl Lifetime Subscription

    savagcl Geek Member

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    You may gain some insite to the problem by reading this thread. Basically, it
    was my fault that the drive got messed up in the first place. If a drive has
    logical partitions on in but no primary partition, XP disk manager wont see the
    HD. After i deleted the primary partition, nothing i did would let disk manager
    "see" the HD. It cost a few bucks and i lost all the data but bestbuy got the
    disk formatted so it was reconized by XP.

    If all else fails, see if WD site has a utility that will help.

    http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?t=46907

    savagcl
     
  14. 2005/08/15
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff

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    Jay

    Not dumb and right up to a point :)

    If a disk requires initialising this is done prior to formatting AFAIK so I don't think the question arise here.

    I've installed a fair few hard drives both as master and slave in XP - and hooked up USB drives and I can only remember one instance of the drive needing to be initialised. That was probably a new drive which was formatted and partitioned through Disk Management. I tend to use Partition Magic which may well initialise 'silently'.
     
  15. 2005/08/15
    jaylach

    jaylach Inactive

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    Just to throw out another probable dumb thought... Even if the last one wasn't so dumb... :D :rolleyes:

    Are you running USB 1 or 2?

    Is it possible that, if running usb 1, that the drive needs usb2?
     
  16. 2005/08/15
    jaylach

    jaylach Inactive

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    Did a little hunting and came up with this... Is the drive the only USB device on the system? I'm doubting this as it's been tried on other systems but...

    Problem:
    A new USB drive is connected to a system that does not have any other USB devices. Windows XP may not detect the new drive.

    Cause:
    This problem may occur because when no device is connected to a USB port, the USB driver sets the OHCI controller to suspend. When the OHCI controller is in a suspend state, it may not detect the addition of a new USB device.

    Resolution:
    To correct this issue, Microsoft recommends that you download and install the latest Service Pack for your operating system.
     
  17. 2005/08/27
    powrtoch

    powrtoch Inactive

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    Snape, forget everything those other guys said....they are all on the right track, but are all a bit vague. First, as you've indicated, Windows must have found and installed the USB drive - XP will do this automatically. Once that's done you'll need to format the drive before you can access it.
    From the Start Menu, right click 'My Computer', then select 'manage'. From the menu window, find and select 'storage'. The drives connected to the computer will be displayed in the right pane. Select 'disc management - removable USB device'. The new USB drive will probably show as 'drive 1' (your existing hard drive will be '0').The drive will show up as 'not activated', right click to activate. Right click on the drive pane and select 'format' from the drop down list. Windows will start the add new hardware wizard, and from there you can partition the drive however you like. Once that's finished your new drive will be recognised like any other drive, with corresponding drive letter.
    Good luck

    Pete

    ps - select 'master' on the jumpers.
     
    Last edited: 2005/08/27
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