USB Device (external Hard drive) Not Recognized

Usb2 ext HD.
Two of them in fact. They were both recognised OK before I pulled one of the usb connectors out of the pc [Acer Aspire 1700 laptop] and then back in again before I guess the equipment had time to sort itself out.

Other usb devices still work in the laptop, and both the ext. HDs work ok in my other laptop, so looks like its a win xp problem on the first laptop.

I tried system restore to a prior restore point but no improvement.

Incidentally, there are 2 partitions on each of the ext. HDs [ntfs]

The rest of the 'Usb device not recognised' message says 'One of the USB devices attached to this computer has malfunctioned, and Windows does not recognize it. For assistance in solving this problem, click the message.' The message click brings up 'location of device in bold type' which is one of 6 ports in USB Root Hub, which it calls Unknown Device instead of Unused Port. I try to update driver automatically, but it reckons it is already using the best driver. Uninstalling and reinstalling the driver [automatically] doesn't seem to work.

Plugging into any one of the 4 usb ports on the pc simply causes the message to highlight a different one of the last 4 of the 6 ports in the list.

I tried running an improved USB driver from the Packard Bell website [after a google search], which is supposed to force re-searching of the devices, admittedly for XPsp1 [I have SP2]

Any advice please to repair windows to accept the ext. HDs?

Alan.

 

Usb

Thanks a million, Pete. Excellent advice - very easy and worked perfectly.
Have a great Sunday!
Alan.