Resolved XP won't recognize external hard drive

I recently installed Norton 360 v. 2. After installation, my computer wouldn't boot up so disconnected my Iomega 80 HDD and it booted up just fine. Thinking this was a one time problem, I reconnected the HDD and the same thing.

I always did my backups manually so I set the Norton 360 not to do backups. This may not be a Norton 360 problem (Norton says it isn't) but I never had this problem before when I was using Norton Internet Security.

So, decided to uninstall and reinstall the Iomega 80 HDD (several times) and XP won't assign a letter--I did not proceed with the last installation since it must assign a driver letter before continuing with the installation. I connect using USB and have tried other USB ports to no avail. So, my computer now boots just fine but I have no external hard drive for backup.

I don't know what to do next. I read on Google something about a 1394 connection but have no idea. The only other thing that has been changed recently is that I now have a wireless internet connection.

Sure will appreciate any help! Thanks!



Sure will appreciate any help out there!

 

So did the external HDD work prior to the installation of Norton? Does the drive show up in Disk Management? Right click on "My computer" then "Manage ", then click on "Disk Management" on the left side of the pane.

 

Thanks for the replies. I did try to install the HDD after uninstalling Norton and still no luck--the HDD would not install.

After many frustrating hours, I went out and bought a new one--voila! The new external drive installed in minutes and backed up everything very quickly.

I figure it was either the HDD just wore out or maybe it was even just the usb cord but got a good deal on the new one so just went for it!

Thanks, again, for your comments.