USB external hard drive won't show issues

cookeetree · 01-04-2009, 08:17 PM

@@ I have also posted this in the Hard Drive thread @@

Sorry I'm a newbie, but I have read lots of advice you have been giving others with a similar predicament. I have 2 external HD's. 1 is brand new 1tb WD eleemnts, the other an 80gb HHD in a vantec usb case. both drives connect via usb, both don't appear in My Computer. I can use the USB ports to show and access 4 different USB flash sticks/drives no worries. So the ports work.

The 2 external HD's I can see in Disk management, and I can open the WD via the open option. In device management they show up under disk drives, not storage. I can safely remove both disk drives through the safe usb removal.

I am running Win XP SP3.

In disk management my new WD HD is a primary partition (Fat32) and is able to the opened, when explore is hit, it does not appear. Also are unable to format as error message says drive is unavailable and you need to restart the computer to enable, then it just keeps saying the same message with the same result.

I have tried the following -
1. deleting the usb drivers
2. deleting reg edit files
3. updating the motherboard drivers etc
4. using Tweakui
5. changing the drives permissions to all everyone in reg
6. creating a new user account - this allowed me to see both drives in "My Computer" and I thought I had a fix, then today they were gone again from both log on accounts, created a new account, still no drives.

They both still exist in safely remove, disk management, and drive management.

I am able to assign them new drive letters, create a new account and have them show if I switch between accounts, yet the drive letters won't stick.

Greatly appreicate any help.

cookeetree · 01-05-2009, 02:12 PM

I can get both drives to show up in My Computer, if I do the following each time I start up the computer.

1. Rescan disk management and assign the drive letters (again) for both drives.
2. Create a new user account
3. Switch user accounts
And presto they appear in My Computer. I found I have to switch accounts as they don't show up in the account you use to assign the drive letter, they'll show up in another user account. Weird? both accounts have admin rights.

01-04-2009, 08:17 PM	#1 (permalink)
cookeetree Registered User Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 6 OS: windows XP sp3	USB external hard drive won't show issues @@ I have also posted this in the Hard Drive thread @@ Sorry I'm a newbie, but I have read lots of advice you have been giving others with a similar predicament. I have 2 external HD's. 1 is brand new 1tb WD eleemnts, the other an 80gb HHD in a vantec usb case. both drives connect via usb, both don't appear in My Computer. I can use the USB ports to show and access 4 different USB flash sticks/drives no worries. So the ports work. The 2 external HD's I can see in Disk management, and I can open the WD via the open option. In device management they show up under disk drives, not storage. I can safely remove both disk drives through the safe usb removal. I am running Win XP SP3. In disk management my new WD HD is a primary partition (Fat32) and is able to the opened, when explore is hit, it does not appear. Also are unable to format as error message says drive is unavailable and you need to restart the computer to enable, then it just keeps saying the same message with the same result. I have tried the following - 1. deleting the usb drivers 2. deleting reg edit files 3. updating the motherboard drivers etc 4. using Tweakui 5. changing the drives permissions to all everyone in reg 6. creating a new user account - this allowed me to see both drives in "My Computer" and I thought I had a fix, then today they were gone again from both log on accounts, created a new account, still no drives. They both still exist in safely remove, disk management, and drive management. I am able to assign them new drive letters, create a new account and have them show if I switch between accounts, yet the drive letters won't stick. Greatly appreicate any help. Last edited by cookeetree; 01-04-2009 at 08:21 PM.

01-05-2009, 02:12 PM	#2 (permalink)
cookeetree Registered User Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 6 OS: windows XP sp3	Re: USB external hard drive won't show issues I can get both drives to show up in My Computer, if I do the following each time I start up the computer. 1. Rescan disk management and assign the drive letters (again) for both drives. 2. Create a new user account 3. Switch user accounts And presto they appear in My Computer. I found I have to switch accounts as they don't show up in the account you use to assign the drive letter, they'll show up in another user account. Weird? both accounts have admin rights.