[acastro]

Dell laptops: explorer can not see a new hard drive WD 160GB (ATA), but desktop can!

I am using two Dell laptops I8100 and a Dell desktop, Dimension L600cx.
All have XPsp3.

The Problem HD is a western Digital WD1600BEVE (ATA), external connection, USB2 in Adaptec cradle.

In one of the I8100 laptops, I partitioned and formated the drive, with no problem. But now WinExplorer can not find the drive in either of the 2 laptops. Moreover, XP Disk Management the partitions correctly, but with no drive letters. But the explorer in the Dell desktop can correctly ennumerate the drives!

I have an old HD connected through a PCMCIA card, and Explorer can see the drive with no problem in the laptops.

I also noted several posts in the forum reporting trouble with WD drives, but none exactly the same. First question: Is there an endemic problem with WD drives? In any case, can you can you please suggest what to do?
Any help is very appreciated.
Thanks

 

[raptor_pa]

If it is shown correctly in a desktop connected USB, probably not the drive. Are you using a Y USB cable with two USB connectors? It might be the machine doesn't produce enough current on the USB ports to spin up the drive properly.

 

[acastro]

Thanks for the prompt response, raptor_ra:
I solved the problem. First, to your question:
I am using a Y USB cable, connected to a powered USB. Since i was able to partition and format the drive in the same computer and with the same cables, I did not expect a problem.
Now, for my solution:
I had not previously used Disk Manager to assign drive letters. Now, I used Disk Manager to assign whichever letters Windows chose. And Explorer DOES see the drives now! I understood that it is not a good practice to assign drive letters, but it does work. I also use a 2nd external drive, and sometimes a conflict occurs and I have to delete and re-asign drive letters to the new drive, using Disk Manager.

I just checked with another WD hard drive: Windows XP DOES assign permanent drive letters, so you may eventually have a conflict if using several external USB stick drives or hard drives. Just go to "Disk Management", delete all the drive letters of the culprit HD and reassign the new set that Windows suggests, or your own letters.

Perhaps you guys want to keep this (not quite perfect) solution in mind for some of the other cases that I found in the forum when an external HD can not be ennumerated.
I still wonder if this is a particulat problem of the WD hard drives. What do you think?

Thanks very much, again, for your concern.

 

[raptor_pa]

The drive letter assigned is stored in the windows registry, not to the actual physical drive, so it is more likely not an issue specific to a drive.