Hello,
I have just installed MS XP, from Vista (can't stand it any more) and i put essential information onto an external hard drice. The hard drive is now not showing up in my Computer, but is displaying a "safely remove hardware" thing in the system tray. It is also in disc managment, but i can only get "help" when i right click on it. Any ideas?
The hdd is a WD 230 GB passport.
It ran perfectly before this, but not now.
Much appreciated,
GB

UPDATE:
I have not installed any drivers on the machine yet - they are on the HDD, but i realise i can download them. Big vicious circle, because i have no drivers for the wireless card - therefore no internet access.

Also, the reason i am not going through all the posts about similar probs is because, i cant see that anyone has the same problem under these specific circumstances.

Stuff i forgot to say:
In disk management, it does show up, just as "disk 1", instead of something like: "WD 2500BEV EXTERNAL USB DEVICE" as it does in device manager. Also, in disk manager, it says there are no partitions on the drive, It says it is "healthy" (apparently not) and after this, in brackets it says: (GPT Protective partition).
Something else thst is a bit weird is that i knew i had about GB160 of data on there, but it iis saying that it is 100% free?!?
Capacity: GB 232.89 Available: GB 232.89.
It has no File system e.g. NTFS, FAT32, and when i right click the drive at the bottom in the box, the only thing that comes up is "help".
What do i do?

Which do you want to tackle first?

Drivers or hard drive?

I have installed all the drivers on my laptop now, so there's no excuse for it not working!
I would now want to see if updating the drivers on the EX HDD would do anything. How would i go about doing this?
Thanks for the response!

There really should be no drivers need`d for the external drive.

Assuming you have plugged and unplugged the external drive in to every USB port available many times in an attempt to get it to work.
Instead, please try this.

When you install a device driver on a Windows XP\Vista machine, the operating system loads that driver each time the computer boots regardless of whether the device is present—unless you specifically uninstall the driver. This means that drivers from devices that you have long since removed from your system may be wasting valuable system resources.

Follow these steps to view and remove these unnecessary device drivers:

1. Press [Windows]+[Break] to bring up the System Properties dialog box.
2. Select the Advanced tab and click the Environment Variables button.
3. Click the New button below the System Variables panel.
4. In the New System Variable dialog box, type devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices in the Variable Name text box and 1 in the Variable Value text box.
5. Click OK to return to the System Properties dialog box and then click OK again.
6. Select the Hardware tab and click the Device Manager button.
7. In Device Manager, go to View | Show Hidden Devices.
8. Expand the various branches in the device tree and look for the washed out icons, which indicate unused device drivers.
9. To remove an unused device driver, right-click the icon and select Uninstall.


WARNING:DO NOTuninstall any drivers in the Network adapters or Sound, video and game controllers category`s.

You will be concentrating mainly on the category`s of "Disk drives", Storage devices and Universal Serial Bus controller.

Ok, all done.
Next step please!
Thank you

Have you tried plugging in the external drive?

If the external drive has an on\off switch make sure it is in the off position. Plug in the power source into a wall outlet if the external drive is so equipped. Do not connect it to the PC yet. Turn on the PC and allow it to be fully running. Then connect the USB cable that is attached to the external drive to the PC. Let Windows do it`s thing. It will(should) actually install 3 drivers. Let it finish.

Post back when it is done or if you get any errors.

It does not have any switches on it. Also has no power source - powered solely by USB.
When i deleted the "washed-out" drivers, i may have left the HDD in the whole time. Is this bad?
Should i have unplugged?
When i first connected it yesterday on the updated OS, it did install the drivers.
Whats next?

I'm not sure how many drivers it did install, but i think it is two.

Sorry. Was not really clear in my instructions.

Yep, should have been disconnected. I would disconnect it. Then go back and uninstall all the washed out drivers again. Being sure to do this >In Device Manager, go to View | Show Hidden Devices. once you are in device manager.
While you are in there I would uninstall all USB Root Hub(s) too. These will not be grayed out but it is OK. Then restart the PC with the external drive still unplugged. It will reinstall the USB Root Hubs when it tells you it is done it may request a reboot. Do so. If not it would not hurt to reboot it anyways. Once fully started plug in the external drive and we will see what happens.

Just two more q's
Theres a grayed out "usb mass storage device" between the root hubs and the one above.
Do i get rid of this?

That is probably the external drive in question. Yep, uninstall it as well.

right - will do. Ill be back in about 5 10 Mins - just doing all this stuff
Thanks

Right - I did it all, but to no avail. The drive is still not in My Computer.
Any ideas?

Dose it show up in Computer management?

Yes it does.

What does it say in the Gray area?

What does it say in the white area?

Exactly the same as last time unfortunately - refer back to the older posts - its the same there.

Ok. An older post refers to a GPT protected partition. Not sure how you wound up with it formatted in this manner as it is normally seen on servers.

Did some digging on the term. It would seem that the hard drive may need to be formatted to have it be useful again.

Found these instructions on another site. They are a couple years old but are written for XP. You can try it leaving out the underlined part so you data may remain intact.

[b]Simply install xp cd,boot to xp cd,recovery,select 1 For C: (OS),Press enter
key for password,then type:DiskPart In DiskPart,all partitions & volumes are
shown,delete the unwanted partition(s),create one,then press ESC key.If you
want it formated,then type:FORMAT D: /FS:ntfs D: being the new partition,
when its thru type:EXIT

I REALLY need the data though - i am not bothered about the hard drive - its dead as far as i'm concerned!


Sorry, i did not see the last bit of your post. Will this definitely work?

I'm not sure i quite understand the instructions. You seem to be MUCH better than me at this sort of thing, so would you possibly be able to "decrypt" it please

By the way, thank you very much for investing so much of your time in this - i am eternally grateful!

I have no idea. Had never heard of\dealt with GPT protected partition until now. I am just wondering how it became formatted that way.

You can do a Google for "remove GPT protected partition". A lot of info. What works and what does not work....no clue.
Just be very careful if you choose to try some third party software to do it.

Ok, I will google and try to find a solution.
Thanks very much - but i will still need the help of a tech-savvy person like yourself! Stay by the phone! (for a lack of better metaphors...)

It would seem even thouse with 20 years of experience do not know the term GPT protected partition - not very well at least. All i can find are instructions on removing the weird partiton - but those i have looked at so far seem to indicate that you will lose all data... Not good - the future is not bright

Put you XP CD into the CD drive and restart the machine. If asked to press any key to boot from CD, do so. You should get some options, choose Recovery. If you have a password enter it. If not then hit enter. At the prompt type in DiskPart. This should show you all hard drives\partitions on your system. It may or may not show the USB drive. If it does then select it and delete.

That is the best I can do as I am totally unfamiliar with the procedure. Exercise extreme caution that you do not delete your primary\OS partition.

Do`t be to grateful yet....we are not out of the woods.

That seems to be the same info I have found other then the previously mentioned method that seems to leave formatting as an option.

Did a search for recover data gpt protected partition.

Found THIS.

Another problem i am having is with this installing XP again business. I cant, because i installed a disk which had SP2 on already. The REAL disk (no pirate copies used - it was the disk for an old laptop) will not install because the computer is "already ahead of its time". I have KillDisk standing by to obliterate everything all over again. Will this work?

The other thing is, that this other copy of XP cannot be vaildated, so i would need to get rid of it anyway within 30 days, or im really stuck. I would have to do this anyway it would seem. God, i just spent a day reinstalling everything!

The disk from the old lap top is tied to that lap top. Surprised it even let you install it. Or are you saying it won`t.

The OS that won`t validate; You may be able to do an on the phone validation. Depends on how many Licenses were issued with the disk, how many PCs are currently running it, if the MS phone tech is in a good mood and you schmooze them well enough.

I'm very suprised it worked at all too - It kept blue screening, so i thought, this is getting me nowhere, safe mode is not an option, so ill reinstall windows. of course, KillDisk didn't even cross my mind a this point, so i thought i would just try the "real" disk - the one with the holographic face etc. I tried, but because it is vista, and the real disk was SP1, it didn't happen. So i took the operating system issued with my dell laptop - no holographic thing, just a plain white and purple face. It did say - "for distribution with a new dell". I wondered if it was worth a shot (P.S, not even a Dell im using, let alone the right model!) and it worked! But i wont be albe to activate this windows, because no licence keys were also given with the CD (Its a recovery cd, mainly). Do you think KillDisk is a viable option?

Having installed a restore disk specifically designed with drivers for another machine can really wreak havoc.

Is it the cause of your current issue with the external drive, {insert ThunderZ shrugging shoulders here} Possible........

If you were to run kill disk, IMO, over kill. What would you then install?

It also says on the disk " This cd is not a reinstallation of programs and drivers " So i think I'm OK (for now)!

The reason i would KDisk is because of the Service pack difference. it will not install if ther is a later service pack on ther already, so i would need to completely wipe the disk of everything (again) and start again with the real disk, of which i have the licence keys for.

Just booting with the original disk in the CD drive will give you the option of deleting all partitions, formatting in NTFS and doing a fresh install.

Is this and KillDisk not the same thing? I assumed it was, but i'm not sure...

KillDisk writes zeroes to the hard drive. The disk then needs to be formatted to NTFS prior to the OS being installed.

You can do it if you want. Really will not hurt anything. Usually Killdisk is used for privacy reasons, such as wiping the hard drive prior to giving away the PC or disposing of it.

Right - I see now. Seems.....................OTT to use Kill disk when you put it that way... Will just format i think - and then get back to this damn hard drive! God, its such a pain in the bum

Is`t technology wonderful?

Hells yeah!
I tell you what, I'm the most unlucky person when it comes to tech - hard drives, ipods, laptops, you name it!

Truth be told......I do`t want\own a cellphone. Just recently replaced our VCR (still blinking 12:00) with a DVD player.

Tha'ts fantastic! Infact, i still haave my VCR - also blinking at 12:00. Have not even worked out how to use the timer...

You do realize the young`ins in here are laughing at us. Some may not even know what a VCR is.

They do not even know that at one time cellphones did`t even exist.

Jesus, I've Been away for a very long while...
Anyway, back to the topic:
Still does not show up in manager.

Hi ya Brooksey. Looonnngggggg time.

Where do we stand on the PC operating situation. XP? Fully updated? All drivers installed?