BleepingComputer.com: Usb Hdd Not Recognized After Reboot

I am running VISTA HOME BASIC and have a LACie Extreme Disk 1TB connected to it. For about one year all worked fine. One month ago suddenly the disk was not recognized when I reboot the PC. The only way to get it to be recognized s by unplugging and plugging it back into the same usb port it was working fine on for a year. I tried disconnecting, rebooting without the drive, then plugging it in or shutting everything down in various ways (as instructed on the LaCie troubleshooting site) but it won’t work. I tried to switch it over to another usb port and also no success.
After I unplugged and re-plugged the drive it works fine. I checked it through Vista and the system reports the drive is working fine.
Any help is greatly appreciated.

You talk about rebooting...does the drive reflect and operate normally at boot?

Do you have other USB devices? If so, do they function normally?

Is this onboard USB?

Have you tried removing the USB controller drivers and letting them reinstall on reboot?

Do you have this drive powered on at boot? Or do you flip a power switch later?

Louis

Thank you, hamluis, for your quick response to my problem.

1) The drive is not recognized at boot or reboot.
2) Other usb HDD on other usb hubs workl fine.
3) I don't know what onboard USB is, sorry.
4) I have not tried to ininstall the srivers. I was afraid that the drive would not work at all then.
5) The drive powers on directly at the boot.

Thanks for your help!!

Thanks.

1st thing I'd try...boot with the drive attached but not on/powered. Turn the drive on after Windows has been on for 5 minutes.

Onboard USB is USB provided as part of the motherboard. If you did not install a PCI card specifically to have USB capability...you have onboard USB .

To Uninstall USB Controller: Start/Run...type devmgmt.msc, hit Enter. Click on Universal Serial Bus Controllers. Double-click, go to Driver tab, push Uninstall button...for each device listed as a controller or hub.

To reinstall: Use Drivers CD that came with system or motherboard.

FWIW: You probably should read some of the user comments at http://www.amazon.com/LaCie-Extreme-Extern...U/dp/B000AY8DF0

Louis