Ex. HDD Completely missing

#1 brooksey!!!

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Posted 03 September 2009 - 12:00 PM

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

#2 brooksey!!!

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Posted 03 September 2009 - 12:11 PM

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.

This post has been edited by brooksey!!!: 03 September 2009 - 12:13 PM

#3 brooksey!!!

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Posted 04 September 2009 - 04:33 AM

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?

#4 ThunderZ

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Posted 04 September 2009 - 06:52 AM

Which do you want to tackle first?

Drivers or hard drive?

#5 brooksey!!!

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Posted 04 September 2009 - 09:12 AM

I have installed all the drivers on my laptop now, so there's no excuse for it not working! :thumbsup:

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!

#6 ThunderZ

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Posted 04 September 2009 - 10:11 AM

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.

This post has been edited by ThunderZ: 04 September 2009 - 10:42 AM

#7 brooksey!!!

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Posted 04 September 2009 - 12:19 PM

Ok, all done.
Next step please!
Thank you

#8 ThunderZ

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Posted 04 September 2009 - 01:22 PM

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.

#9 brooksey!!!

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Posted 04 September 2009 - 01:43 PM

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.

This post has been edited by brooksey!!!: 04 September 2009 - 01:45 PM

#10 ThunderZ

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Posted 04 September 2009 - 01:56 PM

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. :thumbsup:

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.