Upgraded to Wins XP SP2, Ext HD can no longer be detected

[heybosco]

If anyone has encountered this problem I would really appreciate your help.

I have a Toshiba Satellite A75 S206: P4 2.8 GHz Laptop which has a 300 Gig Maxtor USB external HD connected.

The HD was being detected fine via the USB port after I formatted it but since I downloaded and installed the Service Pack 2 for XP my system can no longer detect it.

The HD is installed in an enclave which also has a DVD Burner & Media Reader built in and these two other devices are being detected by the system.

I have also downloaded the most recent drivers for my USB ports to ensure that they were not at fault but it had no effect.

Would the problem have anything to do with the fact that I formatted the drive before installing XP SP2? Unfortunately I can't even see the drive in the disk manager to re-format it.

I have definitely hit a dead end with this problem and would be really grateful of any advice.

Thanks,
Colin.

[Rueful Rogue]

Unplug the external HD from your USB connection. Reboot your computer. Then plug the HD into the USB (while the computer is ON). XP should detect this HD as new hardware and you should be OK.

[heybosco]

Hey thanks for you help but unfortunately that hasn't fixed the problem. I think my laptop is tryin g to install the new hardware but can't complete the process for some reason. I will just have to back everything up and reinstall a clean version of windows but thanks again.