windows wont detect 250gb external USB HDD

[Slade]

Windows, nor bios, will detect the usb hdd. It's 250gb, the cable plugs into a usb port on the computer and a usb 2.0 on the hdd. There is definitely power to it, and everything is connected right, so whats wrong?

[Slade]

Forgot: Running windows XP Pro

[Coconut Monkey]

Does it show up in Device Manager? You just might need to "activate" it and set up a formatted partition.

Here's a guide.

[Slade]

nah, didn't show up, and the drivers are installed off the xp address so none are included.

[alc6379]

What about in Disk Management?

Click on Start, right click on My Computer, select Manage. Once you're there, you should see a Folder on the left hand side that says "Disk Management". Click on that.

If Windows is recognizing the drive, you should see an entry in there.

[Jaggedge Scythe]

Hi alc6379, would just like to thank you for the instructions! had a similar problem where i plugged in my 40Gb portable hdd and though there was power,no new drive appeared in My Computer..

Followed your instructions and went to *right-click*MyComputer > Manage, and selected Storage>Disk Management..

saw my drive as "Disk 1", so i right-clicked on the white box beside it and formatted/partitioned the drive..haha..didn't realise i had to do that... ;)

Thanks again,and for anyone else with this problem, i hope it helps!

cheers

[Catweazle]

HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

If you'd clicked on the link in the post Coconut Monkey made 3 days earlier, you'd have found the same intructions as Alex gave, and had it running a lot earlier.

......wanders off giggling :D

[feigned]

XP base install, or XP Pro SP1?

Hell, does it even matter since it's USB? This of course is assuming that the controller in the external case is more than capable of reading the entire 250GB disk.