Vista doesn't recognize my external USB drive

[notherdude]

But it's a little more compicated than that. I'm hooking up an IDE drive. I'm using one of those external USB kits - it's a usb to IDE cable and a power supply for the drive. It works great in XP, shows right up in 'my computer' and I got some files off it. It's formatted NTFS and worked in this same PC as an internal drive. Vista (my vista 32 laptop and my 64 bit machine) loads up some drivers and tells me it's ready to use a 'usb mass storage device' but it does not show up in 'my computer'. It shows up in device manager under disk drives, usb drive and is 'working correctly and it shows up in 'computer management' where it tells me the drive has not been 'initialized' but it can't initialize it.

It's kind of an off brand, creative i/o, couldn't find any support on-line. The direction say it wotks in Vista, no drivers needed in XP or Vista, and trying to update driver in device manage it tells me I have best driver already.

Any ideas?

 

[badge]

Perhaps the device is corrupting to the extent it is not recognized 'properly'. Properly meaning not showing up in My Computer. Vista is recofnizing it, or incorrectly recognizing it (confliction) as something other than what it should be displayed as. Driver conflict sort of thing. I had that happen with a wireless notebook adapter. Machine reecognized it with some other system driver on startup. As soon as desktop loaded, all I had to do was unplug it then plug it back in and windows would find recognize it correctly and install the proper driver then and only then. It worked as advertised. Have you tried going in to Safe Mode and then plugging it in?

 

[notherdude]

I think I may be on to something. XP had previously had it working but when I just now put it back on the XP machine XP says it is 'uninitialized' - just like Vista said too, so, something happened to it, I guess, maybe in this external hookup attempt the data was corrupted - anyway XP at least offered to partition and format it so I'll see if that works. I didn't care about the data on it thankfully.

Thanks badge.

 

[Zoron]

I have a similar device at work... at it works fine with Vista. Comes in really handy when you have a customer machine with a hosed Windows install and you need to back up their data before reloading it.

 

[pat mcgroin]

Oddly I just got a maxtor one touch4 and am getting much the same results.
In disk management it recognizes the disk as disk 1 (0 being the main drive)
and not initialized .
It does got on to say that it is write protected.
Im not certain in your case if this is the prob and mine is a USB only setup but
strangely XP missed it and Vista found it and installed drivers.
perhaps we could help each other.

The one thing that I have found is that maxtor will sell me the driver to perhaps reset the drive, Im not sure yet and maybe yours would do the same.
Possibly you are running into the same problem or maybe you can send me in the right direction.

 

[pat mcgroin]

Oddly I just got a maxtor one touch4 and am getting much the same results.
In disk management it recognizes the disk as disk 1 (0 being the main drive)
and not initialized .
It does got on to say that it is write protected.
Im not certain in your case if this is the prob and mine is a USB only setup but
strangely XP missed it and Vista found it and installed drivers.
perhaps we could help each other.

The one thing that I have found is that maxtor will sell me the driver to perhaps reset the drive, Im not sure yet and maybe yours would do the same.
Possibly you are running into the same problem or maybe you can send me in the right direction.

oops sorry double post

 

[okrysko]

Did you find a way how to resolve this issue? I have the same problem with my HD and Vista ;((((

 

[dvlaroche]

My XP toshiba laptop died from a water spill and I bought a case for it . But my other laptop HP with vista wount recognize it . So I need a driver for vista I guess. DL

 

[Guest]

I have exactly the same problem with my Maxtor One Touch 4 Plus on vista.
It worked fine but now is not listed on My Computer only Computer and Device Manager.

Any ideas anyone??

 

[Guest]

Oddly I just got a maxtor one touch4 and am getting much the same results.
In disk management it recognizes the disk as disk 1 (0 being the main drive)
and not initialized .
It does got on to say that it is write protected.
Im not certain in your case if this is the prob and mine is a USB only setup but
strangely XP missed it and Vista found it and installed drivers.
perhaps we could help each other.

The one thing that I have found is that maxtor will sell me the driver to perhaps reset the drive, Im not sure yet and maybe yours would do the same.
Possibly you are running into the same problem or maybe you can send me in the right direction.

oops sorry double post

I have exactly the same problem as you with my Maxtor One Touch 4 Plus on vista.
It worked fine but now is not listed on My Computer only Computer and Device Manager.

Any ideas?? i would like to save the data on the disk.
RK

 

[pat mcgroin]

Sorry to say I cant offer any more advice on this.
I RMAd mine and got a new one.

 

[metoo55]

I have similar situation - an old Maxtor 80gig NTFS in an external case and it worked working just fine on Vista for over a year, and still works on XP...so I think it's got something to do with Vista's security even though I didn't change anything - it stopped working after a windows update. Now nothing I do can get it working in Vista...but I can still access it over the network if I connect it to the XP machine ...WTF? If something were corrupted wouldn't it NOT work either place? If someone finds a solution I would love to hear about it.

 

[pat mcgroin]

What updates did you get and did it happen at the same time?
You may have your answer.

 

[WeirdoBeardo]

Hi,

I'm having a similar problem. Last Thursday (11th June 2009) I was able to use my computer (vista SP2) fine. My usb pen drive worked fine. Something since then has changed because now the only way i can view my usb drives is through disk management. They worked fine before that date and continue to work on other systems.

I've tried assigning a disk letter but they still refuse to show in My Computer. The information is accessible via exploring whilst in disk management. The only way to make them appear stable in my computer is to create a folder on the C drive and assign the disks a folder on the C drive through which they can be accessed. Any news of this being a common problem?

 

[faithlocket]

Hi,

I'm having a similar problem. Last Thursday (11th June 2009) I was able to use my computer (vista SP2) fine. My usb pen drive worked fine. Something since then has changed because now the only way i can view my usb drives is through disk management. They worked fine before that date and continue to work on other systems.

I've tried assigning a disk letter but they still refuse to show in My Computer. The information is accessible via exploring whilst in disk management. The only way to make them appear stable in my computer is to create a folder on the C drive and assign the disks a folder on the C drive through which they can be accessed. Any news of this being a common problem?

Yes exact same problem. I have tried it with a 3.5 IDE, a 2.5 IDE and a 2.5 SATA. I have also tried it on 3 different compys w/ 3 different OS's. The 3.5 IDE works fine. I can't get and 2.5 drives to initialize/recognize.

 

[faithlocket]

Update: found this info... check it out http://www.computing.net/answers/hardware/ext-hd-not-in-my-computer/53949.html

 

[4Ryan6]

I have 3 different external USB 2.0 HDD enclosures, a Manhattan, a Nexxtech, and a No Brand Name aluminum enclosure, all three are running Western Digital HDDs, and all three work and transfer problem free in Vista 32bit.

My machine is up to date as far as Windows Updates are concerned, so could this be a hardware problem possibly?

I noticed a few maxtor drives mentioned, remember the Seagate 7200.10 series issues, it could very well be hardware related?

Just a suggestion.

 

[faithlocket]

Could be. The 3.5 IDE that works fine is a Hitachi. The 2.5 IDE that doesn't is a Seagate. The SATA that isn't working either is a WD though.

 

[4Ryan6]

The SATA that isn't working either is a WD though.

Oh well, so much for my theory.

 

[xinuse]

Sometimes when people think 2 much they overlook the simplest anwsers. In vista disk management, when it says the disk is not initialized there will be a little red arrow on the disk icon on the left of the unallocated space. Right click on the little red arrow and select initialize disk. After you do this, then go ahead and format the disk how you want it.
Thanks
xinuse

 

[anc_k]

hi guys, I am using a WD usb HDD which I on my worst hr, drooped ..... and now VISTA/ubuntu is not able to mount it. I see a not initialised disk on the disk magmt window. When I try to initialize it gives me two options MBR and GPT and on selecting either one I get an error ......... i tried most of the free recovery agents but couldnt get it working.... please help...

 

[Guest]

I have the same problem.
My computer broke and i have removed my hard-drives to retrive my files to put on my new PC. the previous one was XP the new one is Vista. I have purchased a caddy to transfer the files, hoever i can get through the admin tools etc.. and i right click to initialise the drive but it tells me that the device is not ready, no matter what i do the same problem. I have even tried another of my hard-drives and it tells me the same. Any clues ????????????????????????

 

[pat mcgroin]

I sometimes have that happen.
Try to plug the usb in after the computer is on and vice versa and see if it helps.

 

[Mark Harrigan]

Sorry to tell you guys but this problem is COMMON with Vista 64 bit. Yet another example of the extremely poor driver management in 64bit Vista (thx MS).

I got external drives to work for a while to work for a while by unchecking the "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" option in the device manager for USB Hub Properties, Power Management Tab.

That's not helping now.

There's also a suggestion that the C:\Windows\inf\INFCACHE.1 file may be corrupted and need to be replaced (either restore a previous version or just delete it and try connecting again). Ibelieve Vista recreates this file every bootup?

That has'nt worked for me either though .

I will keep investigating until I find a fix but I can't count the number of similar sytle problems with Vistax64 and external devices (usb drives, printers) that have been around for over a year and for Microsoft provides no fix.

If Vistax64 were a car it would have been recalled by now as unfit for use, yet Microsoft do nothing

 

[JQBantug]

Yes exact same problem. I have tried it with a 3.5 IDE, a 2.5 IDE and a 2.5 SATA. I have also tried it on 3 different compys w/ 3 different OS's. The 3.5 IDE works fine. I can't get and 2.5 drives to initialize/recognize.

I have Seagate mobile HDD in a USB-IDE enclosure. I had similar problem. Vista Home Premium seemed to detect it when plugged to the PC's front USB connector. HDD did not actually show up.

I checked Seagate for support. Seagate advised to attached mobile HDD to USB connector at the back of the PC. I followed the suggestion. It worked.

I hope this can work for your case also.

JQBantug