Windows 7 will not allocate drive for usb disk

[bming]

The last couple of days I have been trying to use external drives with my Windows 7 Toshiba Tecra 11 laptop. All are USB 2 two are Western Digital (2 very different models), the other is a Samsung. The computer finds the drives and they get listed in device manager but Windows does not allocate a drive letter so I cannot access the data on the drives. There are non-networkdrive letters available.

 

[flank21]

you should try and assign your external hard drives a drive letter. do the following:

start-> run->diskmgmt.msc
hit enter
Right-click a partition, logical drive, or volume, and then click Change Drive Letter and Paths.

Do one of the following:
To assign a drive letter, click Add, click the drive letter you want to use, and then click OK.
To modify a drive letter, click it, click Change, click the drive letter you want to use, and then click OK.
To remove a drive letter, click it, and then click Remove.

for more info
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc757491%28WS.10%29.aspx

 

[bming]

Best answer selected by bming.