need to backup my laptop before sending it in for warranty work. I had an internal HD unused, so I got me an external kit. Seems to be working fine, my problem appears to be software. I plugged it in and I get an icon on the bottom right menu (system tray?) saying “safely remove hardware.” I go to the Control Panel and see that it’s reading my HD, has the model # and everything, but it’s not showing up under My Computer or anything. I’ve been told to assign it a drive, but can’t figure out how. Any ideas? Using XP.
I’ve had this problem with fullsize drives. The way I’ve solved it in the past has been to remove all the HDs, and only connect the new one. Then start an install of WinXP, but cancel it after partitioning and formatting the new disc. Then connect up all the drives as before, and the new drive should appear and be assigned a drive letter.
Home or Pro? Is the disk formatted?
If it’s not formatted, go to the Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Computer Management -> Disk Management, and format/assign a drive letter.
If it’s supposed to be formatted and contain files already, then I’m not sure.
Run Windows Explorer
Right click on My Computer
left click on Manage
left on storage
left click on disk management
This will let you assign drive letters to devices.
This is where I’ve been looking at prior to this post. Problem is one drive is 6 gigs and one is 50, yet the HD on the laptop is 60 gigs and the external is 300. I don’t believe the HD is formatted.
And by the previous post I mean the “disk management” section has them listed at at 6 gigs and 50 gigs…
OK, now I’ve seen that scrolling down shows the 300 gig drive, but messing around with it hasn’t shown any option to assign it a drive letter.
This may sound stupid, but did you run the software on the CD that came with the external hard drive? It should set up your hard drive as well as install the backup software. I’m assuming that you are connecting via USB (do you have 2.0?), so the “safely remove hardware” icon that shows at the bottom of your screen is perfectly normal.
The drivers it came with are supposedly unecessary for XP, just for 98 (per the poorly written manual). It should be plug and play.
Some drives come formatted and some do not. I think if you format the drive (with NTFS or FAT32) on the current PC you are using the system will auto-recognize and mount it with a drive letter.
If some other drive letter is not floating, fixed where this one would normally be inserted the system can get confused.
Well I don’t know how to either format it or assign it a drive letter.
The drivers disk that came with unit should have a disk setup program on it that will find and format the disk to your desired partition size and file type (FAT32 or NTFS). If this program cannot find the drive it’s likely you have a USB hardware conflict of some kind that needs ot be resolved before continuing.
I’ve used what I think is a similar device to the one I think you’re using, and I’ve had the same problem crop a up a couple of times.
The problem I had was that there was no available drive letter after the ones assigned to the actual internal hard drive(s) and internal CD rom drives, and any mapped network drives or other external drives.
For example, I tried to connect the hard drive via my adapter to the USB port of a customer’s computer. That computer (running Win XP) had an internal IDE drive assigned the letter C, a CD rom drive assigned the letter D, and a mapped network drive assigned the letter E.
The computer would recognize the drive connected via the USB port as a drive (as shown by the appearance of the “Safely Remove Hardware” icon in the tray), but would not assign it a letter. For some reason, it insisted it had to have a drive letter next to the “real” drives C & D. Since E was mapped as a network drive, it just didn’t work.
I temporarily disconnected the network drive, freeing up drive letter E, replugged the USB adapter, and it took off no problem.
Don’t know if this applies to you, but it’s worth looking.
astro’s right, BTW. For the benefit of others: Right-click My Computer, click Manage. When you get to the Computer Management window, look under Storage, then click Disk Management.
You should see something like a two-columned table with Disk 0, Disk 1, Disk 2 on the left; on the right, table cells with descriptions of the drives in your computer. Look at the right-hand cell that relates to your 300gb drive. Unlike all the others in your system, according to what you’ve written so far, it shouldn’t have a drive letter (x: ) assigned.
Making sure you’ve selected the correct drive, right-click on the right-hand cell that corresponds to your 300gb drive and click Format. Label it as Backup, set it to FAT32 and 4096 for Default Allocation Size. After this is completed, you should have a letter (x: ) assigned. This drive should now be available under My Computer.
When I right click on it, “Format” is not an option. Only “properties” and “help”. Under properties I can’t find any formatting options.
It almost sounds as if the drive is not even partitioned or was previously partitioned with setup your OS does not recognize.
Look in your USB device chain under “device manager” (the section just above “storage” in the list of options) is the drive listed there? Is there an exclamation points or other tag in that lsit showing a device conflict?
Are there any other USB ports on your machine (front panel perhaps) you can use to attach the drive?
Under USB Controllers it’s listed as a “Mass storage device”. It’s also listed under Disk Drives. Neither has an !. The same situation for all USB ports as well as firewire.
Did you check the recommended drive jumpering before putting it in the external case? What is the specific brand & model # of the external case?
I just used the software that came with the drive to install it. Thanks for the help though.
<Sigh> That’s what I suggested many posts ago. When in doubt, read the instructions. But I’m happy to hear you got it working.