failure Plug and Play Detection of USB External Hard Drive

[earmuff1]

Can someone please help me?

I purchase a new free agent 500gb external hard drive. When I plug the free agent external hard drive into one of the 4 usb ports it does not appear in My Computer. I have tried the external drive in my wife's computer and it works well and we can back up files. The only difference between her computer and mine is she has xp professional and I have xp home edition. I have all the latest window updates pack 1,2,and 3 including all the other releases.

Although the external hard drive does not appear in 'my computer' it does appear in Computer management/disk mangement and assigned the drive letters to the external drive. This is fine, but as soon as I restart the computer it loses its drive letter and I have to start the whole process over again. But the external hard drive still does not appear in my computer.
 
In the regular windows operating system, I have unistalled all of the usb drivers and then restarted the computer and reinstalled. The hard drive still does not appear. I have also unistalled the usb drivers in safe mode and reinstalled them in the regular window operating system and the hard drive still does not work.

I have worked through the fault finding found on Seagate website and Window website and nothing works.

I don't know what else I can do? 

[Laska]

Is the problem computer a Hewlit-Packard ?

[patio]

Don't use the front panel USB ports...plug it in the rear and see what happens.

[earmuff1]

The computer is a evesham laptop. It only has usb at the back (rear) or the laptop and not at the front. I forgot to mention that when I plug the usb from my head phones to download mp3 it connects okay. Yesterday I connected a new plug and play item a keyboard. It works fine.

I have tried everything I can think of. I know the external drive is not faulty as it works on other computers. It is recognised in computer management but not in my computer.

[earmuff1]

Sorry I am not use to this forum and I forgot to say thank you to both of you for your replies.

[patio]

Thanx for the Thanx...
Did this drive ever work on this laptop ?
Is the drive self powered (AC adapter used ) or not ?
How old is the laptop ?

[Geek-9pm]

Please don't leave.    We want to know what make and model of USB thing you got and where you got it. The good ones don't do that very much.

[Laska]

His is a Seagate
Iv'e used a WD & A Seagate and had the same experience
I also talked to a guy that had an H-P, whose ext. HD would work on other computers
But was problematic with the H-P
Everything else you plug in the Port works fine

[earmuff1]

Thank you for the reply/
The external hard drive is powered via the mains and the USB. The Evesham laptop computer seems to work with most but not all other USB plug and play items. Should format the hard drive? Although it works well on other computers? Or should I uninstall the service pack 2 and 3?
Is there away of running the external hard drive in the safe mode?

[CincyFan]

Is the external HD only compatible with USB 2.0?

[Geek-9pm]

Before you blame the hard drive, those power adapters sometimes are really mediocre. Try giving the external HDD some better power, if you can. URN OFF everything when doing the power connection. I tried to force the thing on, had it upside down, and blew the HDD.

 Anyway. those cheap plastic poser boxs overheat very badly. I went and drilled some holes in the case to let out the heat!.Runs cooler

[earmuff1]

Hi all, thanks for the reply.

the manufacture of the computer Eversham said that the laptop was compatible for USB 2. However I am now beginning to wonder if it is working. I also have a scanner Epson 1670 and plug it into the USB on the laptop. I wont work? It appears in Computer Management and in My Computer but wont work. The light on the scanner just flashes.

So my FreeAgent Seagate External Hard Drive ST305004FDD2E1-RK, when plug into the UBS, appears in Computer Management and not in My Computer and it won't work and allow me to save anything to the drive.

My Scanner Epson Perfection 1670 won't work. Although it appears in both My Computer and Computer Management.

I am wondering........

1. both the seagate external freeagent hard drive and the Epson Scanner are powered by a power transformer and they wont work. Could this be the issue.

2. Or is it because the computer will only take USB 1 and won't power up a USB 2. If this is the case what can I do to check and can it be rectified? Although my laptop has a USB 2 root hub when I look in Device Manager / Universal Bus Controller

3. Or the IT technician at work said my windows XP could be corrupted and I should try and reboot and install it again.

Unfortunately I am no computer buff. Although I am learning. 

Baz

[Geek-9pm]

Unfortunately I am no computer buff.
Although I am learning.  Roll Eyes

Yes, Lesson #4. Don't trust USB.
Some say it means Unpriditable Son of B____.
 

[patio]

Try the following:
Power down and unplug any unneccessary USB devices...
Power up and go to Control Panel/System/Hardware/Device Manager...
Right click ALL instances of USB roots and hubs and select "remove or uninstall"...
Power down. Re-boot a few times.
Power down and plug in one of the offending USB devices and power back up...
See if it now works...

[earmuff1]

Thanks for advice.

I carried out your instructions, but unfortunately it didn't work. Any other suggestions as to what I can do next?

Baz