Can't access landrive!

[pegasuspaul]

Hi there.
I'm hoping someone can help me out of a spot of bother, please!
I have an Usbex landrive fitted  with maxtor hard drive. I used this via usb connection to back up my laptop which needed  a format and re-install. The back up went fine, as did the re-installation of Windows XP Home, but the laptop won't now recognise the drive via either usb or ethernet, both of which worked fine previously.
When I first connected the drive after formatting the laptop I got a very quick message which I was unable to read fully, but said that the new hardware may not work properly as there was a problem with the installation.
Interestingly, when I connect direct with the ethernet cable and alter the IP settings on the laptop I can 'ping' the drive, but as soon as I try to open it it get a 'network path not found' message.
I have tried changing all of the leads, checking for missing or outdated drivers, resetting the landrive to factory default and accessing the web based controls (which I couldn't do either). I am nearing my wits end, as I dont know what else to do.
I am not a computer expert, but suspect that the problem is with a configuration problem on the laptop - I just don't know what to check or look for.
The laptop's internet connection is a wireless intel pro setup, which is working absolutely fine. The lan controller is a broadcom 440x, and again appears to be fully operational, although it comes back with limited or no connectivity if left to automatically assign IP address and DNS server.
I suspect I have a conflict somewhere, but can't find anything.
What is especially confusing is that the drive wasnt moved from doing the backup through to reconnecting; and having no accessibilty through either usb or ethernet suggests to me that the problem is at the laptop end.

Any help you can give will be greatly appreciated as I have a lot of important files on the drive, and desperately need to access them.

Thanks in advance

Paul

[viking]

Can you connect to other computers in your network using the laptop?

For the USB part: did you installed the usb drivers for the motherboard?

Any problems in hardware manager?

Disabled firewall and try?

Do you have a router in your small network?

How do you try to connect to landrive? Do you type, do you browse through entire network (do you use mouse? do you use keyboard?)



And... If the information is so important and you need quick access to it, can you extract the hdd from landrive, put it on a desktop computer and access it?

[pegasuspaul]

Hi Viking
Thanks for taking the time to reply, and apologies for the delay in my response - I am in Spain and obviously in a different time zone to yourself!

In answer to your questions:

I only have one other laptop in the network, and can access that wirelessly, but not via ethernet.

note: the other laptop was never configured to access the landrive.

The USB drivers were all installed from the original manufacturers (dell) disk, and I have checked for updates.

Hardware manager shows all drives/devices installed and working correctly, but doesn't show the landrive.

Windows firewall and AVG both been disabled, to no avail.

Wireless router is working fine, but am not trying to connect lan via that method anyway - although there may be some IP address conflict?

Previously I could either browse network and connect to landrive via ethernet, or simply connect the usb lead and access the extra drive shown in my computer.
I use laptop trackpad and keyboard, although I do have a usb mouse I rarely use it. For reference, the system  detected and configured both the usb mouse and usb camera without any hitches at all.

Unfortunately I am in a remote part of Spain, and know of no-one else near me with a pc for me to try connecting the drive to; it is quite difficult where I am to get any sort of technical assistance or parts.....both time consuming and expensive, so the internet is my usual method.

Hope this information helps.

Thanks again

Paul

[viking]

You said that you reset the drive to factory defaults. Only the Ip, eventually some other minor security changes I suppose - I did not found the manual for the drive. Well, in fact I found the manual but it is a virused exe on their site (or my antivirus it's crazy).
You can ping the usbex landrive. What IP has the landrive? I suppose it's a private IP, something like 192.168.x.x, 10.x.x.x, 172.16.x.x-172.31.x.x or 169.x.x.x so it's not a security problem for you if you tell us that. Can you try to access it with something like:
start->run->\\ip_of_landrive
But I doubt... When I reach my home I will search for more info on internet (now I am not able to) to see if I can help.
To connect to the landrive web interface you don't have to enter a port in your browser? Or it is a https:// connection?
(If my questions have answers in manual that can be found very quickly, than don't waste time answering, I will find the answers).

If there would be an ip adress conflict, you will receiv message on both devices that experience the conflict. No error message, no conflict. I doubt that you have an ip conflict there. It's something else.

That limited or no connectivity message for broadcom simply tells that it is unable to take a "valid" IP from a dhcp server (and this is understandable, you have no dhcp server on the ethernet part of the network). So, your network card will get an IP assigned by APIPA protocol; it's an IP like 169.x.x.x, it is automatically set up by Windows.

[pegasuspaul]

I can ping the landrive if I disable the wireless connection and connect the ethernet cable. The address is 169.254.0.1 (factory default)
Even after I have pinged the drive successfully, I can't then access it by any method, even start>run>\\169.254.0.1 says invalid path.
to access via the net is a simple http://storage or the IP address, but I can't do this either at the moment.
If I leave the wireless connection enabled and try to access the drive via local area network I get a message saying that the connection has limited connectivity. Winows can't repair the connection until I disable the wireless function, or if I manually enter the IP address in the lan, the wireless stops working. Even then, with the lan allowing me to ping the drive, it still wont let me actually connect to it.....the cycle starts all over again!

Frustrating or what!?!

[viking]

I see on other web pages that the landrive is a ftp server. Can you access the landrive using a ftp client?

(I found the manual: http://www.allcam.org/products/lan-drive-manual.pdf)

Quote:
"When you reset the LanDrive, either by the hardware switch or through the web control panel, all
the settings will return to the default setting including the hostname. The default hostname will
remain as Storage-XXXX (where XXXX is the last four digits of the MAC address)."

Have you tried this way? \\Storage-xxxx ? You tried that already with the "Start->Run->//169.254.0.1" command, but... You never know.

[pegasuspaul]

Sorry again for the delay in getting back to you.

Yes, I've tried the ftp method aswell.

[viking]

We can check if it is the Windows to blame. By using another OS, an operating system on a cd: Knoppix -- see here: http://www.knoppix.org/
You have in it a network browser for microsoft networks (smb), a ftp client, internet browsers etc.
Give it a shot. You can try to connect the landrive to usb, you can try to reach it on the network.

For windows... When you try to access the landrive, is your firewall stoped? (It shouldnt' be, but if a too restrictive rule is enabled than maybe the firewall is blocking your network browsing).

[pegasuspaul]

The idea to try a different OS is a brilliant one - I'd never heard of Knoppix, but am downloading at the moment, and will report back.

I am satisfied that the firewall isn't an issue, having disabled it at one point to check.

I am beginning to think that the landrive itself has developed a problem, and if knoppix allows us to eliminate windows, I think another drive housing might be the order of the day - we'll see what happens!

Thanks