Portable hard drive problems

[scootwhen]

I have recently purchased a Hitachi 80 GB portable hard drive to back-up my computer.  I have a Dell 600m inspiron notebook purchased in January of 2004.  It has 512 MB or RAM and a 55 GB capacity.  I am running Windows XP.
When I connect the Hitachi hard drive to my computer through USB 2.0, I get this message, in white letters, on a blue screen:

"A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.

Plug and play detected an error most likely caused by a faulty driver.

If this is the first time you've seen this screen, restart your computer.  If this screen appears again, follow these steps:

Check to make sure any new hardware or software is properly installed. If this is a new installation, ask your hardware or software manufacturer for any Windows updates you might need.

If problems continue, diasble or remove any newly installed hardware or software.  Disable BIOS memory options such as caching or shadowing.  If you need to use Safe Mode to remove or disable components, restart your computer, press F8 to select Advanced Startup Options, and then select Safe Mode"

When I first bought the portable hard drive, the salesman had no problem using it on the store's computer.  After I tried it on my computer (and it failed, showing this message) I had another friend try it on theirs and it worked fine.  At the time I had been having a lot of trouble with my computer, so I eventually wiped the entire computer and reloaded it.  It solved my computer problems.  However, yesterday I tried to use the portable harddrive again and it still didn't work.  It displayed the message that I posted above.  Oddly, I have been able to use it twice with my computer.  The two times it has worked haev been when I started the computer with the portable hard drive already plugged in.  This only worked twice so far.  Sometimes when I start up the computer with the hard drive plugged in I still receive the error message.  When this message appears I have to manually turn off my computer and turn it back on.  There haven't been any other problems caused by this other than I can't consisitently use the portable hard drive.  Any help would be really appreciated.  I don't know what to do.
-willie

[GX1_Man]

You have computer issues, no doubt, but the drive may have some also. I would thoroughly check it on another machine to make sure it is not part of the problem.

[scootwhen]

The portable drive is fine.  It has worked on two other pc units.  Do you have any ideas as to what problem my computer has, or what I should do to find out what my problem is?  Thanks for the help.  I appreciate it.
-willie

[GX1_Man]

And the last time you formatted your computer and reinstalled Windows? What version? If XP, is SP2 on there and all updates?

[scootwhen]

I reformatted my computer about three weeks ago.  I reinstalled Windows XP and I believe that I have all the current updates.  I believe one of those was service pack 2.  How would I check to make sure?

Also, eventhough I reformatted (which fully erased my computer and then reinstalled it as it was sent from the factory) I still her a sound once in a while that sounds like something is active even though there should be nothing going on.  The best way to describe it would be a sound like a program or application starting up.

By the way the error code is a as follows:

STOP: 0x000000CA (0x00000002, 0x81826030, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)

[GX1_Man]

You might want to read here:

http://aumha.org/win5/kbestop.php


and here:


http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=0x000000CA