External Drive - No My Computer Icon Now

[AndyCountry]

Hi all,

I formatted and reinstalled Win2kPro (dual boot w/Ubuntu 8.040) and used the opportunity to install a USB 2.0/Firewire PC Card that has always been balky with a WDC 250GB ext USB drive.. I've just been using my laptop's native USB 1.0 port instead.

I figured that since the registry was now pristine, I would have the best shot at getting the PC Card to work.

So I installed the card. My firewire connection worked, the WDC drive showed up in My Computer. Then, as I started dragging backed up folders onto my laptop, it blue-screened (which didn't stay "on" so I don't have any idea of what the messages were) and then I think it started an auto-reboot or it went black.

I didn't want any problems with the registry, as I want a great Ghost image once it's all put together, so I formatted the C: and reinstalled Windows, again.

I plugged my WDC into my laptop's native USB 1.0 port, Windows recognized it and installed the USB drivers for it and there were no "warnings" splashed upon my screen. But there is no icon for the external drive in My Computer.

I'm pretty sure that there is a software issue with the WDC drive caused by the original firewire debacle. I'm also pretty sure that I need to replace the corrupted data on the WDC drive that is now keeping it from showing up in the My Computer window.

OR - is there another way to access this drive sans My Computer?

I don't want to boot to DOS and manually copy the folders and huge Ghost image files back onto my laptop and then format the WDC drive and rebuild IT..........unless I have to.

I'd try using this ext drive under Ubuntu, but I don't know the first thing about it...and this is not a Linux forum..


Thanks in advance for the help.


Dell Inspiron 4100
Win2kPro/Ubuntu 8.04
512MB RAM
PIII 866mhz

[patio]

What make is this USB/Firewire card ? ?
You mention drivers for the WD drive...do you mean you used WD software initially to set up that external drive ?
I've heard nothing but bad things about the MyBook software or whatever it's called...
Please clarify...and in the meantime travel to Control Panel/Sustem/Advanced/Startup and Recovery...uncheck auto restart on errors and re-boot.

This means the next time you get a bluescreen you will be able to write down the error message for us. Include all the numbers and letters.

I still suspect a faulty card though...

[AndyCountry]

Patio, sorry for the incomplete info in my original post...

The PC card is a cheap piece of junk. I know, I know.  It's a Syba. I've had it set up before using USB 2.0.  This time I wanted to see if the firewire would work with my ext drive.  What is it they say about curiosity and the cat??

The ext drive is a WDC Combo 250GB. I didn't use any WDC or any other software with it. I assumed, perhaps incorrectly, that there was SOME type of software on it. Don't ask me why.

It has worked flawlessly for a long time. I love it. Now it is not "seen" by Windows ever since that BSOD moment..

Once again, thatns for your help!

[AndyCountry]

Patio,

Please disregard all of the above... after posting a few moments ago, I thought I'd fire up the hardware that we've been talking about, and voila!, Windows displays "New Hardware Found" and "USB Mass Storage Device" windows and it reinstalls the ext drive...I transferred some files off of it to make sure, and it works just fine.

Don't know why it suddenly decided to do the right thing, but I'm not going to quibble.

I've had nothing but problems/issues with this machine ever since setting up the Ubuntu partition... mainly that Windows used to utilize 250MB of RAM during normal operation, now it only uses 75MB or so (runs slower)... and it boots to Linux as a default at startup, which I certainly didn't want.. ah-- the joys of computing!

Sorry for the false alarm, but it's always good to "hear" from you nonetheless.
Enjoy the holiday tomorrow.

[patio]

Thanx and you do the same...
That memory issue is not normal so something is amiss with your Ubuntu install.
They recently had a Security Advisory and suggested all users update to the latest Distro so it may be a good time to re-do this beast...

[AndyCountry]

I downloaded the .iso image about 12 days ago. It's Ubuntu 8.04. But I had intended to download the security patches..eventually.

I'll just keep reading that 900 page Linux Bible, and experimenting....and posting over at the Linux forums of course!

[patio]

Linux can be a wonderful experiment and Ubuntu is an excellent choice...
Best of Luck to ya...