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new external HDD-no drive letter assigned now
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sysyphus
Suspended due to non-functional email address
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4. October 2005 @ 20:50 |
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I purchased a 120GB Western Digital external USB 2.0 HDD two weeks ago for storing video. Reformatted it to NTFS, installed the Retrospect disk, computer rightly assigned it to drive J (C is partitioned through G and have a CD-ROM and a DVD/RW drive), everything worked peachy, including putting mpegs on it and could access them at first.
I always turn off the power button before removing the USB cable. I rarely shut off the computer itself, but I did last week. Now I have no drive letter for the external and can't access anything on it, although it shows up in device manager as unallocated. Discovered one thing I thought was odd when I began to image with Norton Ghost. It showed a hierarchy of "Disk 1-No Ghost Disk ID" with C, D, E, F, and G, under it but indented, just as if you opened up a folder in Windows Explorer with subfolders under it, all in a line. Hope that makes sense.
Went to the Western Digital site, found a question about the problem of the drive not showing up, they say it's a Microsoft issue. Went to Microsoft, seems they are "working on it". Did a Google search, found a lot of Macs and some PCs with the problem. Mine is a PC, Windows XP2, 1GB RAM.
I would even purchase another external drive if I had to, but since the problem seems to be fairly common, and if it is a software problem, I can't buy a new drive every time I have to turn off my computer. Any answers for this would be so appreciated.
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Auslander
AfterDawn Addict
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5. October 2005 @ 09:00 |
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have you tried removing it from the device manager and rebooting, to let windows find the drive again?
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ddp
Moderator
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5. October 2005 @ 13:06 |
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& why shut down the computer as only time i do that on mine is when i want to remove the external thru the taskbar, windows sometimes hiccup & won't allow me to properly disconnect.
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sysyphus
Suspended due to non-functional email address
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5. October 2005 @ 13:37 |
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Auslander, thanks, I had great hopes it would work, but it didn't. I appreciate the advice anyway.
ddp, mine has never (so far in the short time I've had it) been quirky about letting me remove the hardware safely. I just had to shut down the computer, nothing to do with the external drive itself.
Sure wish I or someone could figure this one out. Office Max said they would exchange it, but I hate to lose my files that I think are still on there, and if it's going to happen on a regular basis from a software glitch, it's not worth dealing with. Drat.
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Auslander
AfterDawn Addict
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5. October 2005 @ 19:47 |
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if a lot of people are suffering from this, it's most likely a software problem, not an issue with your drive, i'd say. and if M$ is working on it, you can count on not having a decent solution for several years. hope a fix finds it's way to you, sysyphus. i'll keep my eyes looking.
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ddp
Moderator
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5. October 2005 @ 19:51 |
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i don't have that problem with my 40gig usb laptop drive or various 3.5" hd's in my external usb case! i'm using win98se!
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sysyphus
Suspended due to non-functional email address
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5. October 2005 @ 21:13 |
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Yes, I figure if it's a software problem with MS, it will be a while. From what I've read, it's already been a while. Seems like some of the Macs are faring better on this one, though, with firmware upgrades. Maybe they've worked out the bugs with 98 finally, after how many years now? I went from 95 to XP and finally like it, more stable, but....
Guess they'll work it about about the time MS comes out with a new and "better" OS that needs fixing forever, ad infinitum.
Guess I'll try an exchange and see if I can get more than two weeks out of it. Again, drat!
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