Hi there, i've been using my external hard drive for quite a while now and it's suddenly stop showing up under my computer. it has all my data stored on it and would not like to has to resort to formatting.

it's a Buffalo DriveStation USB 2.0 External Hard Drive if this helps.

Im also using Windows XP home edition if this also helps

Please share some of your knowledge and help me get it working again

Hi rosso5792...

Usually, this is caused by a bad USB Hub driver. Let's clear all the preload drivers and force the Hubs to reinstall.

Disconnect all USB devices from your machine, including the external HDD, any flash drives, printers, cameras, ipods., or anything else that contains memory.

Click Start, then Run, type prefetch and click "Ok". The Prefetch folder will open. Click on "Edit" on the toolbar and choose "Select All"...press the "Delete" key...accept the change if prompted. Close the Prefetch folder.

Right click on "My Computer" and choose "Properties". Click on the "Hardware" tab, then the "Device Manager" button. In Device Manager, expand (click +) Universal Serial Bus controllers. At or near the bottom of the expanded list you should see one or more entries for USB Root Hub. Right click on each USB Root Hub entry and choose "Uninstall"...accept the change. Close Device Manager.

Reboot. Upon restarting, the Prefetch folder will repopulate with fresh files and the USB Root Hubs will be reinstalled automatically. Once Windows has completely loaded and the USB hubs have been reinstalled, plug the external HDD in and see if it is detected and installed properly. Follow that with any other devices you had disconnected.

Note: It may take as many as four reboots to fully repopulate the Prefetch...boot times may be slightly longer until it's fully populated.

wannabe1

Thanks for the reply Wannabe1, ill do that just now and keep you posted on how it works out

Ok i've tried out what you said wannabe1 but it still never showed up in my computer, any other suggestions or things i can try out?

Disconnect the drive from the computer.

Go back into Device Manager and expand Universal Serial Bus controllers as you did before. Right click on each USB Root Hub and choose "Properties". Click on the "Power Management" tab. Remove the tick from the box next to "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" and click "Ok".

Reboot

Connect the drive to the computer and see if it's detected.

Hi again, i've just tried what you told me wannabe1 but still is not showing

if you have anything else i can do please say, it has some data on it i wouldn't like to lose.

also thanks for your help so far wannabe1, i appreciate it

has anyone got any more suggestions? if so please say, i really want to get this working