[Zylocks]

Hey, my friends got some tv shows on his external hardrive that I wanted to watch, so he just gave me the whole thing. Apparently all I have to do is plug it in, and it'll be read, nd be in my computer. Plug and play, or something?
Although when I do connect it, I get the following message "USB Device Not Recognized" "One of the USB devices attached to this computer has malfunctioned, and Windows does not recognize it. For assistance in solving this problem, click this message" although clicking the message really didn't help... I saw my friend using it right before I brought it over to my house, and I have an ipod, and plug it into the same port, so I dont think the specific port is an issue... I dont really know what would be...
Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

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try booting with it already plugged in...

[happyrock]

try booting with it already plugged in...

[Zylocks]

I have done that

[happyrock]

what operating system do you have..98 will not do usb...98se will if you install some drivers...xp should read it without adding any drivers..

[jaxisland]

unplug all other usb items, reboot, then plug the hard drive into another slot on the computer, not the ipod slot.

[Zylocks]

I am currently using xp, and yea, thats what my friend said. He said I shouldn't have to do anything, and that it would automatically read it.

I do not having anything else plugged into the usb slots, including my ipod. I just brought up the fact that the usb I am trying to use has worked with something else that uses a usb slot. I have tried plugging it into a differnt usb slot, and rebooting and still nothing :S. This is strange..

[jaxisland]

Does the device show up in device manager when its plugged in, maybe as something that has a bad driver?

[Zylocks]

Um, I'm not quiet sure. I'm not that familiar with device manager. Could you elaborate a bit more on what to do. thanks ;D

Hrm, is that what I talked about at the begining, the little pop up that appears in the lower right hand side of my screen talking about, USB device not recogniced".

Edited by Zylocks, 11 June 2007 - 10:32 AM.

[jaxisland]

Plug in the drive give it a minute.

Go to Start -> right click on My Computer -> Properties -> click on Hardware tab -> Click Device Manager

Look for anything in there that has an exclamation point on it.

Let me know.

[Zylocks]

nothing has an exclamation beside it.

[happyrock]

try plugging it into your friends computer..the one that lent it to you to make sure he can still read the files...sometimes if you don't use the icon in the system tray ..safetly remove hardware..it can make the drive unreadable ...includes usb flash drives...

[Zylocks]

Well, my friend just gave it to me yesterday, and while I was at his house, I saw him using it. He's never had a problem with it in the past. I think it has something to do with my computer.

[happyrock]

I saw him using it. He's never had a problem with it in the past

that was before he unplugged it and gave it to you...

[Zylocks]

lol, alright. I'll try it again at his house. In the meantime.. what exactly is this possible problem you are talking about...?

[happyrock]

although USB is supposed to be "hot swappable"...meaning you can plug and unplug them while power is still on...doing it has made some drives unreadable...it has happened to enough people now that even though I have done it hundreds of times without any problems...I now use the safely remove icon in the system tray to remove usb hard drives and usb flash drives...