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External Hard Drive not recognized in Windows XP


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#1
gerling182

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Hi there,

I have an Acer Aspire 5610 laptop. Windows died recently and if I use the Acer recovery program I will lose the contents of my hard drives - something I am very keen to avoid. So I got my hands on a Windows XP Pro CD and have installed Windows. The problem is now I cannot for the life of me get it to recognize my Maxtor USB external hard drive. I've installed every little thing I can find on the Acer/Intel/Microsoft/Maxtor websites etc but still nothing. I've tried uninstalling the USB ports and reinstalling them - still nothing. I've checked device manager to see if it's recognized but not mapping correctly - it's not in device manager. I went into my BIOS to ensure that USB was enabled and it's not an option in the menu (I have PhoenixBIOS). I have tested the External Hard Drive on other PC's and it works fine. When I plug it into my notebook it plays the sound to say it's recognized a USB input and then the USB symbol displays in the Task Bar with the Message "Device Not Recognized" - what can I do to get this to work - I've spent 26 hours so far and nothing has worked and it would take me forever to back 120GB onto DVDs! Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
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#2
123Runner

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If you have other usb ports, have you tried them?
Have you tried other usb devices in the port? such as a flash disk.
Do you have any red or yellow errors showing in device manager?
Are all the updates applied?
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#3
gerling182

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I have 4 ports and have tried them all, my USB mouse works in all 4, won't recognize my hard drive in any of them.
Two yellow errors - one a modem and the other an ethernet connection - nothing else and my external hard drive isn't listed in Storage in device manager.
I've applied all the updates I can find, but still nothing. It's been a frustrating process that's for sure!
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