[GregMiller]

I searched everywhere for the answer and nowhere can I find it.

I am running XP on my laptop. I purchased an Acomdata external hard drive enclosure. I put an old hard drive that I know works- it's run fine in another computer into the enclosure. The jumper on the hard drive is set to master, as it should be.

When I turned the hard drive on and plugged it into my USB (2.0) port, the drive was mounted and I could read the drive. It worked fine (this is the second external enclosure I owned - same brand - worked great so I gave it to my daughter and bought a second one). I shut down my computer (eventually, when I turned it back on, Widows XP wouldn't recognize the drive. I rebooted the computer. Nothing. Shut the computer down and brought the sytem back up, nothing.

Then I took the external hard drive over to my tower. This hard drive was not from this tower-it was from another computer and it was working when I took it out, so I know it's good. Plugged it in and it read the drive. After turning the computer off, the next time I turned it on the identical thing happened. The tower (also running XP) wouldn't recognize the drive. Same attempts tried again- reboot, power down, system up, nothing.

This is touted as a "plug and play" arrangement, so there are no drivers to reinstall.

Where is the problem? Has something in windows been disabled? Has the external port been disabled? Is anything damaged?

[Advertisements]

How is the external drive powered? By a usb lead or by it's own mains supply cable?
If it's USB-powered it may not be getting enough 'juice' from the usb-port, especially if other things are connected to the same usb hub.

I always make sure my external hard drives come with their own mains power supply to avoid that problem.

[phillip22]

How is the external drive powered? By a usb lead or by it's own mains supply cable?
If it's USB-powered it may not be getting enough 'juice' from the usb-port, especially if other things are connected to the same usb hub.

I always make sure my external hard drives come with their own mains power supply to avoid that problem.

[GregMiller]

It is, as mentioned, an Acomdata, external hard drive enclosure.

It has it's own power source. Also, I am not trying to use a firewire and a USB at the same time. My model is the USB only model.

I was hoping the response would address a USB port being disabled.

I was right about people just not knowing much about this hardware. With 12 viewers just overnight, you can see there is some general interest in this topice for which nobody seems to have the answers.

The specs are listed below and can be found in several links:

http://www.acomdata....S-HDEXXU2E3.pdf

http://www.acomdata....Enclosures.html

http://www.radioshac...amp;tab=summary




Dimensions

Product Height 5.28 inches


Product Width 1.38 inches


Product Depth 8.52 inches


General Features

Model SMBXXXU2E-Blk


Product Type External


Enclosure Color Black/Silver


Miscellaneous Features

Cables Included USB cable


Min Operating Temperature 41 Fahrenheit


Max Operating Temperature 95 Fahrenheit


Humidity Range Operating 5-95%


Takes a SATA or PATA IDE hard disk drive
Hi-speed USB 2.0 transfers up to 480Mbps (USB 1.1 compatible)
48-bit LBA, Samba supports the highest capacity IDE/EIDE drives available
On/Off switch lets you turn off the drive when it's not needed to conserve power
Dissipates heat so efficiently it doesn't need a fan, for near-silent operation
Mac and Windows® compatible




Supported Languages English

From the site: there is an on-off switch so you can keep turning it off and on, while your computer is running apparently without affecting its performance. Apparently, that's how it was designed.

If I had used it twice, both times successfully on two different computers, why would you need to know if it was self powered? If it wasn't gettting enough juice, I wouldn't have been able to operate it twice, on two different computers, both for lengths of time.

It's not recognizing a drive; that's doesn't seem to me to be a power issue.

[PcTestCard]

I would suggest you try this external HDD on another PC(the 3rd PC).
When you install the first time, you can see the drive data. now, use stop command on the 3rd PC to stop the ext drive in XP OS, then power off the ext HDD.
Then, repower on the ext HDD and install to your PC again as teh first time, see if you can still get the drive to work.

If not, I would suggest you making sure both of your first 2 PCs got the latest chipset driver install first and reboot to take effect.
Also, backup up the ext HDD data to other drive and repartittion and reformat the ext HDD before using it again.

Hope this helps!
Bill

[GregMiller]

"...now, use stop command on the 3rd PC to stop the ext drive in XP OS, then power off the ext HDD..."

Could you elaborate- I have no idea what you mean.

Same for:

"...first 2 PCs got the latest chipset driver install first and reboot to take effect."

There are no new drivers needed for the enclosure when using XP- the drivers are only needed if using Windows 98.
Both CPUs that I have been using have up to date drivers.

[PcTestCard]

Stop command:

When you install the external HDD to the PC, there will be a small icon at the bottom right corner next to the system clock showing you the ext HDD connected, you can single click that icon and select safely remove the ext HDD from the system.

latest chipset driver and reboot:

find what mainboard you have on the 2 PCs that is not working with the ext HDD.
Visit the 2PCs mainboard manufacturer web site for the latest mainboard "chipset" section driver, install and must reboot the PC before plug the ext HDD again to the system.

Hope this helps!
Bill
Manager(Tech)
www.pctestcard.com

Edited by PcTestCard, 12 November 2008 - 08:20 PM.