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Can't "see" USB Disk Drive?


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#1
Greg135

Greg135

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Hey there,

A few weeks ago, I successfully connected my external USB backup disk drive to my HP laptop.

I tried to do the same thing yesterday and although the disk drive is connected I can't see it or navigate the contents. I can connect the same drive to another PC running XP.

On my HP laptop I'm running Vista Business Service pack 2, 32 bit opsys
Intel Core 2 Duo CPU 2.4GHz, memory = 2GB,

Please help as this drive contains all my laptop backups etc....

Just also wanted to mention that I can connect a variety of devices to the exact same USB slot on the laptop as follows:
- printer
- 3 different USB sticks
- Mobile connect card

Any ideas?

Regards

Greg
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#2
phillipcorcoran

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It could be the PC has 'forgotten' to assign a drive-letter to the external drive. Same thing happened to me when I started using external drives, but after correcting the problem by manually assigning an unused drive-letter it has never given me any trouble since then.

Control Panel (classic view) --> Administrative Tools --> Computer Management --> Disk Management.

In the bottom pane where the disk volumes are represented by horizontal bars, you should see a bar which has no volume name or drive letter. This will be your external drive, and because it has no drive-letter you can't see it in Windows Explorer. What you need to do is right-click that bar and choose "Change drive letters and paths". Click the "Change" button. Now choose a letter from the drop-down list, then click 'OK'.
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#3
Greg135

Greg135

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It could be the PC has 'forgotten' to assign a drive-letter to the external drive. Same thing happened to me when I started using external drives, but after correcting the problem by manually assigning an unused drive-letter it has never given me any trouble since then.

Control Panel (classic view) --> Administrative Tools --> Computer Management --> Disk Management.

In the bottom pane where the disk volumes are represented by horizontal bars, you should see a bar which has no volume name or drive letter. This will be your external drive, and because it has no drive-letter you can't see it in Windows Explorer. What you need to do is right-click that bar and choose "Change drive letters and paths". Click the "Change" button. Now choose a letter from the drop-down list, then click 'OK'.



Thanks for taking the time to respond Phillip,

I will follow your directions when I get home later and report back...
Have a great day...

Regards

Greg
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#4
Greg135

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Hey Phillip,

Thanks for the solution.....problem solved!!!!
What a relief....

Thanks again.

Regards

Greg
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