PC Harddrive help needed

[Lone20]

I know there are a lot of smarter computer people on here than I am,so I'm pleading for help>
I had to change hard drives on my PC because my old one was corrupt and unusable..I have all of my back up files saved on a Western Digital My Book external USB drive,,the problem is as follows:
there is no drive letter to let me access it,although it DOES show up in the device manager and says it's working properly.
I've tried to unplug it and see if the computer recognises it to no avail,nothing at all happens when I do this.
How can I get this drive back into my system so that I can get back the info that I have saved there?

[moxyspirit]

xp?

start-settings-control panel-administrator tools-computer management

on the left under storage look for Disk Management

The drive will most likely show but needs the drive letter changed to something that is not being used. Right click on the drive and pick "change drive letter and path".

PM me if you need more help

Phil

[Lone20]

sorry,yes it is XP home
the disc is in there but not listed up in the top window,it IS listed in the bottom window,says it's online but is not allocated.Right clicking gives me the option of new partition only,,I selected that and got it to assign it the drive letter and show up in My Computer,but I can't open it because it hasn't been formated,,,if I do format it,I'll lose all of the data that I'm trying to access

[moxyspirit]

I Google this and others have had this problem.

Try to Google "usb hard drive not allocated" and read what you find.
Most that I found talk about reformatting, which I know you don't want to do.

You can try a different usb port and/or a different usb thumb/pen drive (if you have one laying around). I have also seen a launch.exe file running which conflicts with some usd drives that are non-HP usb drives. But again this is a new hard drive on the PC with a fresh install of XP????

Problem with USB Mass Storage Device : storage, mass, usb, device

Hard drive showing in device manager but not in Explorer - Tech Support Forums - TechIMO.com


This thread have the most useful info....
USB hard drive in Vista...$$$ for a fix! - Windows

Phil

[short_stuff]

Lone20,
Have you tried plugging your My Book usb cable into a different usb port? Also, have you tried plugging it into a different pc to make sure the cable is ok? I swap my My Book back and forth between my desktop (running VISTA) and my laptop (running XB) several times a day. Occasionally (don't ask me why), a usb port can get tagged as unusable by a particular device. I'm sure there is some setting in XP that allows you to install-deinstall the usb port, but since I have 4 of them, I never spent the time to figure out why one would get tagged. Anyway, I can usually get the MY Book drive to get recognized when I move it to a different usb port. You might have to reboot your pc before you try this, to make sure that everything is fresh, and that there aren't any internal irq conflicts. Hope this helps.

short-stuff

[Lone20]

Thanks guys,,I'll try the last resorts when I get home tonight,,it just sucks,the drive was fine and working well,,,put in a new hard drive clean XP install and it won't pick that drive back up

[Albin]

This is why I have four hard drives, two at home, two at work. About once a week, I'll use Synctoy to sync the drives at home and at work with each other. About once a month, I'll take one of the work HDs home and use Synctoy to sync all four drives.

Good luck.
Al

[short_stuff]

Lone20, fwiw, we (the buying public) have been the beta testers for microsux and the pc hardware vendors for over 20 years. Having gone through what you've gone through, you have tons more experience than the guy that you'll get on the helpless line.
I just changed the hd out on my laptop (which is the one I work off of 95 % of the time) because I had gotten a write error on a Windows XP error log file that made my pc take 10 minutes to shutdown, and at least 10 minutes to reboot. So, it was the excuse I needed to double the drive size. I probably spent a total of 8 hours reloading XP and all the apps that I have to install to do my business, but it was time well spent. So, don't beat yourself up too badly. And, if you find anyone that says they're an expert in pc software and hardware, understand that you're the one with the real job, making the money to pay them for their expertise. Nothing beats hands-on experience. just my .02 cents worth.

short_stuff

[Lone20]

thanks for the help all,,,i went ahead with the format and all is up and running,just no data that was there....fresh starts can sometimes be a good thing