Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]

Kia Ora
You are currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and that there are some features you can't use or read.

We are an active community of worldwide senior members participating in chat, politics, travel, health, blogging, graphics, computer issues & help, book club, literature & poetry, finance discussions, recipe exchange and much more. Also, as a member you will be able to access member only sections, many features, send personal messages, make new friends, etc.

Registration is simple, fast and completely free. Why not register today and become a part of the group. Registration button at the very top left of the page.

Thank you for stopping by.

Join our community!

In case of difficulty, email worldwideseniors.org@gmail.com.
If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features:

Username:   Password:
Add Reply
External hard drive not showing up
Topic Started: Jan 9 2008, 09:14 AM (64 Views)
Bitsy
Member Avatar
Veteran Member
I recently purchased a WD My Book, Essential Edition, external hard drive in hopes of improving the speed of my old IBM R31 laptop, XP Pro OS, and to back up my files and system in the event my hard drive crashed. I plan on purchasing a new computer within 6 months but with Christmas bills and property taxes due, I can’t do it before then.

I moved My Pictures and others files with no problem but as of a couple of days ago, the external drive no longer appears under My Computer. As you see can see from the following, it does appear under Disk Management. I can open it from this location, and see all of my files. I always use the ‘remove safely’ feature when disconnecting the device from my computer so I don't think I damaged My Book.

Any suggestions for me? Thanks.


Posted Image
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
wildie
Member Avatar
Veteran Member
Do you see the drive in Explorer? And its associated files? [not Internet Explorer]
Or how about under Control Panel>System>Hardware> USB.
When I plug a flash drive into a USB jack, its characteristics appear here and when I unplug it disappears. Your External drive should appear her also.
You could also consider using the restore feature in XP and go back to the time the drive was appearing OK.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Delphi51
Member Avatar
Member title
Wow, an interesting one Bitsy! I never heard of that before.
But a google search for "hard drive does not appear in My computer" (without quotes) brings up all sorts of similar complaints and fixes.

This one from Microsoft caught my eye but may not apply to your disk:
Quote:
 
Hard disk does not appear in My Computer or in Windows Explorer
View products that this article applies to.
Article ID : 330140
Last Review : September 25, 2006
Revision : 1.2
This article was previously published under Q330140
SYMPTOMS
When you try to upgrade to Microsoft Windows XP, or when you try to install a hard disk on your Windows XP computer, the hard disk may not appear in Windows Explorer or in My Computer, even if the hard disk does appear in Device Manager and in Disk Management console. You cannot use Disk Management console to assign a letter to the hard disk.

Back to the top
CAUSE
This problem may occur if you have used the Roxio GoBack program on the hard disk. The problem occurs because Roxio GoBack modifies the master boot record (MBR) and changes the partition type on the hard disk. This can cause the drive to be inaccessible in Windows XP, even when the hard disk appears in Device Manager and in Disk Management console.

Back to the top
RESOLUTION
To resolve this problem, contact Symantec for the latest updates to GoBack. For information about how to contact Symantec, click the appropriate article number in the following list to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

It's from http://support.microsoft.com/kb/330140
Online Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
« Previous Topic · Computer Help · Next Topic »
Add Reply