External hard drive (USB) not visible in disk management and my computer

Dear Chris M.,

When I re-start as per your instructions:

1. The PC starts quickly. However, if the drive was connected the USB port then it "stalls" for a while. It doesn't hand but it does pause

2. When I re-connect to the USB I hear the "detect new hardware" noise straight away but don't see any of the "installing new hardware" stuff - I hadn't uninstalled it, just disconnected as per your mail.

3. When I look in My Computer the new drive isn't there. If I look in Disk Management it "pauses" for a while (c. 1 min) saying "Connecting to Logical Disk Manager Service". The new drive isn't visible in the Disk Management window - just my C-drive and CD-ROM

4. If I look in Device Manager the drive is visible under Disk Drives as "IC35L090 AVV207-0 USB Device" and under USB controllers as "USB Mass Storage Device"

Any ideas appreciated.

Michael

Did you by chance update your 8400 to BIOS A06 recently? Lots of users have reported problems with A06 when USB devices are attached at bootup. If you have BIOS A06, you may want to go back to A05 and see if that fixes the problem.

Also check the boot sequence in BIOS that the internal HD is first, and make sure that you've disabled boot from USB in BIOS. If the USB drive doesn't have the OS, the system may have to wait for that drive to time out before it boots from the internal HD. And make sure you have the latest version of Dell's Desktop System Software which fixes some USB problems on the 8400.

Ron

mking007,

* Disconnect the hard disk drive from the system
* Click Start- Shutdown- Restart- OK or Click Start- Turn Off Computer- Restart
* Connect the powered on hard disk drive to a rear USB port

What appears?

Dear RoHe

I have recently upgraded to BIOS A06, but I think (I've tried so many things it begins to blur)...I think I did this after this problem occurred. I've gone back to A05 (I think I was on A04 before) and it's not made any difference.

I have downloaded the latest version of Dell's Desktop System. No difference.

I've checked the boot sequence and it's as follows:

1. Onboard or USB Floppy drive

2. Onboard SATA hard drive

3. Onboard or USB CD-ROM drive

That looks ok to me.....?

I've just plugged in a digital camera to compare. The camera is recognised - made available as drive E and is visible in Disk Management. The Iomega drive is still not visible in either of these, but is visible in device manager.

Again, any suggestions appreciated.

Michael

Michael,
There's at least part of your problem. You have 'Onboard or USB Floppy drive' listed first in the boot sequence. Change it so 'Onboard SATA hard drive' is first.

Use the Up/Down arrows to move Onboard SATA to top of the list, and you probably want to put 'Onboard or USB CD-ROM drive' second on the list. If you don't have a floppy, you can just delete that one. Then make sure to set the boot options to 'USB-no boot' too.

Ron

Michael,
Boot the PC and immediately press F2 to get into BIOS setup. Change the boot sequence so that CD-ROM is first. Now put the XP CD in the drive and close the drawer, save the BIOS changes and exit. It should boot from the XP CD.

See if you can rename that file now. Not sure you'll have that authority because there are only limited things you can do when booting this way for obvious security reasons. If you can't rename it, try running msconfig. Go to the startup tab in msconfig and uncheck everything related to Iomega. Otherwise, try uninstalling the drive in device manager. Whichever way (hopefully) works, reboot, enter BIOS setup and change the boot sequence back to SATA HD first. Then you can fix the drive installation. You may ultimately have to uninstall and reinstall it to get back to the way it was before.

And stop changing file names, unless you're positive... ;)

Ron
One more thought. iomdisk.sys is actually included with XP, so if none of the above works, you may have to do an XP Repair Reinstall. That's not a new installation so all your personal files and settings should survive. Read Dell's document FA1056993 about doing a Repair Reinstall of XP and follow the instructions. You will have to install all the Windows hotfixes and updates again. So as soon as it's running again and your firewall is enabled, go to the MS site and download all the updates.

Message Edited by RoHe on 08-10-2005 06:35 PM

Dear Chris M and RoHe,

After a long and frustrating recovery I've ended up re-formatting my hard drive. Long story - most (all) of it my fault!

I now have a relatively clean PC that only has XP Pro and Office installed - not a lot of the other USB apps that I use e.g. digital camera, scanner....

However, to my amazement my original problem is still there! When I connect the Iomega HDD via USB it is not recognised in My Computer or Disk Management. It does appear in Device Manager under Disk Drives and USB COntrollers as a Mass Storage Device.

The drive was available earlier in the re-build process, although I don't exactly exactly which update changed this. Therefore I'm wondering if this is a Service Pack 2 issue.....?

Again, any help greatly appreciated.

M

Did you install the chipset driver immediately after reinstalling XP, followed in order by video driver, audio driver, and then the other drivers?

See if anything here will help:
https://iomega-na-en.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/iomega_na_en.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1235&p_created=1072727206&p_sid=pq8gPQMh&p_lva=500&p_li=

Ron

Message Edited by RoHe on 08-12-2005 12:09 PM

Dear Ron,

Many thanks for your help. I've updated all of the drivers as per your instructions.

I think I've narrowed down my problem - and I'm posting this out as a:

1. potential workaround solution to anyone facing similar problems

2. A request for further help.

I think the root of my problem is some sort of conflict with USB2. In addition to the problems at the top of this thread I have also been seeing "i/o device error" problems and lots of error code 51 in the system logs. This has occurred when I've been able to see the Iomega HDD and tried to transfer data between the drive and my PC. The transfer would work for a while and then fail, saying "i/o device error". Iomega have a help on their site that is based around increasing the paging file size for this external drive, but when I try to do this it fails and I can no longer see the drive in Disk Management or My Computer - back to step 0.

The workaround solution (item 1 above) I've discovered to this is to force the external drive to use USB1.1. The reason the drive worked fine on another PC running XP Pro is that this is an older PC that can't do USB2. On my newer PC which can do USB 2 I've forced the drive onto USB1.1 by using a 4-port hub I've got from Linkysys, which can only do USB 1.1. The one I use is here (http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?childpagename=US%2FLayout&packedargs=c%3DL_Product_C2%26cid%3D1115416907844&pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVisitorWrapper ) , but I'd imagine you can use anything. You may be able to disable the USB2 drivers as well, but I haven't tried that and don't advise it unless you know what you're doing.

My request for further help (item 2 above) is: how do I resolve this apparent conflict with USB2? I've looked in the resources/conflicts section but it's unclear to me what can and can't share IRGs and I/O. Any advice greatly appreciated.

Michael

Michael,
Well that's progress, even if it's not a total solution to the problem. I saw another thread on these forums where someone else was having trouble getting XP to assign a drive letter to an external Iomega HD so you may not be alone. If you look on the Iomega site there's a whole page on what to do if the drive isn't assigned a letter by XP

You sure USB is correctly reinstalled on the 8400? Go to Device Manager and expand the list under USB. Is there an "!" next to any USB item? One of the listings should say "enhanced". If it's not there, USB2 isn't installed. In that case, disconnect all USB devices from the PC and then right click and uninstall each item listed under USB in Device Manager one at a time. Reboot and let XP detect and reinstall the ports. Then make sure "enhanced" is listed. Also see if you're still running BIOS A06, and maybe try flashing back to A05.

One other thing to consider. Unplug all USB devices then go to Device Manager and right-click on each root hub and select properties. On the power management tab, uncheck the box "allow computer to turn this device off". Perhaps it's turning them off and that's why the transfer works for a while and then fails.

Ron

Dear Ron,

I'd seen the Iomega help stuff about assigning a letter, but my problem didn't fit that really. My original problem was that the drive wasn't even visible in Disk Management - therefore a lot of the Iomega help stuff wasn't relevant about manually assigning a drive letter: I couldn't see the drive at all.

However that's resolved now with this workaround: forcing it onto USB1.1.

The USB 2 problem still remains. I can definitely live with it, but it would be good to resolve it.

In Device Manager I have a USB 2 Controller, "Intel (R) 82801 FB/FBM USB2 Enhanced Controller - 265C". It says it's working fine as are all the other USB controllers. If I plug the drive direct into the back USB ports (not via my Linksys USB1.1 hub) then the drive is assigned to USB2 - if I view by connection. The drive is still visible as well.

I can reproduce the problem now simply by moving around the directory structure on the drive. After about 10 directory changes the drive locks up. I get windows messages of "Windows - delayed write failed" from the system tray. If I look in Systems Tools / Event Viewer / System I can see loads (>50 over the last 5 mins) of warnings saying, "An error was detected on device \Device\Harddisk1\D during a paging operation.For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp." They are event id 51 and occassionally event id 50.

If I look in Conflicts / Sharing the following list is there:

I/O Port 0x00000000-0x00000CF7 PCI bus
I/O Port 0x00000000-0x00000CF7 Direct memory access controller
 
I/O Port 0x000003C0-0x000003DF Intel(R) 925X/XE PCI Express Root Port - 2585
I/O Port 0x000003C0-0x000003DF RADEON X300 Series
 
IRQ 21 Intel(R) 82801FB/FBM USB Universal Host Controller - 2658
IRQ 21 Intel(R) 82801FB/FBM USB2 Enhanced Host Controller - 265C
 
IRQ 23 Intel(R) 82801FB/FBM USB Universal Host Controller - 265B
IRQ 23 SoundMAX Integrated Digital Audio
 
IRQ 16 Intel(R) 925X/XE PCI Express Root Port - 2585
IRQ 16 RADEON X300 Series
IRQ 16 Intel(R) 82801FB/FBM PCI Express Root Port - 2660
IRQ 16 Broadcom NetXtreme 57xx Gigabit Controller
 
IRQ 17 Intel(R) 82801FB/FBM PCI Express Root Port - 2662
IRQ 17 Intel(R) 537EP V9x DF PCI Modem
 
Memory Address 0xD0000000-0xD7FFFFFF Intel(R) 925X/XE PCI Express Root Port - 2585
Memory Address 0xD0000000-0xD7FFFFFF RADEON X300 Series
 
Memory Address 0xA0000-0xBFFFF PCI bus
Memory Address 0xA0000-0xBFFFF Intel(R) 925X/XE PCI Express Root Port - 2585
Memory Address 0xA0000-0xBFFFF RADEON X300 Series
 
I/O Port 0x000003B0-0x000003BB Intel(R) 925X/XE PCI Express Root Port - 2585
I/O Port 0x000003B0-0x000003BB RADEON X300 Series

Now this sort of level of problem is way beyond me! It seems like it could be i/o or IRQ clashes or something but I don't know how to interpret whether any of the above information is a problem. Maybe the USB2 bus (?) is waiting for a response and the drive doesn't return it quickly enough.....Anyway the symptoms are that I've now got a locked up Explorer window that was looking at the hard drive.....

Ideas welcome. Also I'm posting this in case anyone else is having the same problem. The USB1.1 workaround may be enough.

Michael

Not sure I know what you mean by "locked up Explorer window". Can you reboot and get it running again?

Maybe this might help:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=330174&sd=RMVP
"The "Enable write caching on the disk" feature for your disk is turned on."

I'd also run hardware diagnostics on the PC and the Iomega HD.

Ron

Message Edited by RoHe on 08-14-2005 07:59 PM

Thanks very much for the update. I've just left my drive on USB 1.1 as I don't need high speed especially, as I mainly use it for periodic file backups at home.

However each time I log on XP tells me that this device can run faster on a USB2 port and so it would be nice to scratch the itch!

I think it has to be on the XP side, as I've seen so many other drive makes that seem to have the same problem.

Any updates here would be appreciated.