How do I access USB drive??

Question

I  have just taken delivery of a new Vostro running Vista Ultimate. I can access my USB flash drive okay, however, I cannot access my 120 GB NTFS formatted external disk.   When I go to the Computer Management option the external disk is shown as 'Unitialized'. What exactly does this mean,,,,,? Should it be possible for me to access this drive plug and play style...?   I am trying to transfer my files and settings from my old XP pro machine.   Can somebody PLEASE HELP???   Thanks

Rebel9 · Answer

If you can see the disk from the Disk Management console, try a format again and see what happens.

GioAguilar · Answer

Sounds weird... can you put back the files on your XP system, with the empty external HDD go to the Vista machine and format it from there. Go and put the files from your XP to the External HDD, and see if Vista can see them

mombodog · Answer

'When I go to the Computer Management option the external disk is shown as 'Unitialized'. What exactly does this mean,,,,,? '   This means Vista thinks it is a new raw unformatted hard drive, whatever you do do not initialize it, data loss will occur. See #5 here  http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/troubleshooting_assistance/internal_drive_interfaces/windows-vista   I have seen this on other posts, but have no solutions, sorry. It is probably a conflict with the usb chip in the external enclosure and Vista.    If there is No data (or data you don't care about) on the drive, you can initialize it in Disk management, and then partition/format.   Others may post with more info.

Dave99 · Answer

Okay..... got it sorted. The problem was I was connecting the drive to the PC via a USB hub. When I connect drive directly to the PC Vista recognises the drive fine. Thanks for all the suggestions.

mombodog · Answer

You are welcome, Thanks for posting the Fix, this helps others searching for answers.

Windows General

How do I access USB drive??

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