External harddisk not recognised

Question

I recently bought a 250GB external harddisk and for some reason my Dell Dimension 4600 refuses to recognize this device. I have tried several things but nothing seems to work. The external harddisk does work without any further ado on my Laptop Latitude D820.  So I wondered whether there is something either wrong with my USB port or whether I am missing a software driver (although XP should not require this)   After not getting it to work I thought maybe I can turn it into a internal harddisk, yet this did not work either. My dell harddisk is a SATA disk and the other 'external' is a ATA/IDE.  I looked up similar items on this forum but they did not provide a solution either.   Does anyone have a suggestion for me. Preferably I get this disk to work as an external disk if that does not work then I would like to use it as an internal disk. THANKS.

mombodog · Answer

'but nothing seems to work'   Knowing what you have tried will keep others from posting redundant suggestions.   Did you look for the usb drive in disk management?   Is this usb drive connected to the PC directly, or are you using a hub?

nilsvanderLinde · Answer

I have tried the following: - start external disk before switching computer, no effect - troubleshoot with Device Manager, after going through the whole options it basically gets me no where further. - in setup mode tried to see if I need to change things in the harddisk settings. - tried the various usb ports of my computer, but have not tried a separate USB hub - tried to find out whether a driver is required but instructions wrote that this is not required for XP.   The disk does not even show up in Disk Management, the Device Manager. (USB) shows it as a unknown device.   Thanks,

ieee488 · Answer

You don't say which brand and model of external hard drive you have, but looking on Western Digital's website, they have a FAQ for their My Book products.

mombodog · Answer

If you are Not using an external USB Hub to connect the WD, read this   http://support.microsoft.com/kb/925196/en-us

mombodog · Answer

Sorry, no   USB on Dells is problematic on some models, I have a Dim 5150, never had any troubles with my 6 generic external drive enclosures, but I tend to picky when purchasing, about what chipsets they use.   Here is a site that specializes in USB problems, Not sure if it will help or not,   http://www.usbman.com/

nilsvanderLinde · Answer

This did not work I did not have any items called Lowerfilter or Upperfilter under that key.   The harddisk itself is a Hitachi which is mounted in a non branded external hardisk (named xxodd). I have tried other external harddisks on this computer and they worked without problem, similarly I have tried this external disk on other computers.   Any further suggestions?

Storage, Drives & Media

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