EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE STORAGE CONNECTION PROBLEM ??

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Romer

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Another small problem requireing a few pointers from a good samaritan please.

I have just received a 1Tb hard drive that I've bought to use in an external enclosure for storage of still and dvd footage.
The enclosure allows connection via either USB 2 or Esata and will also accept either ide or sata hard drives.

When I previously had an ide drive installed and had it connected to my home pc (XP Pro 32bit), from memory the pc saw it as basically a large memory stick (was a 250gb drive I think).

Now that I've installed the 1Tb drive and tried hooking it up to my lap-top using the Esata cable (Vista home premium 64bit), I can't see the drive in either "Explore" or "My Computer".
The only way to check the drive is connected is through systems/hardware/drive (basically shows it beside the lap-top's internal drive). So the drive is connected, but just not showing up as storage.

I haven't formatted the drive myself (it's just out of the suppliers wrapper)
but I don't think I did that with the previous ide drive either.

Has anyone any ideas please?


Also, I was going to set up three basic folders -
Work 32bit System
Work 64bit System
Storage Only

Items initially would be stored in Storage Only and when required to be worked on would be copied (leaving original untouched in storage only) to the relevant folder depending on wether I was using the pc or the lap-top.
Has anyone any comments on this three folder system taking into account the two different types of OS.

Thanks.

Romer
 
It needs formatted, the pc will not see it until it is formatted.

Goto Control Panel/Admin tools/Computer Management/Storage/Disk Management and format it from there. :thumbs:
 
Thanks for that.
Used the pc to format the disc last night as you suggested - worked fine and XP now sees it as another drive.
Haven't tried it connected to the lap-top yet - ran out of time last night.

Thanks again.

Romer
 
Hmm, this ones not going to plan.
Could do with some input please if anyone can help.

Formatted the HD the other night using XP Pro whilst connected via esata.
From memory I was only able to "Dynamic" format as opposed to "Basic" formatting. Not sure what the difference is.

It is only formatted ie there is no OS loaded on it.

Anyway, after formatting, I was able to see the disk and create some folders on it for storage.

The next day I tried to connect to the lap top using esata, but the lap-top (details in first thread) couldn't see it. A few cursed words and scratching of head! Put it away for the night.

Next day I remembered the USB 2 option, so connected it to the lap-top via USB - still couldn't se it. More and louder cursing!

So last night I tried it on the pc (original that was used for formatting it) via USB and it couldn't be seen on that either! Just about screaming now!

Really could do with some pointers on this please anyone - am stuck now as that was going to be my main storage drive (with back-ups to quality CDs).

An additional point, on each and every occasion, the drive can be seen in Device Manager, but just won't show up in My Computer as an additional drive.

Please Please need some help here if poss.

Fingers crossed


Romer
 
Probably wants to be a basic disc as well... especially if jumping to and fro between Vista and XP
 
Thanks for the replies.

It was asigned a drive letter when I formatted it.

I will see if I can re-format it tonight to basic.

Will let you know.

Any others suggestions anyone please - before I re-format ?

Thanks

Romer
 
I presume you've switched the power on as well as connecting the usb cable?
 
admirable said:
I presume you've switched the power on as well as connecting the usb cable?
Click to expand...

Yup, power on and cables connected - as I say daft thing is that the drive is shown in Device Manager in the disk section. Just won't show up in My Computer.

Will try a basic format and see what happens.


Romer
 
I've come across this dynamic disk formatting utility that Windows threw at me a few years ago. I selected it and let it. Thereafter the disc became unusable - totally invisible to anything I connected it to, it could not be formatted in a normal manner, and no disc utility program like Partition Magic could do anything with it. The only way out I found was to get the disc manufacturers utility prog and carry out a low level format (which took hours), then steer well clear of this dynamic disc crap.
 
In that case I agree with MisterE and do a normal format.
 
Paul-H said:
Hi

When you first plugged it into the USB port did you get the new hardware found message.

If not that the problem, if you did. did it report that the drivers were succesfully loaded or did it report an error.

Can you see the drive in device manager.
Click to expand...

No, nothing happened when the USB was plugged in.

Didn't get time to try and basic format it last night - am going to try tomorrow.
From what mistere says, looks like I'll have to do some digging on Samsungs website.

Romer
 
>>I say daft thing is that the drive is shown in Device Manager in the disk section. Just won't show up in My Computer.

If it is visible in drive manager you can partition and format it from there - or you should be able to. "Use the right click Luke" ;)
 
BenMottram said:
>>I say daft thing is that the drive is shown in Device Manager in the disk section. Just won't show up in My Computer.

If it is visible in drive manager you can partition and format it from there - or you should be able to. "Use the right click Luke" ;)
Click to expand...

Yes, have finally got it sorted.
I hadn't realised that I needed to partition it.
Have now partione it in disk management and everything works fine now.

Thanks everyone.

Romer
 
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