External HDD suddenly invisible on XP computer

Hey, folks,

I have a WD My Passport 320GB hard drive that, until a few days ago, worked perfectly on both my Gateway 6023GP (XP Pro) and my Gateway P-7805u FX (Win 7 x64) computers.

A few days ago, as I sometimes do, I disconnected the external drive from the P-7805 to transfer some files to the smaller computer... but suddenly, the XP can't "see" the hard drive. Anywhere. Not in "My Computer" and not in Disk Management.

This is extremely confusing--and awfully frustrating--since I'd used it on the 6023GP only a few minutes before, and all was working wonderfully.

I downloaded and ran Tweak UI on the XP; no good. Then I cleaned off and reformatted the external drive (it needed a bit of tidying, anyway), but to no avail. The drive still works perfectly well on the P-7805, especially since I reformatted it. Before that, it had a penchant for insisting that "a program is still open" when I tried to safely remove it. That's not happening now.

Can anyone give me a sense of what the problem is between the drive and the 6023GP (the XP?). Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, as I have some filesnI need to transfer from one computer to the other that are rather larger than the 2GB jump drives I own.

Thanks! Hope someone can help with this.

 

Plug the external drive into the XP machine and right-click "my computer" and click properties. Goto hardware->Device manager.Check if you can see the drive there. You should see a USB mass storage device. If not, check if you see any unknown devices or any devices with a yellow exclamation mark.
Also, can the XP machine see any other USB devices? Have you tried different ports?
If you don't see the drive at all in device manager, you can also try shutting the unit down, removing the battery + power cord, pressing the power button for 10 secs and rebooting.

Hope this helps.

 

The only thing missing is the PCI modem, which wasn't there before I had this problem. The attempt to reset, unfortunately, failed. I cannot see the drive in the device manager, and all four USB ports work perfectly well with other USB items, like my mouse and jump drives.

One thing I do notice is that, when I plug my external drive in, it runs for a few moments (I can feel the drive turning), then goes still. It doesn't even pretend it's going to "hot up", however. It's a bit as if it simply isn't getting enough power from the computer to go through the entire start up sequence.

 

Does the usb cable you are using have 2 USB plugs on the PC end?

Many 2.5" external drives have an issue with not getting enough power from the USB bus, so manufacturers started shipping them with a 2X USB-A to 1 mini-USB cable like this one http://ep.yimg.com/ca/I/extremepcgear_2122_750577003

1 of the plugs is data+power, the other is just power.

It sounds to me like your older laptop isn't providing enough juice. These cables solve that problem. If your passport has any other way of powering it, such as an external adapter, you can try that as well.

 

Well, I found a temporary solution as far as transferring the most important file: I used my Sansa Fuze (8GB) as a storage device and moved it over. I will, however, be purchasing a 2x usb cable immediately...while worrying over what in my computer has become low-functioning enough to refuse to accept the hard drive, since it was doing so without any problems before.

Thanks, NovaH. Appreciate the help.

 

Could it be that you have the XP computer running on battery only and not off the charger? Running off the charger might give you a slight increase in voltage/current (or at least less voltage drop) at the USB ports. Make sure you try each USB port also as the voltage/current may vary slightly.

The 2x cable should provide you with a problem free connection though.

 

The cable should work out. Let me know how it goes.

 

Everything indicates that the computer is running off of AC as it should...but let's face it, my baby is old. Could be something minor enough not to affect the rest of the computer's performance has gone South, killing the formerly fine connection ability of the external drive. Certainly, it worked without a squawk when I connected the Fuze and essentially used it as a jump drive.

I may ask around about it in another area of the forum, if only to make sure that this change isn't a preventable precursor to the 6023 becoming a doorstop ( it did that once, thanks to a virus that ate the hard drive; it wasn't any fun).

I will certainly let you all know if the extension works as soon as it comes.

 

I wouldn't worry about it too much. Over time Power adapters and betteries don't provide as much power as they used to. Likely one of those is the culprit.

Does your battery still last as long as it used to when you just bought the laptop? My guess is it doesn't.

 

No, in fact, it's gotten a bit "short-tempered" in just the last month or so. I assumed it wouldn't affect anything, since I almost never use the computer with just the battery. Now, the power adapter is another story... I hadn't thought about the fact that they age, too.

Doh!

 

And now for a moment of...feeling stupid.

I got the dual usb plug to mini usb cord today. Plugged it in, plugged in the external hard drive, and...

...nothing. Nothing in My Computer, nothing in Disk Management.

Then, as I started to write this post, I got a hit to check in the Device Manager. There was nothing listed, but since I'd done some work a few days ago with Device Manager, I went to "View" and clicked on "show hidden" whatever the rest of the thing says. There were several usb/serial-type devices listed, including one that had a red "x" through it. So I went into "Properties" to see what I might see.

Lo and behold, the usb/serial item with the "x" marked through it was disabled. So I enabled it and viola! Suddenly, my external hard drive works again. With or without the splitter cable.

Yes, yes indeed, I feel a little dumb right now. But the thing is, I haven't done anything in the Device Manager for months, except to see what might or might not be missing with this blasted hard drive. I can't begin to imagine, especially since those items are usually hidden, how I could have turned that hard drive, and only that hard drive, off.

Anyway, I wanted to update you all on what was going on, as I promised I would--and also tell anyone who might be having similar problems to be sure to make hidden items visible, and see what might be going on there, BEFORE taking any actions to get your hard drive working.

Thanks, guys, for your help, though; and thank goodness the splitter only cost a few dollars!