My External hard drive has problems.?

Question

my external hard drive still cannont copy it says Device is not ready but i can still see it on the hard drive. HELP PLZ!!

Answer 1

My experience with external hard drives is limited to the ones I've put together myself so this might not apply to store-bought units.

I'm assuming you are running XP.

Did you initialize and format the drive?

(control panel>performance and maintenance>administrative tools>computer management>disk management. I think you right-click on the drive in question and select initialize - takes a second or so - next you format the drive, create partition(s), etc..)

Other than this, the only other thing I can think of with the info you haven't supplied, is that you aren't running XP and you might need to install drivers from a provided CD.

Answer 2

My experience in opening external recently tells me that regardless it was an external package or you put together from internal IDE they are all really IDEs via an external enclosure; if you are comfortable opening it and reinstall as a bona fide IDE drive why don't you do so? This type of error is indicative of the circuitry not the drive itself is faulty, but try to make it sure.

Or if under warranty get a replacement.

Answer 3

Please tell us more or we are just shooting in the dark ....

- model / make of hard drive
- formated with what file system
- has it worked before or is it new
- what version of Windows do you have

Add this info to your question or re-post with these details.

regards,
Philip T

Answer 4

Have you tried rebooting your computer and your ex hd?