When I plug in the USB cable to the computer nothing happens. The little white light on my Maxtor will go on but the windows explorer thingy doesn't open and the hard drive icon doesn't even show on the "my computer" folder. It was working fine a couple of weeks ago. What could be wrong? I did a system restore and it didn't fix the problem. Should I reinstall Windows?
2007-03-29 02:39:27 · 8 answers · asked by AL IS ON VACATION AND HAS NO PIC 5 in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Add-ons
With the USB drive unplugged....
Go into the Control Panel and double click the System Icon
Go to the Hardware tab
Click on the Device Manager button
Scroll down and look for the "USB" section of the installed hardware
Click the + in front of the USB section to expand it
Look for any "Mass Storage Device" listing
If found, right click on it and Uninstall the Device
If not found, right click on and Unistall everything in the USB section
Reboot
Plug in the USB drive and it should be detected
When you plug a USB device into a port, it is detected and information about it is stored. If you later plug that same device into a different USB port, it can confuse Windows. It does not know whether to use the new settings or the stored settings and so it does not initialize the device. Doing the uninstall clears that information and lets Windows properly redetect the device.
2007-03-29 02:47:36 · answer #1 · answered by dewcoons 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Microsoft Windows 2000 and XP users Enter the Windows Device Manager by clicking:
Select Start > Settings > Control Panel.
Double-click the System icon.
Click the Hardware tab.
Click the Device Manager button.
In device manager you should see the USB or 1394 drive listed under Disk drives. The USB drive should also load a Mass Storage Device under the Universal Serial Bus controllers heading.
If the drive shows properly in device manager, then proceed to disk management. If the drive shows in device manager, but has a yellow or red mark, then double-click on the drive to determine the source of the problem.
OneTouch drive models have a drive lock option. If a OneTouch drive is locked it will not show up in Device Manager. If you suspect the drive is locked install the bundled software and it should prompt for a password.
I might add there are several different models of Maxtor External Hard Drives and you didn't list your model or your current operating system.
2007-03-29 03:55:51 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
What operating system you are running. If it's XP then it's ok the USB drives a lot of problems with Win 2000.
This also can happen due to the hard drive cable loose. Not the top one but the one inside the box. If you can try to open the hard drive casing and there will be a cable or direct card that connects to hard drive. Just remove and re attach the cable and the hard drive will start working fine.
2007-03-29 02:44:26 · answer #3 · answered by askMahesh 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You may want to check the jumper on the hard drive. I use an external USB hard drive for backing up computers and there are times when I have to set the jumper in the right place in order for it to work right.
Also. If it's a Western Digital hard drive.. Note* Western Digital hard drives require no jumper if it's on it's own ribbon cable or a device by itself.
Also you may want to see if the computer your trying to connect it to is a 2.0 USB or a 1.0.. It's possible the computer your trying to connect it to does not support it.
2007-03-29 03:22:54 · answer #4 · answered by madwizard56 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you plugged in after the computer was already up and running -you then need to restart the computer start/turnoff/restart. On the second start up it will see that something new is there that wasn't before. Nothing to do with windows. Basic procedure is to have everything hooked up at cold boot....so the computer can see what it is "wearing" for hardware.
When it is up you should go to my computer and open it and find your extra drive.
2007-03-29 02:48:58 · answer #5 · answered by ButwhatdoIno? 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Ouch I hate system restore. Do you have the CD that came with the external hard drive? If you're using Vista, you might have to go to properties of the driver and make it run on Windows XP service pack 2. If not, try to find the driver on http://www.download.com
2007-03-29 02:43:13 · answer #6 · answered by madbaldscotsman 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Sounds like the usb port has gone south. You might want to take it in for service or if available try a different usb port if your computer has more than one.
2007-03-29 02:48:05 · answer #7 · answered by sassyliz32 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Lo último que compre fue un hard disk externo, siempre han sido de calidad los productos que he comprado en los sitios web pero esta compra ha pasado mis expectativos, un transporte muy rápido y un producto excelente de buena marca a un precio sin igual, seguramente la mejor compra.
2014-12-13 21:56:34 · answer #8 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋