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For the first one: Does the cord have 2 usb plugs that go into the pc? All my externals that I have had have had a total of 3 connectors on the cord. Think of it this way one for data and one for power... You might not be getting enough power to the drive for windows to use it fully... As for the second drive: It might just be dead... No, the cords don't have 2 pc-side plugs. They are just like the one that came with the HDD, but if I find one like what you describe I will give it a whirl. Any idea where I could find one? Well it is a standard 3.5" SATA drive but unfortunately it has a PCB soldered directly to the SATA ports. here is where hte mini-usb connector fell off, this is the side of the hard drive: and here is where it is soldered onto the ports:

I have 2 external hard drives that I am having trouble with. The first is a Western Digital Passport portable external hard drive. It is a 2.5" drive with a USB connection, no power supply. I plug it in and the light on the drive comes on but it does not appear in My Computer or Disk Management, and in Safely Remove Hardware it is only labeled as "USB device" I have tried multiple computers (all XP), USB cables, and ports. Is there anything I can do to get the files off it or is it doomed? I don't get any warnings or errors or anything when I plug it in. I hear the noise that occurs when you plug in stuff like thumb drives and also when you remove them. It doesn't show up in disk management and I haven't changed anything on the computers that I'm using. The second is a Seagate that was damaged in shipping. It is out of warranty so I cracked it open. From what I can tell just looking at it, it should be in working order except that the mini-USB connector has simply popped off. I can't just plug the SATA directly to my motherboard because of how the PCB is connected. So what I'm wondering is how I should go about getting the data off of it? If I soldered the mini-USB connector back on it would work fine, correct? I don't know how to solder and I only have a handful of friends who can, and they aren't very good at it. It's a pretty small connector, I wouldn't be comfortable doing it myself even if I bought a soldering iron and learned how. Can I take it somewhere that will do it for me? Thanks in advance.

oops I guess I left out the time zone huh now that is completed for me but it still asks me to "take a minute and set up windows XP" where it asks about the firewall settings and other stuff.

yes, here it is

I'm having trouble getting my customized installation to be unattended, and during installation asks me about settings that I have specified in nLite. this is what it looks like when I install from .iso in VirtualBox. why does it do this or how can I fix it? this is my .ini file copy and pasted

sorry to double post but ive got a lot of questions here, and im trying to organize it and generalize them to make it easier on you guys. so heres the most general ones and ill ask specifics later when i have more time. first things first is compatibility what is NT Backup | Volume Shadow Copy or how do i determine if i need it? about drivers, i can just delete all of them and then install my own, correct? like cameras/camcorders will be replaced by my Canon/Sony drivers, display will be replaced by nvidia, wireless ethernet by Linksys, etc? but i have a ThinkPad so i think i need "Display Adapters (old)" but will i need "IBM PS/2 TrackPoint" or "IBM Thinkpad" or both? for hardware support, if im not sure should i remove it or keep it? for multimedia, what exactly is "Images and Backgrounds" and it sounds like something XPize would replace, is it? also is it ok to remove the Intel Indeo codecs if you add them back in with K-Lite Mega Codec Pack, or could there be compatibility issues? under network, im not sure if this is relevant or not but i have Vonage. is there anything i need to make sure i keep in order to keep Vonage working? OS options, again should i remove or keep if im not sure? also, is there a preferred way to test (VirtualPC or VMWare) or one that runs better than the other?

i am making 3 nLited Windows installations. 1 is XP Media Center Edition, and 2 are XP Pro. the MCE and 1 Pro is for a desktop, and the 2nd Pro is for a laptop. i planned on making a base installation, removing everything that none of the 3 need, and then customize the base 3 times to suit each installation. so i made a base install from XP Pro and used that .ini to make a base for MCE becuase i figured they might be a little different. i have a few questions. is there a place where i can find more documentation on the different options? something more in depth than what is in nLite? there were some things i had questions on but if there is already a topic explaining that, i dont want to waste anyone's time. but if not i will ask some more questions.