external usb drives not recognized

[Jim624]

Dell D600....Win XP home......when Im plug in any USB external drive....it will not recognize it.....no "New Hardware" windows pops open....and there is no change in the disk managament. Smaller thumb drivers are recognized but I have 2 30 GB external drives that are not....any help is appreciated

[dhdan]

If you look under device manager in the usb section does it show an unknown device? Also, has this device been unplugged from the computer without "ejecting" it?

[nitroshift]

Do they show up in Device Manager? If yes, then go into their properties and under Volumes click Populate.

[Jim624]

does not show up in device manager....and nothing has been unplugged without being properly ejected

[Jim624]

Now I am getting a power surge message.... so I purchased a powered USB hub and am still getting the power surge message and still cannot view my ext. harddrives

[dirtwarrior]

Do they show up in Device Manager? If yes, then go into their properties and under Volumes click Populate.

Mine shows up in device manager but will not show up in my computer. I did not see the option to populate in device manager.

[LLXX]

Now I am getting a power surge message.... so I purchased a powered USB hub and am still getting the power surge message and still cannot view my ext. harddrives

Does the drive itself have an auxillary power connector? Do they even spin up when connected?

It seems you may be experiencing a power problem. Physical disk drives need considerably more power than those based on flash RAM.

[tain]

I've seen this problem go away after rebooting.

[Kamus]

I have the same problem with a external disk of 250 gb, but I buy it with an adapter (internal to external), and never works.

I did have to buy another adapter(more quality I guess) and works fine

and now I have 2 external disk one of 250 gb with the new adapter and the other with a disk of 80 gb (with the old).

anybody can explain why?

[Jim624]

Both these drives are scavenged laptop HD's...they both work just fine on any laptop........just not my laptops.......and that is what I need them, for