External Drive Not Recognised in vista

arsebandit

Im have a problem with an external drive on vista , It works perfect on xp. when i connect it the laptop finds it ... installed the drives ~(first time i connected ) get the message device is ready etc.. but its not seen in my computer. I went to the hard drives website "Lacie" and it gave a procedure or formatting the drive but i cant see to get it done.. i keep getting a message "device is not ready" and i can go no further.
As instructed i went to disk management and followed the instructions there... no luck same message , i cant initize the drive .
I have backed up the drive to a xp machine .. tried formatting it on the xp just to see if it would solve my problem but NO!

Any ideas or help would be great ... im a novice so please plain english will be helpful!

yoyo

arsebandit wrote: »

Im have a problem with an external drive on vista , It works perfect on xp. when i connect it the laptop finds it ... installed the drives ~(first time i connected ) get the message device is ready etc.. but its not seen in my computer. I went to the hard drives website "Lacie" and it gave a procedure or formatting the drive but i cant see to get it done.. i keep getting a message "device is not ready" and i can go no further.
As instructed i went to disk management and followed the instructions there... no luck same message , i cant initize the drive .
I have backed up the drive to a xp machine .. tried formatting it on the xp just to see if it would solve my problem but NO!

Any ideas or help would be great ... im a novice so please plain english will be helpful!

Under Disk Management right click the Lacie drive and change the letter to an unused one, such as H: for eg. Driver letter conflicts can cause such issues. You shouldn't need to format it if XP reads it btw...

Nick

arsebandit

Cant seem to change the drive letter, no option there? on the top section i have the c drive , then the lacie but it has no letter assinged, just shows the drive .. no letter, on the bottom section it shows " Disc 0 then 2 drive section my c drive and the lacie ,

Below that is Disc 1 with a red arrow and "Unknown "

No option anywhere to change the letter????

yoyo

arsebandit wrote: »

Cant seem to change the drive letter, no option there? on the top section i have the c drive , then the lacie but it has no letter assinged, just shows the drive .. no letter, on the bottom section it shows " Disc 0 then 2 drive section my c drive and the lacie ,

Below that is Disc 1 with a red arrow and "Unknown "

No option anywhere to change the letter????

Could you post a screenshot, just out of interest its never been used in a Mac? You could have something like MacDrive on the XP machine

Nick

arsebandit

yoyo wrote: »

Could you post a screenshot, just out of interest its never been used in a Mac? You could have something like MacDrive on the XP machine

Nick

Nope never on a mac.. perfect on xp !! ill try a screen shot now. the problem seems to be i cant initialize it ? when i try through disc management i get a error "device is not ready" .. Screen shot to follow

yoyo

arsebandit wrote: »

Nope never on a mac.. perfect on xp !! ill try a screen shot now. the problem seems to be i cant initialize it ? when i try through disc management i get a error "device is not ready" .. Screen shot to follow

Could be a USB port problem, do you plug the drive in at the wall, or is it USB powered?

Nick

arsebandit

drive screen.jpg

arsebandit

usb powered.. ill try a powered hub now and come back

arsebandit

nope .. still the same

yoyo

Sounds to me like the drive isn't getting enough power, if the drive is USB powered sometimes they come with a Y USB cable, for some machines you must plug in two USB connectors to get full power, if the drive only uses one USB connector you may need a Y cable, like this

Nick

arsebandit

yoyo wrote: »

Sounds to me like the drive isn't getting enough power, if the drive is USB powered sometimes they come with a Y USB cable, for some machines you must plug in two USB connectors to get full power, if the drive only uses one USB connector you may need a Y cable, like this

Nick

I have a power supply from anothe drive .. tried it still nothing . seems to be a common problem with no clear fix from searches on the net .. it is an old drive 3/4 years old . time for a new drive

yoyo

arsebandit wrote: »

I have a power supply from anothe drive .. tried it still nothing . seems to be a common problem with no clear fix from searches on the net .. it is an old drive 3/4 years old . time for a new drive

Sorry to hear man, it could well be a design issue on the Drive, it does seem like a power problem though

Nick