# Solved: my external hard drive does not appear in My Computer



## fei888 (Jan 23, 2005)

Hi Everyone,

I just bought a USB 2.0 hard disk enclosure and an internal hard drive. I put the hard drive into the enclosure, connected the data cord and power cord, then plugged it into my desktop. I got a message saying found new hardware, but when I opened "My Computer" the hard drive icon did not appear.

I tried jump settings, Master, Slave, Cable select, but none of them helps.

I did not format the disk either, since I can't "see" it, I cannot format it.

What is the problem? Can someone help?

Appreciate any help.

Fei


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## dustyjay (Jan 24, 2003)

Supposing you are using Win Xp. Connect the drive in the enclosure as Master. Connect the enclosure to your usb port. Open Computer Management and then Disk Manager. You should see the new drive in there as unallocated. Right click on the drive. Initialize and partition it. It will format it for you in the process. It will then show up in MY COMPUTER. A drive has to be partitioned before it will show up in Windows Explorer or My Computer.


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## fei888 (Jan 23, 2005)

Thank you, and yes, I am using XP. But where is Computer Management? And also, why it should be set to Master since my desktop already has a hard drive in it? Just try to understand please.

Thanks again.


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

The master/slave jumpering has no bearing on where the drive appears, since it's in an external case. Almost all external USB/Firewire cases require the drive to be jumpered as master.

Right click on My Computer, Manage, Disk Management.


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## erick295 (Mar 27, 2005)

Go to the Control Panel, then Administrative Tools, then Computer Management, then Disk Management. And I just want to second his suggestion - you will need to partition and format the drive before it will show up in My Computer.

The master and slave jumper settings don't depend on the computer, they depend on the IDE channel that the drive is running on. Your enclosure has its own IDE channel, and the drive inside is running on that channel by itself. The actual setting you need to use depends on the drive. Western Digitals, for example, will not work in an enclosure if they are set as a master - you have to leave the jumper off altogether. Read the manual that came with the drive or check the manufacturer's Web site to see what setting it needs while running alone.


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## fei888 (Jan 23, 2005)

Okay, one last question, does partition mean to divide into several smaller portions? I just want to use it to store some data. So could I not partition it but just format it?


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## erick295 (Mar 27, 2005)

You still need to partition it, but you'll only be creating a single partition that fills the entire drive. Formatting is technically a different step.


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

I always make my external drives a single NTFS partition. No real point in chopping them up into sections.


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## fei888 (Jan 23, 2005)

Thanks everyone for your kind help. I will give it a try this evening and report back.


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## glowpowered (Feb 10, 2006)

erick295 said:


> Western Digitals, for example, will not work in an enclosure if they are set as a master - you have to leave the jumper off altogether.


im running a WD in an external enclosure as a master, works great


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## dustyjay (Jan 24, 2003)

The jumper setting I have discovered actually has more to do with the enclosure than the manufacturer of the drive.


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## fei888 (Jan 23, 2005)

I am happy to report that I tried last night and it worked. I followed the instrctions and was albe to format the external hard disk and now it shows in My Computer.

Before closing, I'd like to ask one more question. My daughter downloads a lot of games and after about 6 months or so the computer becomes very slow and I have to format the hard drive and reinstall the system software and all the applications. I heard there is something called reimaging, which is to copy drive C on an external hard drive when everything is freshly reinstalled, then later on when the computer is corrupted, just copy it back, saves a lot of time. How exactly to do that? Do I need a special software? Could I partition my external hard drive, use portion of it for this purpose and the rest for storing data?

Thanks.


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## Stallcup (Apr 23, 2005)

fei888 said:


> My daughter downloads a lot of games and after about 6 months or so the computer becomes very slow and I have to format the hard drive and reinstall the system software and all the applications.


The first step to take is to install the necessary security programs, keep them updated, and run them frequently in order to keep your system clean. There are plenty of freeware anti-virus, anti-spyware and firewall programs available to accomplish that task. If I were to suggest you spend $ toward security, assuming you are using broadband, I would recommend you purchase a router, a $35 - $50 expenditure, which will give you all the firewall protection you will most likely need. If you feel you needed outgoing program control, you could then add a light-weight, freeware software firewall like Kerio, for example.



fei888 said:


> I heard there is something called reimaging, which is to copy drive C on an external hard drive when everything is freshly reinstalled, then later on when the computer is corrupted, just copy it back, saves a lot of time. How exactly to do that? Do I need a special software? Could I partition my external hard drive, use portion of it for this purpose and the rest for storing data?


There are cloning and imaging software programs, like Acronis True Image and Norton's GHOST which will accomplish this task. Imaging is a "snapshot" of you drive (or partition) which you can store in another drive (or partition) and, should the need arise, you can restore it to the original source location. Cloning, is a bit-by-bit exact duplication of the source drive (or partition) which is copied (cloned) to another drive (or partition) and, should the need arise, can be cloned back from the destination drive (or partition) to the source drive (or partition).

You can repartition you current system drive to have one partition with you Operating System, and another partition with the programs and data. You can then divide your external drive into two or more partitions (a third one, perhaps, for data), and image (or clone) the OS partition to one of the partitions on the external drive, and the program and data partition to the other partition on the external drive. There are other combinations you can set up; I have presented only one as an example.


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## fei888 (Jan 23, 2005)

Thank you for all your help. My problems are solved.

Fei


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## El_arabe65 (Apr 25, 2006)

hey guys
another problem that i am having is that i cant even see the hard drive in the disk management console, but in the device manger theres a flagged USB mass storage device. but nothing beside my c:\ drive was in the disk management what do i do.
Thank i really appreciate it


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