# Solved: External USB hard drive not recognized



## hastings (Sep 12, 2002)

Hi all,

I recently purchased a Adaptec USB 2.0 drive enclosure, and popped in a Western Digital drive. Problem is that the PC does not mount the drive. The 'Safely remove device' icon comes up, but XP Pro won't stop the drive so it can be unplugged. I tried this in my backup unit with Win98SE , installed the drivers there before plugging in the machine (these drivers were not installed in XP, as it's supposed to automatically recognize it), and essentially get the same problem. The hard drive is already partitioned and formatted, and if I install it in a PC, the drive otherwise works perfectly. According to manufacturer's directions, it supposedly needs to be done again. It shouldn't.

My old USB 1.1 external drive that I had used drivers for xp and 98, worked fine before I broke it. I am totally at a loss as to why the hard drive is not recognized in XP or 98SE. 

Sincerely,
Mike T.


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## lemondrop (Jun 24, 2004)

Does your computer support USB 2.0?


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## hastings (Sep 12, 2002)

Hi,

Thanks for responding.

Yes, mobos on both PC's have USB 2.0 hardwired ports (Asus P4PE, P4PE2-x). Correct me if I'm wrong, but USB 2.0 should be backward-compatible to USB 1.1, correct?

I also checked my services in XP Pro. There was nothing to the best of my knowledge that was disabled that should not have been for the drive to work.

Best,
Mike T.


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

Right click on My Computer, Manage, Disk Management.

You should see the drive there, let us know what the status is. It may indeed need formatting. Of course, since you didn't specify the exact make/model of the USB enclosure or drive, it's hard to know more about compatibility. I assume you've jumpered the drive as master, correct?


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## hastings (Sep 12, 2002)

Hi John,

The drive does not show up under disk management, and the jumper is set to master. I had tried this also with a second partitioned/formatted Western Digital hard drive (10GB) with the same results. The manufacturer of the enclosure is Adaptec model ACS-100 USB 2.0 hard drive enclosure kit.

With both drives (the other a WD 1.6GB drive) I partitioned/formatted both outside of the enclosure by installing into my backup pc, and then tried them within the Adaptec enclosure. It should have been seen by XP/98se, but they are not. As Western Digital is a major HDD manufacturer, there shouldn't be any compatability problems.

Mike T.


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## Saga Lout (Sep 15, 2004)

Being Western Digital, the Master/Slave jumpering arrangement is different from most other makers. Master with Slave present needs a different jumper than Master acting alone. Could this be the problem?


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## hastings (Sep 12, 2002)

Hi Saga,

I going to throw in the towel on this one...

I tried every concievable jumper setting with no luck. I even tried a Maxtor 40GB drive with the same results. These drives are supposed to be compatable, according to Adaptec. Checking out their site didn't help much. I'm totally at a loss as to why a perfectly working formatted/partitioned drive is not recognized in windows. I followed all manufacturers' instructions to the letter. In doing a search on these forums, I found that several other people had the same problem, both with HDD enclosure cases and 'native' external hard drives. There didn't seem to be any clear fixes to this. Wish I knew what it was. The case now heads back to my local retailer.

Thanks to all who tried to assist in this matter. Very much appreciated.

Sincerely,
Mike T.


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

I suspect the case is bad, return it and buy a different one. I have put together dozens of these things, and I've had a couple that were dead.


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## hastings (Sep 12, 2002)

I seemed to have answered my own question here.

Evidently, the hard drives I was using for the enclosure were the earlier IDE drives, as opposed to E-IDE. I got a 10GB E-IDE drive yesterday, and the drive is recognized/assigned drive letter in both XP and 98SE.

Now I'm as happy as the proverbial pig in a pig sty. Thanks again to all who assisted me in this matter.

Cheers,
Mike T.


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## computer4444 (Jun 6, 2005)

I have the same enclosure with the same problem.... on the web site it says it will work with all hard drives, even old ones.

But mine will not work with any of my drives, like a 250GB Maxtor set to slave, master or cable select.

or any of my IBM 20G drives.


My smaller drives work great in my other external USB device made by a different manufactuer.


This is copied from adaptecs webpage:
Q. Any limitations on the age or capacity of the hard drive that you support? 


No. As long as you have a 3.5" IDE/ATA hard disk drive in good condition, the ACS-100 should support it to a maximum of 1000GB disk capacity.

Q. What kind of hard drives can I use with ACS-100 USB enclosure?


ACS-100 is compatible with any 3.5" IDE/ATA hard disk drive including IBM, Hitachi, Seagate, Samsung, Western Digital, Quantum and Maxtor.



The box says model ACS-100 and says the following: Ideal for 3.5" E-IDE/ATA hard disk drives


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## scaup (Jul 28, 2008)

I have a cheap generic enclosure and I had the same problem. old drive did not work, newer drives worked fine.


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