Pauly73Drifter

Hi guys, I just purchased one of these: http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=391

Now I have 2 computers that I want to transfer files between. 1 being a SATA HD and the other being IDE HD. I was told that these external passports work on XP and above. Both of my computers are Windows XP. When I connect it to my SATA it starts up but then on the IDE it states USB Device not recognized. I have tried downloading drivers and stuff but still nothing.

Does anyone know how to connect this to an IDE HD computer with XP?

Cheers, all help is highly appreciated!

cRABu

if you ask me, it's a matter of getting the right driver

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SirKenin

And if you ask someone that has a clue, there's no driver needed for XP. It will just automatically detect. If it doesn't, it could be a USB issue, XP issue or even an issue with the portable drive itself.

If Mr. Google comes along you might get lucky and get a copy and paste tutorial, but what you'll want to do is enter a new environment variable in the advanced computer properties named "devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices" with a value of 1, then show hidden devices in the control panel and delete any references to hardware, particularly drives and USB devices, that no longer exist. Better yet, delete all the USB devices and controllers, hidden or otherwise. Power down the computer and leave it unplugged for five minutes. Power up again, let the USB devices reinstall and then try plugging in your USB drive.

oregon

What type of filesystem is it? It is probably FAT32, and therefore should not be a problem. If not though, reformat to FAT32 (or NTFS if you only use windows).

Also check in device manager and see if it shows up there, but is not mounting in
Windows explorer. I had this problem, and I think I just unplugged and replugged the passport. If not though, see if you can manually mount it. Also try the other usb ports.

The type of hard drive in your computers should not affect anything. It is probably some other problem, hopefully one of the above.

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dznutz

did you try the usb ports on the backside?

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PC eye

The type of drive has nothing at all to do with it. The move from one system to another plays a role if the second was off when first plugged in. Without seeing the installer appear the drive will remain invisible to Windows while detected by the bios.

With the default information showing Windows and Mac support the partition type on WD models is generally Fat32. Once you reformat that to NTFS on one system it will also appear as a new logical on the next once detected. Wait until Windows is fully loaded on the second system before plugging it in. That seems to work the best while still having the Fat32 type partition on them.

The installation screen may not be the exact same from being a different model. But it should see very much the same options you can uncheck if not wanted.

SirKenin

Probably not much sense in telling Mr. Screenshots that his post is meaningless because you'll never see that screen he's posting until you get the device to recognize, which has absolutely nothing to do with any WD software.

Meh. No use trying to explain it to him either or we'll just get spammed with more irrelevant Google links and copy-and-pastes.

PC eye

What was all that crap and fabrication on your part?!

"deleting all usb devices"? Total nonsense!

With the original Fat32 type partition you need to see the install screen come up. You'll notice the WD logo for the particular usb model used here while the one for the Passport model should look close to that.

In XP the process of simply plugging the drive's usb cable into a rear port saw the installation screen appear right following the detection by Windows of the new device being added. Unless you have a bad port on the board that should come up promptly.

One other thing to be sure of is seeing that all files on the drive are still intact. With it plugged into the first system if you haven't got it running on the second browse the drive itself to verify that all original files are present. Not caring one way or another if this gets under Mr. Fabricator's collar the files should look like what is seen in the image here.

SirKenin

Before anything, the drive must be detected. That starts with the controller in the Passport. It can't detect what the controller is, so it says "unknown device". The file system has nothing to do with it.

The same "USB device not recognized" message also occurs with mice, USB keyboards, etc. Resetting the computer by pulling the power from it for five minutes is a well documented trick to resetting the USB ports.

The next thing is that Windows stores all the drivers for USB devices that were ever plugged into the system. The best example I saw of this was at a client of mine that runs a printing shop. People bring their USB keys in with their materials on it. After they leave, all the entries are still left in the device manager, although they're hidden. Eventually it started causing problems so I had to go in and manually delete them all, but there were a zillion of them.

That's where the devmgr command comes in handy. By default, Windows won't show most hidden devices in normal mode, even if you tell it to in the Device Manager drop down menu. That command will (after which you then select the show hidden devices item in the DM).

After you go through and delete all the devices that are no longer there (they're faded out) including the volume shadow copies, you restart the machine, then power up the WD and plug it in. Once it detects the controller in the cabinet you're off to the races. THEN, and only then, can you worry about all the nonsense you posted.

PC eye

Why would anyone want to trash Windows and end up seeing yellow marked usb host controllers and other items foobar when they are far better off reviewing actual support information seen at WD not your fabrications?!

Problems with a WD Passport drive not spinning up, not being recognized, and/or clicking upon power up. Question Why does a WD Passport drive click or not spin up when connected to a USB port? Answer Problem:
The WD Passport drive either does not spin up or tries to spin but clicks when it is connected to a USB port.

Cause:
There may not be enough power currently supplied to the machine's USB port. Some computer systems only supply 500mA of power through USB ports. The WD Passport hard drive requires a little over 1000mA of power at spin up.

Solution:
Try the Passport drive on another USB port or another computer. If the Passport drive is connected to a USB hub, try connecting it directly to the computer's USB port. If the drive is connected to a PCMCIA (PC Card) on a notebook computer, the drive may only function properly if you power it with the optional power adapter (Silver Passport) or a USB 2.0 Power Booster Cable (Black or Colored Passport). If you decide to use a third-party USB cable to connect the drive to the computer, the cable may not be able to transfer enough power to the drive (This includes USB "reel" cables and extension cables). Western Digital offers an optional power adaptor and an optional USB 2.0 Power Booster cable (the USB 2.0 Power Booster cable has two USB connectors that plug into the computer instead of one).

http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc....i=&p_topview=1


The drive is funtioning well on one system showing that there is likely some other reason why it may not on the second pc. You first have to find out what that is without trashing the current installation.