External HDD question

ziggenpuss

ziggenpuss

New Member
any advice help is greatly appreciated!:)

I bought a separate hard drive to use externally for extra storage.. it is a Seagate 120 GB UltraATA/100 internal drive.. but, I bought an external USB enclosure .... anyway.. I have it all put together and WindowsXP recognizes it but is unable to format it.. when I run the Seagate utility it says it has created a partition and formatted... but still Windows says it needs to be formatted, and it can't format... it only has the option of formatting in NTSF format.. and my other internal drives are FAT32.. is this the source of the problem? Or is it my MB not being able to handle the extra drive even if it is external? ( I do have two HDD and two CD drives on my machine) Is there any other way to format this disc so that XP can recognize it as empty and useful or do I need to get rid of one of my internal HDD?... do I need to go into BIOS and change a setting? Sorry for the 20 questions.. lol.... :)

Also, the enclosre manual said I need to set the jumpers for the HDD in the enclosure to Master... could this be the problem as well... since my C drive is my master drive internally?

I am novice/beginner but have some understanding so any advice/help is greatly appreciated!!THANKS!


btw....
I am running Windows XP SP 2
1.8GHz 256 DDR
 
There's no problem with having an external drive, even if you have 4 (or more) internal drives, and the manual is correct saying it should be set to master. This will not cause any conflicts. There also shouldn't be any problems mixing FAT32 & NTFS drives (although if you format for NTFS you won't be able to use it on Win 9x or ME computers). I would try taking the drive out of the external case and formatting it while it's inside the computer. (Obviously you will need to unplug one of your internal drives while doing this). Then put it back inside the external case. XP is not perfect with external drives. It's also possible that either the drive or external case is faulty. If the drive doesn't recognise internally, then it's probably faulty, and if once formatted internally it doesn't recognise externally, your external case may be the problem. There's also a remote possibility that it could be your USB port - try another port and see if it helps.
 
thanks ceewi1, I will most definitely be trying that today.... I will let you know how it works out , hopefuly it does.. thanks again for replying.. I really appeciate it!!:)
 
Sorry that I did not come back and say thanks to you, ceewi1, it did work as you suggested, but now unfortunately I have another problem with my external hard drive.. it changed drive letters ( was H: now says I: ) after I hooked up my digital camera ( even after the dig-cam was disconnected) and now won't read at all:eek: and I get the I/O device error message... trouble is I have a lot of files on that drive that are not replaceable .. how do I resolve the error without losing data?:confused:

any help at all would be greatly appreciated! TIA!:o
 
it only has the option of formatting in NTSF format.. and my other internal drives are FAT32..
Click to expand...
So format to NTFS. :)

and I get the I/O device error message
Click to expand...
What error message is this?

Does it show up on Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management --> Drive Management listt?
 
You can change the drive letter in disk management by right clicking on the drive and clicking 'change drive letter and paths'.

If the drive is giving you an I/O error, you'll generally be able to access it by removing the drive from its case and plugging it in internaly. Windows will chkdsk it, and fix any errors without losing data. You can then put it back in your external case.

I've lost count of the number of times i've needed to do this, external drives (well, mine at least) are SO delicate. If anyone has any better ideas i'd love to hear them, but this is the only thing that's worked for me.
 
ceewi1 said:
You can change the drive letter in disk management by right clicking on the drive and clicking 'change drive letter and paths'.

If the drive is giving you an I/O error, you'll generally be able to access it by removing the drive from its case and plugging it in internaly. Windows will chkdsk it, and fix any errors without losing data. You can then put it back in your external case.

I've lost count of the number of times i've needed to do this, external drives (well, mine at least) are SO delicate. If anyone has any better ideas i'd love to hear them, but this is the only thing that's worked for me.
Click to expand...

thanks again,ceewi1.. it looks as though that is my only option:(
and I , too, would love to hear of any other options so this doesn't happen again....:P

yes Praetor... it does show up in Disk Management as Healthy but 100% free space... :confused: I know there are 20 GB of files on there..:eek:
 
Well, did the HDD swap again and the External HD worked well for a day.. and now having the same I/O error message "The request cannot be performed because of an I/O error":mad: I just don't understand it...it works fine internally.. and it works fine externally the day I swap it back into the External case.. and then just.... nothing the next day....:confused: :confused: :confused:

What should I do? I tried to take one of my internal HDD and use it for an external, but it is an old WD and it just wasn't woking... at this point... I am just exasperated... any advice? I can't keep switching them back and forth each day!:(
 
I wanted to tell everyone thanks for all the advice, links and sympathy.. it apparently is my machine.. I went over to my friends house hooked up the external drive to their PC and it worked like a dream... so I took it to my parents house... hooked it up to their laptop.. works like a dream.. I have no idea why it isn't working with my machine, as all three PCs I have hooked it up to all have WindowsXP Home edition SP2... any ideas why my machine hates it?:confused:
 
Go to control panel>administrative tools>services look and see if the service "Removable Storage" is activated and on. That might be the problem and then again, it mgiht not, it's worth a try tho. If the service is not on right-click it and click start, if "start" is greyed out then click properties and set it to automatic instead of disabled. Give this a try, you might need to reboot after setting it to "automatic".
 
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