lnknprkfrevr
New Member
I have a new Western Digital 1TB portable hard drive. It does not get detected on my windows xp sp1 when i connect thru USB cable? I downloaded drivers from Western Digital website. But still no luck, please help.
Portable 1TB hard drive not detected on xp
- Thread starter lnknprkfrevr
- Start date
Can you access the drive from another computer/operating system?
lnknprkfrevr
New Member
Yes it is easily accessible on my Windows 7 desktop BUT NOT on my Windows XP laptop. So what is the solution for this ? ?
When it's attached to the XP computer, go into device manager and see if it has an exclamation point next to it.
lnknprkfrevr
New Member
It does not show up in device manager also, i tried this earlier. I tried to add new hardware, scan for hardware changes, updating USB Root Hub drivers, Un-Checking the option in Power Management. But nothing works . It does not show up in disk management also. If does not appear anywhere anywhere on Windows XP, its hard to think of any ideas. This is the problem I'm facing. I hope you have some other ideas.
Have you tried different USB ports?
lnknprkfrevr
New Member
Yes i tried all the ports. My 8gb flash drive gets detected in all ports easily, but the portable hard drive is giving me trouble. What can i do ? 
BlownFiveLiter
Member
If you look in computer management, do you see it? (right-click my computer -> manage -> double-click storage -> double-click disk management) Also, as John asked, do you hear the USB connect sound?
lnknprkfrevr
New Member
No there is no sound and no icon appears in the system tray of my windows xp
WD 1TB is the hard drive i'm using. It does not require external power.
No i dont see it in computer management.
As WRXGuy1 said i guess the hard drive is not getting enough power from xp desktop. I'm still looking for a solution.
BlownFiveLiter
Member
If the USB ports aren't supplying enough power, there's really only two options I can think of. First is a PCI USB card, and that's still no guarantee of supplying enough power. The next is a powered USB hub. If I had to choose, I'd go with the powered USB hub, just for the sake of having more ports available if need be down the road.
S.T.A.R.S.
banned
Load Linux Ubuntu from the CD-ROM disk.Once it's fully loaded,connect your HDD and wait for 1 minute at least and see if HDD appears.If it DOES appear and works properly then something is wrong with your Windows XP OS.
If not then your computer is obviously not giving it enough power.In that case,you need a power adapter that is capable of connecting IDE/PATA and SATA hard disk drives through USB ports.I am using this one:
Cheers!
If not then your computer is obviously not giving it enough power.In that case,you need a power adapter that is capable of connecting IDE/PATA and SATA hard disk drives through USB ports.I am using this one:
Cheers!
Geoff
VIP Member
Look on the packaging or the manual, it will state that in some cases the computer can not provide enough power with only 1 USB port, and if that's the case you can purchase an adapter through them that plugs into 2 USB ports. I guarantee you that is the issue.
S.T.A.R.S.
banned
Exactly.
Or of course he can always use the power adapter for that.Like the one I showed on the picture above.Both options should work anyway.