WD Western Digital External Hard Drive 320GB Passport Won't Work - WHY?
- Thread starter Pauly73Drifter
- Start date
I started thinking about that, I,m a PS/2 freak and dont use USB mouse and keyboards but I have quite a few that I run with PS/2 adaptors. On one of my second machines I have 2000 on it so I plugged up the USB mouse and keyboard went into device manager and uninstalled the USB controllers/the hubs go out with them. The only thing that happens is that you lose your keyboard and mouse and you have to do a hard restart. After rebooting it just reinstalls the drivers and hubs and your back in. Redetected the mouse-keyboard-scanner and printer no problems. I even pulled out a old socket A with 98se and basically the same thing took place. And beleive it or not 98se and 2000 is still running like a charm, well 98se is running as close to a charm as it can. Neither one somehow got Trashed
There you go again. Once you choose to uninstall items in the DM you will see those yellow marked in the "other devices" section that then appears upon restarting the system. When removing usb host controllers something then like the system file checker or a repair install is then needed to see those back on.
But the need for that is "pointless" since those can all be intact and still not detect an external drive if plugged in before the system is started up due to the Fat32 partition they come with for compatibility with Mac as well as Windows. If you bother to look at the manufacturer's recommendations for 2000/XP/Vista users they all recommend reformatting them to NTFS for use with Windows.
For the initial detection of the drive pertaining to the Passport Esssential usb models in particular.
How to connect and disconnect a WD external hard drive from your PC or Macintosh.
Question How do I connect and disconnect a WD external hard drive from my PC or Macintosh?
Answer IMPORTANT: Failure to connect the drive using the procedure below may result in your system not recognizing the drive. Also, not disconnecting the drive correctly could result in data corruption or data loss.
To connect your external hard drive to your PC computer:
Did you get all of that? or does it need to be repeated?
But the need for that is "pointless" since those can all be intact and still not detect an external drive if plugged in before the system is started up due to the Fat32 partition they come with for compatibility with Mac as well as Windows. If you bother to look at the manufacturer's recommendations for 2000/XP/Vista users they all recommend reformatting them to NTFS for use with Windows.
For the initial detection of the drive pertaining to the Passport Esssential usb models in particular.
How to connect and disconnect a WD external hard drive from your PC or Macintosh.
To connect your external hard drive to your PC computer:
- Turn on your computer and allow Windows to load.
- Plug in the power to the external hard drive and let it spin up.
- Connect the data cable to the drive first and then to the computer.
- You should see a new icon appear in the system tray and the drive should appear in the Device Manager.
- Use the Stop and Eject Hardware icon in the system tray. http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc...2VhcmNoX2ZubCZwX3BhZ2U9MQ**&p_li=&p_topview=1
- The information on 2000 and XP users in particular goes as follows for partitioning and formatting information to make the drive usable.
- How to install, partition, and format an external hard drive in Windows XP and Vista.Question How do I install, partition, and format an external hard drive in Windows XP and Vista?
Answer Note: The information below only applies to those Western Digital external hard drives that do not include the Retrospect Express/driver CD. To install a Western Digital Media Center, Dual-option Backup, Dual-option Backup USB 2.0, or Essiential USB 2.0 drive, please follow the instructions that are included on the Quick Install Guide that came with the drive. The guide can also be found on the CD that came with the drive and in the document library.
Windows XP has the full driver support necessary to support Western Digital external hard drives. The single drive external hard drives ship with a FAT32 partition for the full drive capacity. In most cases, you may simply connect the external hard drive to an available FireWire or USB port on your computer. The dual drive external hard drives ship with either an NTFS (My Book Premium II) or HPS+ (My Book Pro II) partition. Upon connection to the computer, the external hard drive should be recognized and ready for use. Occasionally, the factory partition may not be recognized in Windows. If that is the case, use Disk Management within Windows 2000 to install (partition and format) the external hard drive.
Important: The My Book Pro Edition II hard drive ships with a HPS+ (Journaled) format. This Macintosh native format is not compatible with Windows based computers therefore the drive will need to be repartitioned and reformatted before usage in a Windows based computer.
To partition and format the external hard drive with Disk Management, follow these steps:- Access Disk Management in Windows XP or Vista. From the Start Menu, Left click on the Start button, Right-click on My Computer or Computer, left-click on Manage, and then left-click on Disk Management.
- In the lower window pane, you will see a list of available IDE devices. Locate the desired hard drive to partition and format. You should see a black bar indicating unallocated space for the drive.
Important: If there is no black bar shown (if the bar is blue), the hard drive currently has a partition. Please verify that there is no important data on the hard drive before continuing with the directions below. Right-click on the blue bar and choose the option to Delete Partition. The bar should then turn black indicating unallocated space. - Right-click on the black bar (unallocated space) to see a menu of available options. Select New Partition or New Simple Volume from the menu of available options.
- The Welcome to the New Partition Wizard or New Simple Volume Wizard appears. Windows Vista users, please proceed to step #5. For Windows XP users, Left-click on Next to continue and select Primary. Left-click on Next.
- Select the size of the partition you wish to create and left-click on Next.
- At the next screen, select a drive letter to assign to the partition and left-click on Next.
- The Format Partition screen appears. On this screen you can select the file system, allocation unit size, and volume label you wish to create on the drive.
Note: In almost all cases, it is best to leave the allocation unit size at default. If you are not dual-booting and do not need to use this drive on a Windows 98 SE or Windows ME computer, it is also recommended that you use NTFS as the file system (you can also select FAT16 or FAT32). Dynamic partitions cannot be created on an external hard drive. The Windows 2000 and Windows XP Disk Management utility cannot support the format of a FAT32 partition larger than 32GB. Please refer to Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 184006 for additional information. - Left -click on Next to verify the process and the choices you selected.
- Left -click on Finish to complete the process.
- What be occuring there is the lack of recognition of the factory's own Fat32 partition by Windows. You don't uninstall usb drivers or host controllers but follow their own support information.
- How to initialize (write a signature to) a hard drive in Windows XP.Question How do I initialize (write a signature to) a hard drive in Windows XP?
Answer NOTE: This procedure is for adding a new, blank hard drive to your computer only.
- Occasionally, a hard drive may not be detected by a computer running Windows XP. If that is the case, you may need to initialize (write a signature to) the drive. If your drive is not detected by Windows XP when you check in Disk Management, follow the steps below.
Note: In some cases, the Disk Signature Wizard will start immediately when you run the Disk Management utility for the first time after adding a new drive.- Right-click the My Computer icon on the desktop. If there is not a My Computer icon on the desktop, you can find the My Computer icon on the Start menu.
- Left-click on Manage.
- Left-click on Disk Management.
- The Initialize and Convert Disk Wizard will appear.
- Left-click on the Next button.
- Check the box to the left of the drive that you want to write a signature to.
- Left-click the Next button.
- Left-click the Finish button.
- Your computer should tell you that you can safely remove the drive from the computer now. You may then unplug the drive's power cord from the wall if you wish to turn it off.
Did you get all of that? or does it need to be repeated?
Last edited:
I just did it to 2 different machines no more than 10 minutes ago and it just reloads the drivers, no need to use the file checker or repair install. You just really dont have a clue. Its unbelievable that you think that uninstalling your USB host controller you have to do a (REPAIR INSTALL). I,m out of this one. This is pointless you will say anything!
Last edited:
hahaha. Oh man, it just keeps getting better and better.
As StrangleHold indicates, Windows just reinstalls them. No hassle, no fuss, no muss. It just puts the drivers for any existing devices back in on it's own and that's the end of it.
lol. You know, I'm just thinking. It's one thing to be able to find data on Google. It's a fabulous resource, it really is. However, as PCeye has very clearly consistently demonstrated over his tenure as the village idiot, it's really quite another to effectively apply it.
It's one thing I learned a long time ago about the computer business. You either have it or you don't. While education can teach you the theory, the ability to think logically, analytically, like a computer and effectively apply it is something you're born with. And PCeye is one of those who very clearly doesn't have it. lol
Popcorn anyone?
As StrangleHold indicates, Windows just reinstalls them. No hassle, no fuss, no muss. It just puts the drivers for any existing devices back in on it's own and that's the end of it.
lol. You know, I'm just thinking. It's one thing to be able to find data on Google. It's a fabulous resource, it really is. However, as PCeye has very clearly consistently demonstrated over his tenure as the village idiot, it's really quite another to effectively apply it.
It's one thing I learned a long time ago about the computer business. You either have it or you don't. While education can teach you the theory, the ability to think logically, analytically, like a computer and effectively apply it is something you're born with. And PCeye is one of those who very clearly doesn't have it. lol
Popcorn anyone?
Last edited:
As I mentioned earlier when finding everything in the usb section simply seeing yellow marks it took a repair install to then see things normal again. No uninstall the host controllers was going to work.
Now as far as SirKenin's constant smear campaign if I were to stoop that low I would be a little more original with the constant insults be attempted. But since this thread will likely be deleted anyways... sad for the OP however...
You always mention Google while I never even use it.
As usual you never seem to get things right do you?INTELCRAZY
banned
I sense sarcasm...
SirKenin doesn't look like a straw.... <--Have to be quick of mind to catch that.
The guys a winner/wiener I tell ya. If he put as much effort into getting it right as he does defending stupid stuff he says it could stop global warming.
Yea he did, by not answering it.
I could give ya a list of other stuff, its never ending.
I could give ya a list of other stuff, its never ending.
