Can't use external HDDs, please help!

digitaltreedigitaltree Suffern, NY
edited November 2006 in Hardware
When I set up my computer I had one external hard drive plugged in and two internals. When I try to plug in any other external hard drive, even if I turn my other one off, Windows won't recognize the drive. My flash drive works, but hard drives don't. Anybody have any ideas?

Comments

  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited October 2006
    Have you tried:

    turn the computer off
    turn off the power supply
    turn on BOTH external hard drives
    turn on computer and boot into Windows.

    It may just be that Windows needs to install USB hubs that haven't been used before/haven't been used in a long time.

    Also, have you tried swapping the ext. drives' USB cables to different USB ports to see if one or more of the ports is not working?
  • digitaltreedigitaltree Suffern, NY
    edited October 2006
    Yeah, tried that. I found out that when I have the hard drive plugged in to the USB port, on, and boot the system that way, Windows will recognize it. But, if I plug it into the same port after Windows has booted up it won't work. Could BIOS have anything to do with it?
  • sawsawsawsaw
    edited November 2006
    1)update your operating system this may help.
    2)make sure ur anti-virus is not blocking the drive.
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