Western Digital WD2500ME now on XP OS
My laptop is in the shop getting fixed. So I had to use this rather outdated XP computer. I can open all of my flash drives and both the other external hard drives which have power supplies and open by means of Autoplay.
This computer reads my Western Digital WD2500M, just fine too. No error messages or anything like that. After I open this drive in "My Computer" a window opens where the files and folders are suppose to appear, but I don't see any files or folders. This drive doesn't run on a power supply either as it is powered through the USB port. My laptop is an Acer Aspire with Windows Vista and that is the computer I've been using this drive on with no problems.
So I wonder if anyone have any ideas as to why I can't view the files, though everything looks OK otherwise?
This computer reads my Western Digital WD2500M, just fine too. No error messages or anything like that. After I open this drive in "My Computer" a window opens where the files and folders are suppose to appear, but I don't see any files or folders. This drive doesn't run on a power supply either as it is powered through the USB port. My laptop is an Acer Aspire with Windows Vista and that is the computer I've been using this drive on with no problems.
So I wonder if anyone have any ideas as to why I can't view the files, though everything looks OK otherwise?
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XP only can view and browse and access partitions of less than 2TB in size as Maximum size. Anything sized over that will not show up as far as data names, folders, etc. as XP just cannot handle the sheer size of the partition. I am figuring from the 2500M model number that this is a 2.5 TB USB WD-- WD by default, for the USB drives, sets up one partition on the drive unless formatted to be compatible with XP.
REFORMATTING with the Windows Quick Formatter from WD Support will lose you all your data - period(getting your data back can be done very, very, expensively, but....
So, can you hook your USB drive up to a friend's computer with Vista on it and take off anything you have to have (to a USB drive less than 2 TB in size) or burn it to DVDs or CDs??? You may have to go to WD support and get the Windows SES driver (provides support for Vista and/or XP to handle the drive as a Mass Storage Device)for the drive to work on your friend's computer. Either something like that or wait until the laptop is fixed to get at your data is your choice.
John.
You don't have to worry about me ever formatting this drive. I will have to wait until I get my Windows Vista laptop back. If I have too, I will try to extract the folders and files using an extraction program like I had to when some of my other drives went bad. I'm hoping that it takes off when I get my laptop back.
Alice
UM, missing driver I think.... Let me do some MORE web research....
My bad, the 2500ME is a 250 GB drive-- as WD says 250, Windows would say about 230+.
Yes, it sounds like the drive is only showing its hidden partition for some reason. I would say look for data with your extraction program, but be careful about getting it back(copy it elsewhere until you are sure you are getting good data).
The only thing I could also mention is that the drive MIGHT look like a virtual CD-ROM to XP-- this only is possible, not certain... Look in my computer and see if it shows up as a removable drive of CD-ROM type. If yes, tell me here please.
Were you using WD Sync on your laptop? If so, you might need to install it on the XP box to see your files MAYBE. It maybe that the index for the synced files is on your laptop (I hope not) and the drive will only work with the WD Sync on your laptop.
So, do not give up, but this is getting somewhat complex. Try installing WD Sync and see if your files appear suddenly.
Link to WD Sync: http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=203&sid=84&lang=en
To download, your drive needs to be registered with WD and you need to be logged in to that registration ID.
One other hint given to WD forum and support readers, is that you need to be using a USB 2.0 cable 18 inches long, NOT plugged into a USB hub.
John.
I have 3 USB hubs with a total of 6 USB ports. But as old as this computer is it still has the first version of XP. The cable on my WD drive is 18" and is USB 2.0.
I never really paid any attention to whether I was using WD Sync on my laptop but I would like to use the WD drive here as well. But all of my external hard drives were seen as E: and the flash drives where seen as removable with F:.
I'm not really anxious to do anything until I get my laptop back next week. I have a lot of valuable files on this. And since this computer isn't seeing any problems, I sure don't want to mess anything up through an extraction program.
But, I'm wondering if this drive should be on the E partition instead of the F partition like this computer shows? But what puzzles me is I can view all of the files on my other external drives regardless of the partition letter. I'm also wondering that being powered from a USB port is maybe the reason I'm not seeing these files either. When I got this computer there were no such thing as flash drives and I had to buy a kit that I put a regular harddrive in and they didn't work very good. I'm just wondering with this computer being as old as it is and my WD device being something verily new that there is just a compatibility problem too.
I've had my other 2 external drives with the external power supplies for a while now. My WD don't e ven work on my other laptop with XP either.
Do you think I may need WD Sync?
Sorry that this is a little long and I will keep the web address you gave me should I need a new driver.
Alice
I am leaning more and more to a compatibility problem(an old USB 1.0 port might not supply enough power or send data right, true) or the lack of WD Sync. I think, given that it is not working on two XP laptops, that you might do best to wait and use it with the repaired laptop if you can.
If you used WD Sync on your Vista laptop, the files could well be hidden from anything but WD Sync (but I do not use it, am speaking from experience with other sync programs which maintain an index of what is where internally to the sync program data for security and updating records also, and the files can only be seen by the sync programs I have used).
WD specifically says not to plug the drives into an EXTERNAL USB hub, citing data corruption and underpowering problems-- built-in to laptop so-called hubs are referring to the onboard chips and sockets and are not forbidden to use.
I have shared what I know, so cannot help more, sorry. WD does not document WD Sync to unregistered users, and I do not have a WD Passport to get into the secured area of Passport support by registering it.
John.
Alice
Alice
Well, good that you unhid them. Well, sounds like something hid them, but I have no idea what-- possibly XP did not understand something set by Vista (Vista has a more modern NTFS revision, where NTFS is New Technology File System, used by XP, XP Pro, Vista, Windows 7, and NT Server and more modern Windows Servers through Server 2010) which has more reorganized (slightly) file mode flags. File mode flags are like meaning Hidden, System, Read-Only, etc. NTFS adds security descriptor flags and other techie flags that help NTFS figure out if files are corrupt and other things like that.
I THINK whatever you did converted a file system flag from XP's point of view that made hidden=false code (the code is in hexadecimal, probably a hex 0x0 for false). All hidden to an NTFS file system or even to FAT32 or
DOS means, is not to show the file in directories, thus it will not show in Explorer either in Windows. The file exists, but cannot be seen.
Thanks for the pointer about the fix....
John.