Re: more on USB devices

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"Paul" <nospam@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote on 09.11.2007 12:11 GMT the news message
news:fh1mar$bp0$1@xxxxxxxxxxx

Paul Ney wrote:
[device recognised, but not accessible] An external hard drive (enclosure
with power supply and USB cable) has been connected to a USB port, WinXP
(Device Manager) recognized it, and so did Western Digital' Data
Lifeguard
Tools too. But the system did not propose a name (character), thus the
drive could not be accessed by the Explorer.

So, to review

First drive + WinXP = No Drive Letter
Second drive + WinXP = Works OK
First drive + Win98 = Works OK

If the third combination works, I take it you aren't worried about
backing up the data ?

If you go to Disk Management with the first combination, does anything
show up for the device there ? For example, I have a foreign file system
on my second drive, and Disk Management shows "Healthy" for the foreign
partition, but no drive letter (which makes sense). There are two
partitions on the disk, and Disk Management shows two partitions as
expected. In your case, does the number of partitions for the disk look
correct, just no letter ?

There is a procedure for resetting the USB stack here, for what it's
worth. Basically, what this does, is cause Windows to re-enumerate and
reinstall the native USB drivers.

http://www.usbman.com/Guides/Cleanup%20Device%20Manager%20Safe%20Mode.htm

Paul

Thanks for the hints, http://www.usbman.com was also very helpful. On the
first disk: I know it has only one partition, the Device Manager correctly
acknowledges the disk, but the system did not propose a name (char). I guess
there might be a problem with the disk, if the system could not read it or
just its "table of contents", then it won't propose a name. I think I would
use a utility that could handle physical as well as logical drives, it
would read out whatever data it could find.

PY

.

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