Drive Icon Not Showing Up In Winexplorer

[ramone_kalsaw]

I'm using an external Maxtor DiamondMax 10 HD in an AMS VENUS enclosure on WinXP. The drive has been working fine for months until today, because its icon is not showing up in Windows Explorer so I can't access it on my PC. I attached the disk setup -- disk, firewire cable, and powerpack -- to my iMac and the drive shows up on the mac desktop and is accessible.

 

Can anyone offer some troubleshooting ideas for how to get WinXP to re-recognize the drive?

 

Thanks!

[TCH-Andy]

have you tried simply rebooting with it in ?

[ramone_kalsaw]

have you tried simply rebooting with it in ?

Several times.

[TCH-Bruce]

Have you added any other devices to your machine that could possibly be using the same drive letter as the drive?

 

I have this problem at work where I have network drive configured as drive F. When I plug in the external drive XP assigns it drive F and I cannot see it because my network drive is already drive F.

 

With the drive plugged in, open your computer management dialog from Control Panel. Select Disk Management, find the removable drive and reassign it's drive letter by right clicking on the drive and selecting the "Change Drive Letter" function. That should solve your problem.

[TCH-JimE]

Hello,

 

In XP have you looked through the error logs. Does it come up with anything? They can be found by selecting manage when right clicking on my computer and then event viewer, then system.

 

JimE

[ramone_kalsaw]

Hello,

 

In XP have you looked through the error logs. Does it come up with anything? They can be found by selecting manage when right clicking on my computer and then event viewer, then system.

 

JimE

After working with Dell customer support they decided that the firewire port on my Dell Inspiron 8200 laptop is functioning. They determined this by having me download and install the "'Intel Mobile Chipset' (which the tech said updates the firmware of the laptop's firewire port, and because the installation was successful, the firewire port is fine; but more importantly this download was supposed to address some known issues regarding connecting non-Dell firewire peripherals. But it didn't fix my problem.

 

I'm still not able to get firewire connectivity between my external devices and the laptop. Though each device works fine via USB, and I am able to get connectivity via firewire on the Mac.

 

I'm at a loss here: My winxp/firewire connection was working fine the other day, and for no apparent reason has crapped out. Productivity has taken a big hit.

 

Any suggestions?

 

Thanks!

 

 

On Monday, March 27, 2006 at 12:47 pm, Mark wrote:

>You should be looking under USB heading.

>

>

>

[Madmanmcp]

I attached the disk setup -- disk, firewire cable, and powerpack -- to my iMac and the drive shows up on the mac desktop and is accessible.

 

Ummm, I'm not a Mac user but I don't believe a Mac can read a drive that is formatted in FAT or NTFS, or XP read a drive formatted by a Mac. If they are Networked and the drivers loaded they can, but I don't think you can move an external between the two OS's to share files. So maybe the last use it was formatted by the Mac and that prevents XP from recognizing it.

 

I've also did a Google search and found a couple of issues with the Dell firewire and External WD drives. The fixes I read were to use USB, It maybe a Dell issue.

 

I would keep calling Dell support and see if they can help.

[ramone_kalsaw]

I would keep calling Dell support and see if they can help.

Unless I can figure this out, it looks like the alternative is Dell-on-call. They charge $100 bucks and guarantee a solution, or your money back ... seems a shame given that all I did was unplug and plug-back-in a drive that's been working fine for months.

[TCH-Rob]

If I may ask, and this may be nothing. What are the drive letters you are using when this drive is not plugged in?

[ramone_kalsaw]

If I may ask, and this may be nothing. What are the drive letters you are using when this drive is not plugged in?

 

Internal drives are:

 

Local disk=(C:)

DVD Drive=(D:)

CD-RW Drive (F:)

 

When the external hd is plugged in it is: (Z:)

 

Thanks!

[TCH-Rob]

Try this

 

1. Click Start on the taskbar, then right-click My Computer on the desktop or from the Start menu, and then click Manage.

2. Under Computer Management, click Disk Management.

3. In the list of drives in the right pane,is it listed there? If so, right-click it and then click Change Drive Letter and Paths.

4. Click Change, and in the drop-down box, specify a drive letter for the Device.

5. Click OK, and then click OK again.

 

In the Computer management window, click the + next to Services and Applications. Then click Services. Look for one called "Removable Storage". Is it started and what is it set to, Manual, Disabled or Automatic?

[ramone_kalsaw]

Try this

 

1. Click Start on the taskbar, then right-click My Computer on the desktop or from the Start menu, and then click Manage.

2. Under Computer Management, click Disk Management.

3. In the list of drives in the right pane,is it listed there? If so, right-click it and then click Change Drive Letter and Paths.

4. Click Change, and in the drop-down box, specify a drive letter for the Device.

5. Click OK, and then click OK again.

 

In the Computer management window, click the + next to Services and Applications. Then click Services. Look for one called "Removable Storage". Is it started and what is it set to, Manual, Disabled or Automatic?

I connected the drive via USB to get it listed under Disk Management (if I connected via Firewire, it would not have shown.) I changed the letter name and then under Services > Removable Storage it says that the service is NOT started and Startup Type is "manual."

 

Is starting the service for Removable Storage the right way to go? ?

 

Thanks!

[TCH-JimE]

Try TCH-Robs suggestions first.

 

Also, have you tried this firewire hdd on another PC computer? If it works fine, we know its not the drive have problems talking to the PC. (Ok we know its ok because it talks to the Mac, be we need to know its ok talking to the PC)

 

Also, I know for some of the maxtor 1 touch drives you need to install some software for them to be reconised, have you tried re-installing that?

 

JimE

[TCH-Rob]

"Is starting the service for Removable Storage the right way to go?"

 

Yes, it needs to be started.

[ramone_kalsaw]

"Is starting the service for Removable Storage the right way to go?"

 

Yes, it needs to be started.

Started the Removable Storage service manually, Windows didn't recognize device via firewire; I then set Startup Type to automatic and rebooted again. Still no luck via firewire.

[TCH-Rob]

But it works OK under USB?

[ramone_kalsaw]

But it works OK under USB?

Perfectly.

 

I'm also trying a hardware solution. Going to spend a few bucks for a new PCI Firewire card, with a new cable, and potentially, a fix for the problem.

 

Unless you have another suggestion on the software side?

 

 

Thanks for hanging with me on this!

[TCH-Rob]

I am kinda thinking along those lines as well. Let us know what the verdict is.

[ramone_kalsaw]

I am kinda thinking along those lines as well. Let us know what the verdict is.

It's apparently the firewire port on the laptop that's kaput. I installed an NEC PCI firewire card and all is well again.

 

(Beware when the Dell technician tells you from afar that your firewire port works, just because you're able to download their updated firmware.)

[TCH-Bruce]

Glad you got it solved.