My USB device!!

**GoreBag** · 06-05-2006, 05:52

There's no real change after getting the files. The computer still 'picks up' that there is a USB Mass Storage Device attached, but the computer hangs like mad whenever I try to do anything, and there is no access to the drive. Attempting to perform things like disk management results in a lot of waiting, and then the device is disconnected from the computer (but not physically). I'm back to the first two symptoms described in KB 908673.

**Papewaio** · 06-05-2006, 06:37

^%#^&$^$

Okay, do you have access to another PC... that way you can see if the HD's work on another PC.

1st it would allow you to get the information off.
2nd it would prove that the issue is with the current PC not the mass storage device... it could afterall be the USB device that is dead.

If it works on another PC... well you either do a rollback or a reinstall if another method to fix it cannot be found.

**Papewaio** · 06-05-2006, 06:40

Have you applied the hotfix at the bottom of article 908673 after the previous one?

**KukriKhan** · 06-10-2006, 17:08

I have a Western Digital external HD; I remember the Quick Installation Guide warning me to not disconnect/reconnect its USB cable while the PC was on. But rather to power down the PC first - then disconnect.

Does your External HD show up under disk manager? (Right-click My Computer, Left-click 'Manage', Left-click 'Disk Management') The lower right window pane should identify all recognized drives, and report their 'health'. If your externalHD doesn't appear, or shows health as something other than 'good', this could give us clues as to which machine (PC, Windows, or ExtHD) is faulty.

**GoreBag** · 06-22-2006, 06:03

Pape, I'm actually getting rather confused about the hotfixes, now, since different fixes all necessitate different versions of the same file and I can't keep track of which file is best.

Kukri, it only shows up on Disk Management periodically, during the short spurts of forced activity. It always appears as healthy and functional, even if it's not (same with the Device Manager window).

**GoreBag** · 08-28-2006, 04:03

Well, as much as I might look like a dong for digging this old thread up, the insanity that came with selling the house is over and I can finally afford to dig the old thing out and try to get it to work again. I'm willing to start cleanly over, driver-wise, so long as I don't need to reinstall Windows or anything that drastic (yet...).

Just to see what would happen, I plugged it in again and, lo and behold, there was nothing. Windows gave me a little 'ding' noise and told me that something had been plugged in with the appearance of a little icon in my taskbar, but also as usual, there was no sign of it when it came time to access my files. Not long afterwards, Windows dinged me to let me know that the device had been disconnected (it hadn't been) and the icon disappeared. I'm back at square one, it seems.

Does anyone have any insight? At all?

**Geezer57** · 08-28-2006, 17:27

1.) Find a friend or neighbor with a WinXP w/SP2 machine and a spare USB port. Hook up your external HDD there, and see if it works.

2.) If step 1 fails, disassemble your external HDD, remove the drive, and hook it up internally to a spare controller port in your computer. If you don't have a spare port, temporarily disconnect an optical drive and use that one.

If the drive works internally, but not in your enclosure, then the box is probably bad. If the drive doesn't work internally, then it's probably at fault. Contact WDD for their diagnostic software, if it fails their test, ask for an RMA and get a replacement HDD.

If you have a spare drive, and want to test the enclosure, then install the spare and put it to the test.

External enclosures are some of the harshest environments in which a hard drive has to live. I only use ones with built-in fans, heat sinks, and shutoff switches. Even then you need to take extra precautions to insure HDD life. Also remember that most of these enclosures don't allow for drives to hibernate (which extends their life expectancy), so they keep spinning 24-7 unless you intervene manually. I use my external enclosures only for backup - as soon as that's done, they get shut down. So far, so good.