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[Aqizzar]

I'm pretty ticked off right now.  I recently bought a WD Elements Desktop external harddrive on the recommendation of a Fry's employee (all it says on the package is "WD Elements" but I assume the whole family is basically one product).  My computer refuses to recognize it as existing.  Since there's a pretty limited list of things to mess with here, I figured I'd go ahead and start asking for help now.

I have a hunch that it's a driver problem, but actually finding the driver in question is proving frustrating.  Western Digital does not provide drivers with the drive or on their website because they insist all relevant drivers are included in the Windows XP installation (and other versions).  However, ever since I reformatted my computer early this year (and kinda botched it up), it bitches at me while windows is starting that it needs to install some harddrive driver that it can never identify or find.  Since the internal drive works, I always assumed it was just being stupid, and wrote it off as a non-issue.  But since the Automatic Updater doesn't seem to know what it's looking for, I sure as Hell don't either.  It's also possible that my version of XP simply doesn't have the drivers Western Digital insists it would, since the external drive is NFTS, and I'm pretty sure the included one from 2003 or whenever this clunker was built is not.

Googling for answers is totally fruitless, because I'd have to wade through dozens of pages of related but useless troubleshooting guides, and I haven't found anything like a relevant driver-download.  Everywhere seems to assume the use of the system factory-restore disc, which A) would be for a different version of XP than what I have installed now, B) didn't work before, and C) I don't know where it is, and it seems ridiculous that I can't find a way to download the relevant drivers regardless.  I'm going to look around in the BIOS next, but since it's a USB drive, I don't know what I'm looking for.  If anyone knows of a good one-stop-shop for drivers, I'd love that, but I don't even know if that's the problem.  At least it might shut up the Updater finally.

[Heron TSG]

Once, one of my USB ports stopped working, and I was supposed to find drivers. In the end, I physically removed it from my computer, turned my computer on, shut it down, put it back in, and turned it back on. When I logged in, I found that I could use that USB port again. I'm still not sure what the problem was, but it worked for me.

[eerr]

does this work?:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314634

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Windows will recognize devices that lack the appropriate driver.

You, my friend, have hardware conflicts. problems.

Have you checked that the USB slot actually works?

Do you have other hardware added to your computer (from a basic install)

[Aqizzar]

does this work?:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314634

No, did nothing that I can see.  I also isolated the weird old driver problem, apparently it's some effect of an XP upgrade that created a phantom SCSI/RAID Host Controller in need of a nonexistent driver.  That's probably solved, and probably not the problem.

I'm afraid it's probably a USB issue.  The ports work fine, but I forgot that on my old piece of shit computer, the ports of the back are USB 1.0, and the one USB on the front is actually 2.0 which the drive uses.  That port is also a little fucked up and only connects if I press up on what's in there by hand.  This may require a little creative engineering.

[Heron TSG]

Get a stick, wedge it in there to keep the drive in place.

[Aqizzar]

It doesn't seem to be working at all now.  Whether it only initializes at startup or what I don't know.  I wish there was an indicator of some kind on the drive to say when it's operating.

I don't suppose it's possible to adapt a USB1.0 into a 2.0.  That would be pretty fucking crazy.  Or an adapter of any kind really; I bet there's something that can work with a LAN port.

Fucking computers.  Why is the hardware even designed in such a way that problems like this can occur?

[Il Palazzo]

USB 2.0 is backwards compatibile with 1.0, so that's not the problem.

Check the device manager, maybe there are some issues with USB controllers.

[eerr]

It doesn't seem to be working at all now.  Whether it only initializes at startup or what I don't know.  I wish there was an indicator of some kind on the drive to say when it's operating.

I don't suppose it's possible to adapt a USB1.0 into a 2.0.  That would be pretty fucking crazy.  Or an adapter of any kind really; I bet there's something that can work with a LAN port.

Fucking computers.  Why is the hardware even designed in such a way that problems like this can occur?

Microsoft has been cleaning hardware issues since the dawn of time.
Or rather, making the distributers manufacturers work together because microsoft can't deal with that shit in person.

USB drives are backwards compatible.<
So the issue isn't with a specific USB drive.

So if you boot up with the drive connected, vs plugging it in, whats the diff, if any.

What other hardware do you have installed on the machine? because hardware conflicts can happen between devices. It varies from manufacturer to manufacturer.

Have you tried blowing on the USB dongle like its an old cartridge machine.

does the drive require external power?(I expect not, but still)

Describe the drive's personal life, what it feels, but really is it new, technical specs, product page.


I feel like I could do this in probably an hour in person.

[Aqizzar]

I'd like to think I've proven that I'm capable of plugging in a power cord.  Although now that you mention it, I don't have a tremendous amount of faith in the powerstrip I plugged it into.  I know it works, but I'll try another source anyway.  Likewise, the drive is brand new, and the cables all appear to be fine.  If it really is a hardware problem, it's nothing I can identify by eyeball, and certainly out of my realm to do anything about without buying more crap.

USB 2.0 is backwards compatibile with 1.0, so that's not the problem.

Check the device manager, maybe there are some issues with USB controllers.

It says on the package that it's a USB 3.0 device (there's a 3 now?) backwards compatible with 2.0, and says nothing about 1.0.  It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if there's a loss of compatibility somewhere in that chain.

[Cthulhu]

You can't RMA it?

[Aqizzar]

You can't RMA it?

If RMA stands for something that will plug my USB 2.0 cable into another port, then I'd love to know what RMA means.  I'm going to bet it's not "Risk Management Association" or anything else Google immediately turns up.

[Cthulhu]

I dunno, it's some fancy word for "Get a refund/exchange" you use when you're buying electronics.

[eerr]

Hmmmm.

try this-> http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-5027071.html

[SolarShado]

It says on the package that it's a USB 3.0 device (there's a 3 now?) backwards compatible with 2.0, and says nothing about 1.0.  It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if there's a loss of compatibility somewhere in that chain.

I'm gonna agree with you here. Do you have another (preferably newer) computer you can try the drive with?

You should be able to get a USB 2.0 expansion card for cheap (~$15-$20). 'course that'd be another device to get drivers for...


What'd Device Manager got to say about the hdd? Does it show up at all?

[Aqizzar]

What'd Device Manager got to say about the hdd? Does it show up at all?

No, the computer gives me absolutely no notice that any extra drive is attached to it.  And since the drive doesn't have so much as an 'ON' light, I don't even know if it's working.

Expansion cards and stuff are fine with me, I need some extra USB expansions anyway.  I just hope they sell them at Best Buy.