2TB WD External Drive not showing in XP

Macker1

Folks,

Picked up a 2TB Western Digital External drive earlier today. The problem I'm having is that when I plug it in it doesn't appear on My Computer. Would I be correct it stating that this issue is possibly due to the fact that my OS Windows XP 32bit SP3 does not support an external drive of this size. I have googled it and people do appear to have noted issues of a similar nature.

I do have a plan to upgrade to Windows 7 early next year (about time I know) so if XP is the problem I'm not too concerned.

To rule out the drive being an issue I will be taking it along to try in another PC in the morning that is running Windows 7.

Any experts out there that could advise ???? Thanks

AlmightyCushion

I think there is a problem using a 2TB+ drive as a boot drive for XP but I always thought it was fine apart from that. Right click my computer and click manage. See if it appears in there.

Macker1

I already tried looking in the Disk Management but it doesn't appear there either. :(

CreepingDeath

You might check for any firmware updates to your motherboard... wouldn't do any harm.

MrVestek

Go into your control panel and double click 'administrative tools' and then 'computer management'.

Does the drive show up there? Does it have a partition table and is it formatted? If not create it... problem sorted ;-)

hearny

you could download Ultimate Boot CD (http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/)
Burn it to disk and boot from it (with the hard drive connected to the computer).

There are plenty of tools for formatting / diagnosing hard drives on there.

Make sure you dont format the internal drive by mistake (may be wise to disconnect it if you can while you are using these tools)

coylemj

You did connect the power lead to the disk drive and you can hear it spin up when you do so?

MrVestek

coylemj wrote: »

You did connect the power lead to the disk drive and you can hear it spin up when you do so?

Surely the issue couldn't be that simple...

Macker1

Achilles wrote: »

Go into your control panel and double click 'administrative tools' and then 'computer management'.

Does the drive show up there? Does it have a partition table and is it formatted? If not create it... problem sorted ;-)

Drive does not show up there.

Macker1

coylemj wrote: »

You did connect the power lead to the disk drive and you can hear it spin up when you do so?

The drive does work as I connected it to my brothers PC with is using Windows 7 as its OS. It would appear XP is the issue.

Macker1

This is a known / reported issue.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/925196/en-us#refers

I tried following the advice contained in the link but when I try to delete the reg key I cannot as the system prevents me.

I have tried to do it is administrator mode but to no avail.

I may just have to wait until I get Windows 7 up and running.

Macker1

coylemj wrote: »

You did connect the power lead to the disk drive and you can hear it spin up when you do so?

Doh!!!

meemeep

could it be a usb version incompatibility? I've some older drives that need to be connected through a usb1.0 hub - very slow if doing anything major but accessible at least.

MunsterCycling

Try the above removal of the registry entry in safe mode (f8) using admin privileges

Macker1

MunsterCycling wrote: »

Try the above removal of the registry entry in safe mode (f8) using admin privileges

Already tried without success

Macker1

Folks,

Just to close off on thread. The drive is now recognized by XP which is great, the strange thing is that I didn't do anything to make this happen. All the other steps that I tried failed, including the deletion of the registry key which I was unable to do.

The main thing is its working.

Thanks for all the helpful suggestions.

MrVestek

Macker1 wrote: »

Folks,

Just to close off on thread. The drive is now recognized by XP which is great, the strange thing is that I didn't do anything to make this happen. All the other steps that I tried failed, including the deletion of the registry key which I was unable to do.

The main thing is its working.

Thanks for all the helpful suggestions.

So you plugged it in then?

Just joking...

A restart was probably required after that reg fix... you've rebooted in the mean time and now it works :-)

Macker1

Achilles wrote: »

So you plugged it in then?

Just joking...

A restart was probably required after that reg fix... you've rebooted in the mean time and now it works :-)

Thats the strange thing about it working today. The reg fix didn't happen becuase I was unable to delete the key and the PC had got rebooted serveral times without any luck.

It's a mystery but I'm not complaining

MrVestek

Macker1 wrote: »

Thats the strange thing about it working today. The reg fix didn't happen becuase I was unable to delete the key and the PC had got rebooted serveral times without any luck.

It's a mystery but I'm not complaining

That's a strange one alright!

Probably one of those pebkac errors... happens alot.

Macker1

Achilles wrote: »

That's a strange one alright!

Probably one of those pebkac errors... happens alot.

Being honest I had to google pebkac........LOL

I would never claim to know it all but I've been long enough around PC's to rule out simple issues. This is supposed to be a plug and play drive and in this case initially it wasn't doing what it said on the tin. I had several drives over the years and this is the first time I ever encountered such an issue.

It was mystery issue that thankfully is now resolved.

MrVestek

Ahhh mate I was only messin with ya. Glad to see that you got it working anyhow!