PC doesnt detect external hard drive

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by Soulcal, Mar 10, 2010.

  1. Soulcal

    Soulcal Private E-2

    I have an external hard drive, and when i plug it in, the safely remove hardware icon pops up, but the drive is nowhere to be seen. I've tried going to computer management to find it, and it's there but it has no letter assigned to it, (C:,D:, etc..). But it's there. Plus in safely remove hardware it lists it as Mass Storage Device? but this isn't on my computer either, and it says it's working fine. Which t's not.

    I need help
     
  2. sheepondrugs

    sheepondrugs Private First Class

    funny you should ask that. I have recently had the same problem.

    I ended up going into device managment and assigning it a drive letter. Rebooted and it showed up ok.
     
  3. Soulcal

    Soulcal Private E-2

    How do you assign a drive letter though?
     
  4. sheepondrugs

    sheepondrugs Private First Class

    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307844

    I assume all Windows Versions will be roughly the same setup, heres one for xp.


     
  5. Soulcal

    Soulcal Private E-2

    I tried this, and it doesn't appear to work. When you right click it, the only options are *Delete Partition* and the *Help* option.

    I can't really delete because the drive is not mine and so I don't really have a clue what to do and tbh there doesn't seem to be much I can do.

    Thanks for your help though, and oh yeah :D epic name.
     
  6. plodr

    plodr Major Geek Super Extraordinaire

    The next two obvious questions are: what version with service pack of windows are you running and what is the size of the external hard drive?

    Do you know how the external drive is formatted? It could be it is not formatted for a computer running windows.
     
  7. Soulcal

    Soulcal Private E-2

    Ah, I've realized why it doesn't seem to connect to my computer. When I was lent the hdd my friend didn't think it'd be important to mention that it's formatted to mac. That's the reason why it acts weird on my pc.
     

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