CPU WONT RECOGNIZE EXTERNAL IOMEGA HD's AT SAME TIME

I have 2 identical iomega 2 TB external hardrives . My computer will not recognize #2 when #1 is plugged in first . Is there a way for my computer to recognize both hardrives at the same time?? thanks

 

What are the models of the external drives? How are they connected to your computer? Have you tried them both on a different computer?

 

Both are Model GDHDU2
Both are connected via USB. The computer recognizes which ever one is plugged in first. But will not recognize both at same time. This happened on my laptop as well.

 

Hey I had this same problem a while back. Are you using windows? and if so what version?


Make sure you have ONE of the drives connected and then do this>>>

1.For Windows 7 and W8, you can just click on the start menu (or the search function on that weird startup screen on W8) and then type in "disk manage" and click on the program that says disk management. sorry i am a little rusty on XP

OR

goto the control panel>System and security>administrative tools>computer management>disk management

2. Once you have disk management open, you should be able to see all HDDs you have attached to the computer (you may have to scroll down to see your USB drive)

3. RIGHT CLICK on your USB drive, and click on "change drive letter and paths"

4. Choose a NEW and different drive letter for this drive.....

5. Now that you have one drive letter changed, do not change anything else, and go ahead and connect the second drive and DO NOT DISCONNECT THE FIRST ONE.

6. It should now pop up in the disk management window, but if it doesnt, then close and reopen the disk management window.

7. Now right click on the second drive, and change it's drive letter to something different than the first one.

8. If all goes well, you should have two drives showing up in "my computer"


The point is to change the two drives to different drive letters so that the computer stops being stupid and thinking they are the same drive.

Hope this works for you!

 

Or do like I did and just place them on the network, by using the Cirago NUS2000+. No having to deal with these issues, you can connect to them through Webdav from afar, as long as you set up your router to allow, and they can be made available to all, or just one person.

As for Win8, just go to Desktop mode, do not use the metro screen to make changes, use something like Start8, or one of the other third party software, that gives you back the conventional start menu. Then you can get into the various admin tools, without dealing with metro.

No on the other hand, it could be a bad USB card, and that could not be putting the proper voltage out, and thus one gets disconnected, when the other gets plugged in.

 

Im using Windows 7 and I also have other external HDD that work fine, its only the issue with the computer not recognizing the identical HDDs. Im going to try that out renaming the letters, Ill reply either way. thanks for the help!

 

When in the disk management I noticed that after I plugged in the 2nd drive it said it was "offline " due to " The disk is offline because it has a signature collision with another disk that is online" I renamed both drives and brought the 2nd drive online. It all seems to be working now... Thank you very much everybody !!

 

Sometimes the easiest fix, is always the hardest. Glad you got it fixed. You may want to post this also over at the Iomega forums. When I was looking for network drives, I tried the Iomega line, and found it too slow, so ended up going with the Lenovo ix2.

Lenovo now owns Iomega, so pretty soon that old line will be gone, and all you will get is Lenovo on the plate, even though underneath it is still iomega hardware.

 

Will do, thanks again !

 

danram9, when I purchased the NUS2000 that I have, I think I paid around $80 for it. It only has one drive on it right now, but being able to access the info through the Webdav app on our iPad or iPhones, is kind of nice. Also works as a iTunes server, along with being a print server at the same time.

It is about the size of a Toshiba Canvio drive, so it is very small. It is actually the box sitting on top of the two switches on the right. Bottom switch is for our U-Verse boxes, middle is network equipment.

Disregard the wiring mess, due to that was about a couple of weeks, after I added the new switch in the middle, and still in the process of adding a device to the LAN, so I have not put the Spiral Loom back on the patch cords.

 

Glad it worked out for you!

Also, just pointing out that this problem in windows has nothing to do with the brand of your drives....it happens with lots of identical drives.