Usb problems

Hi,

After I rebooted my computer from crappy vista to xp pro. My usb ports aren't working properly. when i plug inn any usb the computer is working and it tels me to wait for it to install the device. After it finish i cant get access to my external hdd. no icon on my computer.

Anyone have some ides how i can make this work again?

Motherboards Spec:

Operating system: XP pro 5.1
Systemproducent: Acer
Systemmodell: Aspire 5720Z
Bios: Default system BIOS
Prosessor: Intel (R) Pentium (R) Dual cpu t2330 @ 1.60GHz (2 Cpus)
Memory: 2046MB RAM

 

Hmmm... does this happen for ANY USB device? Do you have a USB stick you could test, for example?

Also, have you tried the external hard drive on another computer with known good-working USB ports?

 

I have tried many different external hdd on this computer none working. But if i plug inn a usb mouse it works perfectly. So its something strange here.

 

Alright, that narrows it down a little!

What drive letters do you have in use, without any external HDD connected?

Once you have this info, can you please try the following:

1. Connect the external drive to the computer and wait for any install to complete.
2. Right-click on 'My Computer' and select 'Manage'
3. In the 'Computer Management' Window, click 'Disk Management' in the left hand pane.
4. Post a screenshot of your Disk Manager

XP's implementation of USB storage is a little flaky in that sometimes, a newly connected drive will attempt to take a drive letter that is already in use by another drive. If this is the case, we should still be able to see it in Disk Management, as well as manually assign it a new drive letter that is NOT in use.

 

http://i43.tinypic.com/25i7zti.jpg

I took and screenshot. thanks for trying to help me. my windows is in norvegian so if you dont undersant ill translate.

 

http://i43.tinypic.com/25i7zti.jpg

Here is my screenshot. its in norvegian but i asume you will understand.

 

dose it always take a long time to post a picture? ive posted my screenshot an hour ago. but nothing has come up yet.

 

Alright, perfect!

Does the 'Expansion Drive (F: )' match your external hard drive? If so, do you have a working F: drive in My Computer?

 

Yes the F drive matches the external hdd but it doesn't appear on my computer.

 

could you please post a screenshot of "My computer"?

 

http://i43.tinypic.com/2hqy0es.jpg

 

Anyone have any ideas how I can solve this problem?

 

ok, how do I change that to not being active?

 

ok, thanks for the information anyways. Hoppefully someone will help me soon.

 

STRONGLY recommend you make backups, preferably a system image, before attempting this.

With your external drive connected, in disk management, you should be able to right-click another partition (you'll want the C: drive), and select "Mark As Active". This ~should~ make your system partition active, and your external drive inactive.

Failing that, you can use the diskpart utility at the command line, using these steps: