USB external hard drive recognized by XP SP2 but no drive letter assigned

how did you format it?

try using the windows xp cd to format the hdd

ie, boot with cd as if installing windows, delete whatever is in the 10gb drive, format using ntfs, after that just pull out the cd and restart comp.

better option: use partition magic



i best guess is that since the drive is recognized and not given a drive letter, it is unformatted or formatted incorectly

The drive was partitioned and formatted (FAT32) on another machine and worked fine there. The primary drive on IDE 0 is also formatted to Fat 32. And the Zip disk is formatted to FAT also. XP has no problem with them so why should I have to go to NTFS on the USB drive?

Did you "initialize" it?

rindi..
 How do you go about "initialize"ing it?
Sam

You should have that option in diskmanagement if it hasn't been initialized yet (could have another wording).

rindi..
 The usb drive does not show in disk management. It shows in devise manager. Also, I tried to format the usb drive via the setup CD, as suggested by shpark82, but when I got to the point of selecting the drive to install XP the drive was listed as a 1mb drive on an uinknown adapter.
 I don't understand "initialize" as a part of the PC, MS-DOS or MS Windows world. Do you mean to fdisk and format it?
Sam

No, initialize is just something that registers the drive. It doesn't format or fdisk it.

If it doesn't show in diskmanagement, are you sure the USB case is working? Are you applying extra power to the USB case, as the USB port itself can't suppy enough power to the HD by itself. A lot of these cases get the extra power via a cable connecting to the PS2 keyboard output of the PC, or sometimes there's an external powersupply. Sometimes a powered USB hub can also help.

The USB enclosure is powered by an AC to DC power adapter and seems to be working properly. Lights light. Windows recognizes it and it shows the correct drive information in Device Manager under Disks and it shows as a storage device under USB. But, when you go to Disk Management you have no options to initilize, change drive letter, format or anything like that.  It's got me stumped.

Can you post a screenprint of disk management?
Excuse me if these seem like dumb questions, but have you: 1) Tried the drive in other computers; 2) verified that you know how to change/assign drive letters using disk management?
You are logged in with admin rights while doing this, right?

I ask because I have never seen a drive in disk management and not been able to change the drive letter or path.  It may not let you assign a particular drive letter, but if it shows up, it will allow you to change it - provided you have an available letter to assign, of course.

Regards,
James

Hold the fort guys. I just tried it on another computer and got the same indications there as on my main computer. I don't have the time to do it now.. but in the morning I will stick another drive in the enclosure to see what happens. I will get back to this tomorrow.
Sam

You may need to download some drivers for the particular usb enclosure. I had a similar problem with an older unit on XP, after loading some drivers from the manu's website - all was ok.

What is the make and model of the enclosure? Have you looked on the manufactures website??

TO: rindi; shpark82; seehear; and Psyco 666
 I put another drive in the enclosure and lo and behold everything is wonderful in the world now. Thanks a lot.
Sam

your welcome

Was the drive jumpered in master/stand alone mode.

I know that if it isn't that it may cause some weird stuff... Like being wrongly recognised... It may be an error off the box itself of course.

(maybe you can try to upgrade the firmware on the harddisk too... Some harddrive manufacturers provide you with this software).

It's nice that you tried with another harddisk and that this one is functional!