USB Drive recognized but is inaccessible

If its a new drive, i think its only meant for vista (check on the packet on what OS its compatible with)

If you have a vista pc or a friend who has a vista pc, try and see if the drive works on vista, if it does then its a compatible problem with XP, and if it doesnt work, there must be something wrong with the drive.

The compatibility according to the site says XP/Vista.  

Also the drive works on another XP system.

Then the problem has to be with your pc.

"The first was 1TB Western Digital.  Windows would recognize that a drive was plugged in but would not recognize the device."

For that usb drive, did you get a cd with it or something, because apparently your system doesnt have the drivers to run it.

Search the site for the drivers of that usb drive and install them.

here some things to try :

Remove old hardware devices :
go to Start>right click My computer>properties>device manager
in the view tab - click : "show hidden devices"
inspect  device manager for all hidden devices, and remove them

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/925196

OR :
Remove all USB drivers with:     https://filedb.experts-exchange.com/incoming/ee-stuff/6853-RENEWUSB.zip      ---> Now reboot and test.
Delete the "UpperFilters" and "LowerFilters" registry values from:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{36FC9E60-C465-11CF-8056-444553540000}

you can also reset the usb :
rundll32.exe setupapi,InstallHinfSection DefaultInstall 132 C:\WINDOWS\inf\usbstor.inf
rundll32.exe setupapi,InstallHinfSection DefaultInstall 132 C:\WINDOWS\inf\usb.inf
rundll32.exe setupapi,InstallHinfSection DefaultInstall 132 C:\WINDOWS\inf\usbport.inf
rundll32.exe setupapi,InstallHinfSection DefaultInstall 132 C:\WINDOWS\inf\usbprint.inf

I tired each of those suggestions and now the device is installing as unknown device rather than even recognizing it as a Free Agent Go.  

try updating the chipset driver then

Is there a good way to tell which chipset drivers to install?

normally you look what mobo you have, or pc model.
you find the drivers on their site
you can seeit in device manager -for many it is reflected in the  video ada^pter
you can also run siw for identifying devices

or if you post your model - i'll look it up

I apologize for the delay.  It is a Dell Optiplex.  I have updated the BIOS and applied the Chipset Drivers taht Dell recommends to the computer.  Still no go.  I have moved the USB drive to another computer and confirmed that it works fine.  

you can test if the usb hardware is still ok by running from a live Knoppix cd, it supports usb :
ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/dist/knoppix/KNOPPIX_V6.0.1CD-2009-02-08-EN.iso

you can also  run this from the run box (you can copy the command) :
rundll32.exe setupapi,InstallHinfSection DefaultInstall 132 C:\WINDOWS\inf\usbstor.inf
or :start>run>services.msc
look for Removable Storage Service. Is it set to Auto, and if not started, click the Start link in the top left...
In c:\windowsc:\windows\inf.  look for usbstor.inf -  If not found, copy from another PC. If you find it, right click it and select Install
See if it rebuilds the USB support...  normally located at c:\windows\system32\drivers

I will try the Knoppix CD.  I know that USB support still works for the most part as I have a keyboard/mouse and a printer connected.  I have moved them around to different ports and am still able to use them.

i hope this helps, but i'v' seen cases where they did a fresh install to get it going again...

I have been unable to test this solution as of yet.  I apologize for the long delay.  I beleive the answer is going to be resinstalling Windows as every other USB device I connect to any port will work except for disk drives.

Thank You.  I will try those this weekend.

Thanks for all the help on this!

no problem, you're welcome !