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External Hard Drive locks up XP system

I was having problems booting up my Windows XP system when someone on EE suggested that I unplug all USB connections. I did that and that worked. However...,.One of the USB connections is an external hard drive. When I reconnect it, the system freezes up and the hard drive is not recognized. Is there something I can do short of taking this into the PC shop again to get the hard drive recognized? I tried to find the disk that came with it but of course I can't find it.

Thanks,

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motnahp00

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Dave Baldwin

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nobus

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dkcoop03

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I purchased Drive Boost but so far am not having a lot of luck with it. I do have a question for Dave. The drive is powered externally. If the Drive Boost does not end up working then I'm going to try plugging it in to my Windows 7 machine. Do you think that will work. Also, why would an external powered USB hub work? I have an old usb hub that I plugged it into but the system still doesn't recognize the drive. I'm at my wits end because I have files on there that I have to have access to.

Dave Baldwin

You didn't originally say how your drive was powered. We suggested an external Powered USB hub because if it was powered by the USB connection, you might not be getting enough power from the USB port on the computer. If it is externally powered with it's own power supply, then that doesn't matter.

You can take it out of the USB controller and plug it directly into your PC's internal connections to see if the drive is Ok and the controller has failed. I know that has happened on at least one unit I had.

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nobus

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dkcoop03

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It seems to be the driver. The driver software I purchased took two days to scan the drive and was very counter-intuitive to use as it would go back to previous menus when you selected something but it looks like the old XP machine recognizes the drive. The windows 7 machine took about a day to recognize it and then when I plugged in another external (I was going to copy some folders from the Maxtor to the other external) it killed the connection.

nobus

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