DISASTER!!! 3Com 10/100 Mini PCI and a SAMSUNG SP1203N IEEE 1394 SBP

[Paul]

Hello helpful people,

I recently switched from XP Pro to XP Home (never mind,
its a long story, viruses etc. forced my to format my
harddrive and start from scratch) and now I can't get
access to my external hard drive (Which is full of good
stuff, you know). The drive won't even show up on
the 'My Computer' window, let alone enable access to the
drive.

I have a Firewire/USB 2.0 Acomdata external hard drive
that reads (for some reason) in my device manager as a
SAMSUNG SP1203N IEEE 1394 SBP2. I'm running Dell's stock
network adaptor from 3Com called the 10/100 Mini PCI.

Before the OS change, I could access it with plug-n-
play, but now, all I get is that "BONK" sound that
signals something new to the system.

That means the computer knows its there, but won't let
me access it...

Please help, I've downloaded the most recent drivers
from Dell and have every update Microsoft has put out.
I've run all the diagnostics and troubleshooters that are
available in XP, and I've searched both Dell and
Microsoft's knowledge bases extensively.

XP Pro and XP Home wouldn't read that drive in
different ways, would they?

Why can't I use my external hard drive?

thanks in advance,

[Richard]

I have sort of the same problem with a ICYBOX, however it has not worked so far on IEEE, part of the problem I'm having is Windows XP home ed trying to install a file called SBP2port.sys it displays a message stating "Driver is not intended for this platfo
rm". It seems Microsoft's XP platform isn't very good with firewire devices, if you look through the net with google there's hundreds of very similar problems re: External Hard Disks / CD ROMS

Perhaps a older drive may help Win 98 if it will load it as the SBP2port.sys has not been modified to my knowledge, I've experienced lock-up problems with my Dell Laptop when I upgrade with a service pack. I now generally update the service packages when
a newer version is available, therefore hopefully the older pack has been updated from Ver. 1.00.00.00 to Ver 1.99.99.99 so that bugs sorry modifications have been ironed out properly.

Have you tried Windows 2000? ok not as good but this ICYBOX of mine runs ok with Windows ME but not Windows XP Home Ed