External USB Drive not detected

I installed a Maxtor (Seagate) 500GB external USB drive on my wife's
machine. She runs XP Home Edition/SP2. The drive was detected and assigned
a drive number (G). I copied a few JPG file to it and could view them. My
wife then installed the backup software that came with it. She then shut the
machine down for the night. The next morning, the drive (G) was gone. I
attempted to re-install it, but the PC would not recognize it. The "New
Hardware Detected" window popped up, then another window popped up:
"USB device recognized. One of the USB devices attached to the computer has
malfunctioned and Windows does not recognize it. For assistance etc. ..."
I then plugged a regular 2G memory stick into the same port, with the same
results. The computer would not recognize it. In Device Manager it shows
it as "Unknown Device" under the USB listing. I even "uninstalled" it, shut
down the PC, unplugged the power cord for 2 minutes and tried it again, with
the same results.

I tried it on a USB port on the installed PCI card (with 2 ports) as well as
one of the ports on the mother board, with the same results.

When connected the 500GB drive to my machine (also running XP Home
Edition/SP2) it works fine, and shows up in device manager as 'USB Mass
Storage Device", with the driver identified as "usbstor.sys".

So, the Maxtor drive seems to be ok, but the wife's machine has trouble
recognizing any USB devices, even though the USB printer, Mouse and external
hub are working correctly.

Any suggestions ???

TIA,

Hagen Sahm.

"Hagar" wrote in message
...
I installed a Maxtor (Seagate) 500GB external USB drive on my wife's
machine. She runs XP Home Edition/SP2. The drive was detected and assigned
a drive number (G). I copied a few JPG file to it and could view them. My
wife then installed the backup software that came with it. She then shut
the machine down for the night. The next morning, the drive (G) was gone.
I attempted to re-install it, but the PC would not recognize it. The "New
Hardware Detected" window popped up, then another window popped up:
"USB device recognized. One of the USB devices attached to the computer
has malfunctioned and Windows does not recognize it. For assistance etc.
..."
I then plugged a regular 2G memory stick into the same port, with the same
results. The computer would not recognize it. In Device Manager it shows
it as "Unknown Device" under the USB listing. I even "uninstalled" it,
shut down the PC, unplugged the power cord for 2 minutes and tried it
again, with the same results.

I tried it on a USB port on the installed PCI card (with 2 ports) as well
as one of the ports on the mother board, with the same results.

When connected the 500GB drive to my machine (also running XP Home
Edition/SP2) it works fine, and shows up in device manager as 'USB Mass
Storage Device", with the driver identified as "usbstor.sys".

So, the Maxtor drive seems to be ok, but the wife's machine has trouble
recognizing any USB devices, even though the USB printer, Mouse and
external hub are working correctly.

Any suggestions ???

TIA,

Hagen Sahm.


I would try a System Restore to return your wife's machine to the condition
it was in before you installed the backup software. Don't neglect the
possibility that you might have a defective USB port or controller and that
it happened to fail more or less at the same time as you installed the
backup software. A technician in a computer shop would be able to test the
port without having to rely on your Windows installation.

"Drive G"....If the 500gb was asigned such a letter,you must have multiple
drives running..You also may be overloading youre pcs power supply,why so
many...A basic pc can run about 4 drives,2 cdrw&cdrom,2 hd,on about a 350
watt power supply,if more hds are added you might look into a better power
supply 500 watt or better.This being that the processor,ram memory would
also be in a premium state,if youve added a USB add-in card,that would seem
that youre pc is already overextinding itself......

"Hagar" wrote:

I installed a Maxtor (Seagate) 500GB external USB drive on my wife's
machine. She runs XP Home Edition/SP2. The drive was detected and assigned
a drive number (G). I copied a few JPG file to it and could view them. My
wife then installed the backup software that came with it. She then shut the
machine down for the night. The next morning, the drive (G) was gone. I
attempted to re-install it, but the PC would not recognize it. The "New
Hardware Detected" window popped up, then another window popped up:
"USB device recognized. One of the USB devices attached to the computer has
malfunctioned and Windows does not recognize it. For assistance etc. ..."
I then plugged a regular 2G memory stick into the same port, with the same
results. The computer would not recognize it. In Device Manager it shows
it as "Unknown Device" under the USB listing. I even "uninstalled" it, shut
down the PC, unplugged the power cord for 2 minutes and tried it again, with
the same results.

I tried it on a USB port on the installed PCI card (with 2 ports) as well as
one of the ports on the mother board, with the same results.

When connected the 500GB drive to my machine (also running XP Home
Edition/SP2) it works fine, and shows up in device manager as 'USB Mass
Storage Device", with the driver identified as "usbstor.sys".

So, the Maxtor drive seems to be ok, but the wife's machine has trouble
recognizing any USB devices, even though the USB printer, Mouse and external
hub are working correctly.

Any suggestions ???

TIA,

Hagen Sahm.

On Sun, 14 Dec 2008 19:30:01 -0800, Andrew E.
wrote:

"Drive G"....If the 500gb was asigned such a letter,you must have multiple
drives running..You also may be overloading youre pcs power supply,why so
many...A basic pc can run about 4 drives,2 cdrw&cdrom,2 hd,on about a 350
watt power supply,if more hds are added you might look into a better power
supply 500 watt or better.This being that the processor,ram memory would
also be in a premium state,if youve added a USB add-in card,that would seem
that youre pc is already overextinding itself......

SPACE BAR

--
Max

On Dec 14, 10:30*pm, Andrew E. wrote:
* "Drive G"....If the 500gb was asigned such a letter,you must have multiple
*drives running..You also may be overloading youre pcspower supply,why so
*many...A basic pc can run about 4 drives,2 cdrw&cdrom,2 hd,on about a 350
*wattpower supply,if more hds are added you might look into a betterpower*supply500 watt or better.

If one knew basic electrical numbers before posting, then he would
have never posted this. Obviously disk drives consume trivial
amounts of power which means all those drives cause a tiny load on a
supply - well below what any properly constructed machine can
withstand.

Meanwhile, this drive is on a USB port. USB further limits power
consumption to tiny numbers. A 2.5 watt disk drive will somehow
overload a 350 watt power supply? A number he should have known
before posting.

One malfunction that might not be seen when powering up connected?
Disk drive draws too much power so the USB port cuts power off. That
port could not been until the drive is disconnected long enough for
the USB port to see no load and reset.

Further information such as history reports from the system (event)
logs is necessary to obtain a useful reply. What specifically (with
numbers) was found defective by Windows?