Western Digital Essential 500GB Not Recognized XP

[mrr2534]

I had to disconnect all my USBs, including 3 500GB WD externals. When I plugged them back in and rebooted (certainly NOT in the same usb plugs), only 1 hd was recognized. The other 2 power up and I can hear no scratchy sounds. However, there is no yellow power light in either drive and neither show ups in device manager or disk management. I've moved the usbs to other slots--still nothing... (For a while, the yellow light did appear, but still no recognition by XP.) For now I hope to avoid drastic measures... i.e., removing the drive from the case, etc. Very frustrating! Any suggestions?

[stinger608]

Did you go down to the task bar, and click on the "safely remove hardware" icon???

[mrr2534]

Before I disconnected the USBs, I shut down the computer.

[Reloadron]

Originally Posted by mrr2534

Before I disconnected the USBs, I shut down the computer.

Did you shutdown the system by turning off the PSU using the rear PSU switch and unplug they system? Try doing that. Totally remove power from the system and reboot it.

Next have you cleared everything in the device manager and what shows in the device manager under your USB Root Hub? If the drives are there right click on them and remove them and reboot letting Windows rediscover them.

Ron

[PrOLifIC_onE]

Access the Device Manager by right clicking My Computer, click Properties, then select the Hardware tab (Device Manager button is in there).

[screwballl]

go to Start -> run... -> compmgmt.msc -> Disk Management
If the drives are there but not active, you may need to right click them and choose Activate Disk.

[mrr2534]

What I'm seeing under USB Controllers in Device Mgr are:
2 NEC PCI to USB Open Host Controller(s)
2 Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Open Host Controller(s)
2 Standard OpenHCD USB Host Controller(s)
1 USB Composite Device
1 USB Mass Storage Device
1 USB Printing Device
6 USB Root Hubs

The External HD's are not plugged in right now.
3 questions:
(1) If I delete everything, will I be able to use my USB mouse if I don't delete it last?
(2) The fact that the 2 external hd's don't light up (but only make internal sounds) doesn't mean that it's a power issue with them? (... although it does seem odd that 2 of 3 HDs would die at the exact same moment)
(3) I just looked under IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers... and both the Primary & Secondary IDE device controllers seem to have vanished (only Nvidia nForce3 250 Parallel & Serial ATA Controllers). Should that be?

[Reloadron]

Originally Posted by mrr2534

What I'm seeing under USB Controllers in Device Mgr are:
2 NEC PCI to USB Open Host Controller(s)
2 Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Open Host Controller(s)
2 Standard OpenHCD USB Host Controller(s)
1 USB Composite Device
1 USB Mass Storage Device
1 USB Printing Device
6 USB Root Hubs

The External HD's are not plugged in right now.
3 questions:
(1) If I delete everything, will I be able to use my USB mouse if I don't delete it last?
(2) The fact that the 2 external hd's don't light up (but only make internal sounds) doesn't mean that it's a power issue with them? (... although it does seem odd that 2 of 3 HDs would die at the exact same moment)
(3) I just looked under IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers... and both the Primary & Secondary IDE device controllers seem to have vanished (only Nvidia nForce3 250 Parallel & Serial ATA Controllers). Should that be?

First, at this point some system specs would help things along. Things like motherboard make & model and other associated hardware?

You are showing a single USB Mass Storage device but mention the others weren't connected? You want to look in the device manager with all 3 external USB drives connected. The idea is to see if they show up in the device manager.

Then you can remove only the drives and nothing else. Just remove the drives and reboot. Windows should see them and reinstall them as USB removable devices.

Next you would do as screwball mentions.

go to Start -> run... -> compmgmt.msc -> Disk Management
If the drives are there but not active, you may need to right click them and choose Activate Disk.

Let's try things in that order and see what it gets you. Then we can worry about the lights etc.

Ron

[mrr2534]

Thanks! Hope this isn't overkill...

Operating System:

Microsoft Windows XP Professional
OS Service Pack Service Pack 2
DirectX 4.09.00.0904 (DirectX 9.0c)

System Specs:

Motherboard: CPU Type AMD Sempron, 1600 MHz (8 x 200) 2800+
Motherboard Name Gigabyte GA-K8NS (5 PCI, 1 AGP, 3 DDR DIMM, Audio, LAN)
Motherboard Chipset nVIDIA nForce3 250, AMD Hammer System
Memory 2048 MB (PC3200 DDR SDRAM)
BIOS Type Award Modular (09/22/05)
Communication Port Communications Port (COM1)
Communication Port Communications Port (COM2)
Communication Port Printer Port (LPT1)
Display: Video Adapter RADEON 9600 Series Secondary (256 MB)
Video Adapter RADEON 9600 Series (256 MB)
3D Accelerator ATI Radeon 9600 (RV350)
Multimedia: Audio Adapter Creative AudigyLS Audio Processor
Audio Adapter nVIDIA MCP2-S - Audio Codec
Interface Storage: IDE Controller NVIDIA nForce3 250 Parallel ATA Controller
IDE Controller NVIDIA nForce3 250 Serial
SCSI/RAID Controller Silicon Image SiI 0680 Ultra-133 Medley ATA Raid Controller
Disk Drive ST3200822A (200 GB, 7200 RPM, Ultra-ATA/100)
Disk Drive ST3200822A (200 GB, 7200 RPM, Ultra-ATA/100)
Disk Drive ST330083 1A USB Device (300 GB, 7200 RPM, Ultra-ATA/100)
Disk Drive ST3300831A (300 GB, 7200 RPM, Ultra-ATA/100)
Network: Network Adapter NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller

Peripherals:
USB1 Controller NEC uPD720101
USB OpenHCI Controller
USB1 Controller NEC uPD720101 USB OpenHCI Controller
USB1 Controller nVIDIA MCP2-S - OHCI
USB 1.1 Controller
USB1 Controller nVIDIA MCP2-S - OHCI
USB 1.1 Controller USB2 Controller NEC uPD720101
USB 2.0 Enhanced Host Controller (v1.0)
USB2 Controller nVIDIA MCP2-S - EHCI
USB 2.0 Controller USB Device EPSON STYLUS CX5200

The USB Mass Storage is the External that was working.

[Reloadron]

Have you tried what was suggested? That includes the disk mgmt suggestion?

Thanks for the specs, those will help.

Ron