Vista doesn't recognize my external USB drive

Perhaps the device is corrupting to the extent it is not recognized 'properly'. Properly meaning not showing up in My Computer. Vista is recofnizing it, or incorrectly recognizing it (confliction) as something other than what it should be displayed as. Driver conflict sort of thing. I had that happen with a wireless notebook adapter. Machine reecognized it with some other system driver on startup. As soon as desktop loaded, all I had to do was unplug it then plug it back in and windows would find recognize it correctly and install the proper driver then and only then. It worked as advertised. Have you tried going in to Safe Mode and then plugging it in?

I have a similar device at work... at it works fine with Vista. Comes in really handy when you have a customer machine with a hosed Windows install and you need to back up their data before reloading it.

Oddly I just got a maxtor one touch4 and am getting much the same results.
In disk management it recognizes the disk as disk 1 (0 being the main drive)
and not initialized .
It does got on to say that it is write protected.
Im not certain in your case if this is the prob and mine is a USB only setup but
strangely XP missed it and Vista found it and installed drivers.
perhaps we could help each other.

The one thing that I have found is that maxtor will sell me the driver to perhaps reset the drive, Im not sure yet and maybe yours would do the same.
Possibly you are running into the same problem or maybe you can send me in the right direction.

oops sorry double post

My XP toshiba laptop died from a water spill and I bought a case for it . But my other laptop HP with vista wount recognize it . So I need a driver for vista I guess. DL

I have exactly the same problem as you with my Maxtor One Touch 4 Plus on vista.
It worked fine but now is not listed on My Computer only Computer and Device Manager.

Any ideas?? i would like to save the data on the disk.
RK

I have similar situation - an old Maxtor 80gig NTFS in an external case and it worked working just fine on Vista for over a year, and still works on XP...so I think it's got something to do with Vista's security even though I didn't change anything - it stopped working after a windows update. Now nothing I do can get it working in Vista...but I can still access it over the network if I connect it to the XP machine ...WTF? If something were corrupted wouldn't it NOT work either place? If someone finds a solution I would love to hear about it.

Hi,

I'm having a similar problem. Last Thursday (11th June 2009) I was able to use my computer (vista SP2) fine. My usb pen drive worked fine. Something since then has changed because now the only way i can view my usb drives is through disk management. They worked fine before that date and continue to work on other systems.

I've tried assigning a disk letter but they still refuse to show in My Computer. The information is accessible via exploring whilst in disk management. The only way to make them appear stable in my computer is to create a folder on the C drive and assign the disks a folder on the C drive through which they can be accessed. Any news of this being a common problem?

Update: found this info... check it out [url=http://www.computing.net/answers/hardware/ext-hd-not-in-my-computer/53949.html][/url]

Could be. The 3.5 IDE that works fine is a Hitachi. The 2.5 IDE that doesn't is a Seagate. The SATA that isn't working either is a WD though.

Sometimes when people think 2 much they overlook the simplest anwsers. In vista disk management, when it says the disk is not initialized there will be a little red arrow on the disk icon on the left of the unallocated space. Right click on the little red arrow and select initialize disk. After you do this, then go ahead and format the disk how you want it.
Thanks
xinuse

I have the same problem.
My computer broke and i have removed my hard-drives to retrive my files to put on my new PC. the previous one was XP the new one is Vista. I have purchased a caddy to transfer the files, hoever i can get through the admin tools etc.. and i right click to initialise the drive but it tells me that the device is not ready, no matter what i do the same problem. I have even tried another of my hard-drives and it tells me the same. Any clues ????????????????????????

Sorry to tell you guys but this problem is COMMON with Vista 64 bit. Yet another example of the extremely poor driver management in 64bit Vista (thx MS).

I got external drives to work for a while to work for a while by unchecking the "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" option in the device manager for USB Hub Properties, Power Management Tab.

That's not helping now.

There's also a suggestion that the C:\Windows\inf\INFCACHE.1 file may be corrupted and need to be replaced (either restore a previous version or just delete it and try connecting again). Ibelieve Vista recreates this file every bootup?

That has'nt worked for me either though .

I will keep investigating until I find a fix but I can't count the number of similar sytle problems with Vistax64 and external devices (usb drives, printers) that have been around for over a year and for Microsoft provides no fix.

If Vistax64 were a car it would have been recalled by now as unfit for use, yet Microsoft do nothing

Apologies if this posts twice but my 1st attempt appeared to vanish.

It appears this problem is not OS related OR due to faulty device drivers - though it does appear to be most common with Vista it does happen with other OS (e.g. 32 bit XP).

There IS an effective workaround (not a permanent fix) - which involves a complete shutdown AND disconnecting power AND disconnecting battery (if laptop) for 30 minutes (I suspect you could do it for less time).

It appears the problem relates to the motherboard losing its ability to properly read the USB hub (I suspect this is a power management/load issue). This is most likely caused by an external event (like a power drop or pulling in a new device). The above "reboots" the motherboard.

Others have reported a fix due to completely uninstalling all USB devices and the main hub and then re-installing. Though some have said this didn't work (I suspect for those that did it may be due to the power down they would have done in the middle).

IF this is what is going on (issue has been reported for years) then it suggests motherboard design not up to scratch for more complex/power demanding OS - but this is just conjecture.

Regardless try this workaround. Has worked for me twice and is simple.


http://www.online-tech-tips.com/co [...] ecognized/

I got an IDE 2.5 and it has the same problem, I can see the volume in the Disk management but can't initialize it. It can be seen in XP even browsing the the whole HD and formatting it in NTFS. Has any of you has a work around in Vista.