My Computer doesnt see My Firewire Externall HDD

[Guest]

Hello,
My Computer doesnt see My Firewire Externall HDD. I can see it in Device Manager within Disk Drives but not in Disk Managment in Computer Management. Can anybody advise anything? power to the HDD is fine and I have tried all suggestions such in this thread. Thanks

 

[Guest]

Also I am using Windows XP and further specs are shown below. NB the External Firewire drive in question is listed below in the physical Storage Devices and not logical storage devices. I have updated all of my drivers, connections and cables are all fine. I just don't know what else to do - PLEASE HELP!!!!

SiSoftware Sandra

System
Host Name : USER-W1WLPH1CD5
User : user
Workgroup : MSHOME

Processor
Model : Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.93GHz
Speed : 2.93GHz
Cores per Processor : 1 Unit(s)
Threads per Core : 1 Unit(s)
Internal Data Cache : 16kB, Synchronous, Write-Thru, 8-way, 64 byte line size
L2 On-board Cache : 1MB, ECC, Synchronous, ATC, 8-way, 64 byte line size, 2 lines per sector

System
System : Compaq Presario 061 PN126AA-ABU SR1230UK GB440
Mainboard : ASUSTeK Computer INC. Grouper
Bus(es) : ISA X-Bus PCI PCIe IMB USB FireWire/1394 i2c/SMBus
Multi-Processor (MP) Support : 1 Processor(s)
Multi-Processor Advanced PIC (APIC) : Yes
System BIOS : American Megatrends Inc. 3.10
Total Memory : 2.49GB DDR

Chipset 1
Model : HP 82915G/GV/GL/P/PL/GL/910GE/GL Grantsdale Host Bridge/DRAM Controller
Front Side Bus Speed : 4x 133MHz (532MHz)
Total Memory : 2.5GB DDR
Shared Memory : 8MB
Memory Bus Speed : 2x 200MHz (400MHz)

Video System
Monitor/Panel : Plug and Play Monitor
Monitor/Panel : Plug and Play Monitor
Monitor/Panel : Plug and Play Monitor
Adapter : Intel(R) 82915G/GV/910GL Express Chipset Family
Adapter : Intel(R) 82915G/GV/910GL Express Chipset Family

Physical Storage Devices
ST3160023AS 160GB (SATA150, 8MB Cache) : 149.05GB (C (H
Generic USB SD Reader (USB) : N/A (Z
Generic USB CF Reader (USB) : N/A (E
Generic USB SM Reader (USB) : N/A (F
Generic USB MS Reader (USB) : N/A (G
Ext Hard Disk 1000GB (FireWire/1394, NCQ) : 931.51GB
HL-DT-ST DVDRRW GWA-4083B (ATAPI33, 40x CD-R, 40x CD-W, 5x DVD-R, 5x DVD-W, 2MB Cache) : N/A (I

Logical Storage Devices
PRESARIO_RP (H : 4.25GB (1.08GB, 25% Free Space) (FAT32) @ ST3160023AS 160GB (SATA150, 8MB Cache)
Hard Disk (C : 144.79GB (112.44GB, 78% Free Space) (NTFS) @ ST3160023AS 160GB (SATA150, 8MB Cache)
CD-ROM/DVD (I : N/A @ HL-DT-ST DVDRRW GWA-4083B (ATAPI33, 40x CD-R, 40x CD-W, 5x DVD-R, 5x DVD-W, 2MB Cache)
Removable Drive (Z : N/A @ Generic USB SD Reader (USB)
Removable Drive (E : N/A @ Generic USB CF Reader (USB)
Removable Drive (F : N/A @ Generic USB SM Reader (USB)
Removable Drive (G : N/A @ Generic USB MS Reader (USB)

Peripherals
Serial/Parallel Port(s) : 1 COM / 1 LPT
USB Controller/Hub : Standard Universal PCI to USB Host Controller
USB Controller/Hub : Standard Universal PCI to USB Host Controller
USB Controller/Hub : Standard Universal PCI to USB Host Controller
USB Controller/Hub : Standard Universal PCI to USB Host Controller
USB Controller/Hub : Intel(R) 82801FB/FBM USB2 Enhanced Host Controller - 265C
USB Controller/Hub : USB Root Hub
USB Controller/Hub : USB Root Hub
USB Controller/Hub : USB Root Hub
USB Controller/Hub : USB Root Hub
USB Controller/Hub : USB Root Hub
USB Controller/Hub : USB Mass Storage Device
USB Controller/Hub : USB Composite Device
USB Controller/Hub : Digidesign Mbox 2 Firmware Updater
FireWire/1394 Controller/Hub : VIA OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
Keyboard : Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard
Mouse : HID-compliant mouse
Human Interface : USB Human Interface Device

Communication Device(s)
Device : Agere Systems PCI Soft Modem

Power Management
Mains (AC) Line Status : On-Line

Operating System(s)
Windows System : Microsoft Windows XP (2002) Home 5.01.2600 (Service Pack 3)
Platform Compliance : Win32 x86

Network Services
Adapter : Realtek RTL8139/810x Family Fast Ethernet NIC

 

[Paperdoc]

Check this thread:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/244697-32-sata-drive-detected-bios-windows-disk-management

and my post on 5-25-09 and later. You probably need to Partition and format the new external drive, and that can only be done from the LOWER RIGHT pane of Disk Management.

 

[lozloz]

Hello thanks for your help with this. i have reasd your advice following the link but have found that when I right click on the unknown disk in the lower right pain of disk management the 'partition' option is grayed put an unavailable and so i owondered if you might have any ideas here? and I also notice that the drive is not initalised and there is an option to initialise the disk. Could this be the problem and should i initialise the disk?

 

[Paperdoc]

So you can see the external drive in the lower right pane of Disk Management, but right-clicking does NOT allow you to Create a new Partition. Well, what does that disk unit show there?

A disk hardware device in this pane normally is represented by one large horizontal block with a small sub-block on the left end that has a bit of info like Disk_2, a size, and a couple other things. To the right of that will be one or more sub-blocks representing how its space is already allocated. A completely empty unprepared drive will have just one large block here labeled "Unallocated Space", and it is this space you right-click to Create a new Partition. BUT if one or more Partitions already have been created on the HDD, they will each be represented by a block with a letter name like E:, a size, a File System like NTFS, and a status label. If your drive already has all its space assigned to Partitions there will be no Unallocated Space to use to create a new one, and this certainly would explain why the "Create Partition" option is not available.

Now, IF there are Partitions in place already there are a couple of things that might not be quite right, and these can prevent use of the Partition as a "drive". One is if it actually has no letter name assigned. If that is the case, RIGHT-click on the Partition and choose to assign or change its name, then give it any letter not already in use. If that is all that's wrong, exit back out of Disk Management and reboot to get the Registry updated, and your disk should show up in My Computer.

Another thing that can be wrong is if the File System is something Windows cannot recognize. One of the most common versions of this is a file system called RAW. If that is what you have there is some corrupted data in the Partition Table or Formatting information on the drive, and there are particular techniques for recovering data stored on the drive but inaccessible. HOWEVER if this is a new drive with NO data you want to preserve, there's a neater solution. You RIGHT-click on all the Partitions that exist, one at a time, and Delete the Partition. THIS DESTROYS ANY DATA ON THE DISK, SO MAKE SURE THAT IS WHAT YOU WANT! This will get you to the brand-new condition of all Unallocated Space. From there you can right-click on it and start fresh by Creating one or more new Primary Partitions, then formatting them.

Let us know what the blocks on your external HDD unit say in the lower right pane, and whether you make any progress.

 

[lozloz]

Hi Thanks for your help. I have now have functioning HDD available in my computer. I initialised the disk and then was allowed to create the partition and format. This brought the the HDD online and i could see that it was available in the upper part of the right hand pain in disk management and by right clicking and selecting open I could access the drive. However it was still not available in my computer even after a reboot and I could only open the HDD from disk managment. I tried changing the letter allocated to the drive etc but no joy and then i came accross a windows power tool called tweek UI and this just allowed to place the new HDD in my computer so all is now fine.

One other thing for your interest while i was doing the above I allocated the new HDD as active (big mistake!!!), don't really know why I did that as I had no idea what I was doing. This essentialy buggerd my computer. I realised before i shut down the machine and despite all info on the web saying that this was a serious serious problem involving system recovery and windows 95/98 boot disks and lots of sharp intakes of breath I managed to fix the problem using a program called Active@ Partition Manager which just let me re allocate the active partition and the machine is doing just fine but that was a close one!!!! you live an learn

Thanks again