External Hard Drive and Flash sticks not showing up

Forum Storage : Flash Media External Hard Drive and Flash sticks not showing up

Hi all. I recently completed a new build:

Windows 7 OS
i5 2500k
Asus P67 Sabertooth Motherboard
16gb ram 1600
SSD 128gb
HDD 1TB
Blu Ray Drive
850 Watt PSU
Geforce 560ti

Now the problem I am having with this computer is that it is not showing that I have plugged in any USB flash drives or external hard drives. My other desktop and laptop have no problems with these devices so I know they are working. I am able to connect my iPOD Touch to my new computer without a problem. I have moved the iPOD Touch around every USB port and they all work fine. The external hard drive I use has a light that turns on when it connects to a USB port and it is doing so every time I plug it into a USB port, but the computer will not detect it. It does not show up in "Devices and Printers." Nor does it appear in the Disk Management area of Computer Management. It did this before I installed any windows updates, and it is still doing it after I installed windows updates. I have installed all of the drivers from the ASUS Sabertooth disc.

So does anyone know why the external HDD or flash drives would not be appearing on a new build but come up fine on other computers?

External Hard Drive model: wdbaau0020hbk

EDIT: Okay so here's a new twist. I decided to just take the External HDD out of it's case and connect it internally via a SATA cable like other hard drives. Come to find out it works perfectly this way. However, I did this because I tried connecting it to my laptop and other desktop again, but it would only light up and not show up in Management, My Computer, or Devices. Very odd that it will not work via USB but it will work internally. My final though is that maybe the USB adapter that was connected to the HDD when it was external has become faulty. However, as stated before, it does light up when connected through USB, but it does not appear anywhere in the system.

Message edited by FLL3118 on 02-03-2012 at 09:18:49 PM

Reply to FLL3118

Is this true for both the front and back panel USB ports? All of them? Also, I assume your keyboard and mouse are USB and they work correctly. Right?

Have you made any registry changes to limit external USB devices? In my office environment, we modify system settings to preclude users from using unauthorized USB devices (USB flash drives and HDDs). We do so from a security stand-point.

Here is a link regarding this change:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutoria [...] cting.html

Message quoted 1 times
Message edited by COLGeek on 02-03-2012 at 04:09:06 PM

Reply to COLGeek

Only the back panel ports but this is because I can't get the front panel ports to work (the ones that came attached to the case). I have the cables from the front panel connected correctly to the motherboard but I figured I would bother with that later because the external hard drive holds all of the data I am trying to transfer from my other computer which is hwy it is a bigger priority to me.

My keyboard and mouse are indeed both USB and are working perfectly. Not sure if their models will help with anything but the mouse is a Razer Naga and the keyboard is a Logitech G15. I also have a logitech G13 gamepad that automatically installed it's drivers when I plugged it in to a USB port.

I have not made any registry changes. I just installed Windows 7 yesterday so everything is still very fresh and not altered yet. That link looks promising so I will give it a shot when I get back to my room in about 2-3 hours and I will let you know how it turns out.

Reply to FLL3118

COLGeek wrote :

No luck unfortunately. Any other thoughts?

Reply to FLL3118

Make sure all of your USB ports are enabled in your BIOS (configurable on some motherboards). Also, double-check that you didn't connect any USB headers to any non-USB connections (i.e. 1394, serial, sound front panel, etc).

Reply to COLGeek