Hiren's boot cd not finding my external HDD

[joebudz]

Hi, as you all know, windows 8 release preview has expired, now i need to go back to windows 7, which requires a "clean install", Now the problem is that windows 8 restarts every two hours because of the expiration, making it impossible for me to backup my pc, any suggestions?, I tried hirens boot cd, loaded mini xp, but it doesn't pick up my external HDD, which i want to copy my files to

 

[dingo07]

try Acronis or Norton boot disks...

 

[COLGeek]

If you have your external HDD connected to a USB 3.0 port, change it to a USB 2.0 port and see if it is detected. Sounds like a possibility of missing USB drivers to me.