Portable Hard Drive question.

[gman]

I have a pile of kids movies for my kids on my Western Digital 500GB hard drive. the hard drive works fine on my laptop. It worked fine the last time the kids wanted to watch a movie on my desktop. But today....it wont play ball at all. It fires up, but isnt being detected in My Computer....UNTIL....i pull the USB cable out, when its icon momentarily shows up in my computer. Also....it seems to freeze the system when its plugged in.
Anyone got a clue? its not been my week for all things in personal computing!

 

[Liesje]

Have you restarted the desktop?

 

[gman]

Hi Liesje. I have resarted the desktop several times. Im at a loss...as it works perfect on my laptop, and worked fine last time i tried it on the desktop.
As i say....the icon for th F drive appears in my computer for a fraction of a second when you pull the usb cable out. Strange but true!

 

[Liesje]

Right click My Computer > Manage > click Disk Management on the left > does the external drive appear as one of the drives/volumes? If so, maybe try changing the drive letter?

Also, I assume you are using the same USB cable and USB port as before? If not, the only thing I can think of is the drive isn't getting enough power b/c the cord is too long or the port is really a hub (for example, some USB ports on the front panel of desktops will not work with external hard drives or mp3 players b/c they are really a USB hub inside the case). However this should not be the case if you have a MyBook drive b/c it has it's own power (but my WD Passport drive sometimes doesn't work in some ports b/c of power).

 

[gman]

Also, I assume you are using the same USB cable and USB port as before? If not, the only thing I can think of is the drive isn't getting enough power b/c the cord is too long or the port is really a hub (for example, some USB ports on the front panel of desktops will not work with external hard drives or mp3 players b/c they are really a USB hub inside the case). However this should not be the case if you have a MyBook drive b/c it has it's own power (but my WD Passport drive sometimes doesn't work in some ports b/c of power).

Yeah Liesje, i was using the same port/cable as the last time. Also, the cord on the hard drive is just about 12 inches long at the most, so its not too long. Thing is, it worked 2 weeks ago fine, so surely it should be working the same this time!

 

[gman]

Right click My Computer > Manage > click Disk Management on the left > does the external drive appear as one of the drives/volumes? If so, maybe try changing the drive letter?

thanks Liesje.....I kind of followed your directions. I clicked My Computer>Manage and noticed in something in media that the SM Bus Controller drivers were missing. I will look into getting the drivers later, but the drive is now actually appearing if i click My Computer>Manage.....so the kids can watch the movies without too much upheaval now.