I have a USB 2.0 'enclosure' for 2.5" HDD with a 30GB Fujitsu MHT2030AT HDD.

When I plug it into a system with USB 1.1 ports only, although the Mass Storage Device and the Fujitsu MHT2030AT USB Device appears in Device Manager, there is no extra Disk added to Disk Manager (so I can't partition/format it). The same arrangement on the same PC running Linux works fine (though, as expected, it runs at USB 1.1 speed)

I am running Windows XP (SP1+) with ALL of the latest patches.

I have also tested this on 2 other XP (fully up to date) and 2 Win2k (also fully up to date) systems with USB 1.1 ports and found the same problem in all cases.

I'm leaning towards blaming the Updated USB 2.0 Windows drivers at the moment.

Microsoft 'Knowledge' Base is of no assistance. I am rapidly running out of ideas. Apparently, this unit has been tested and works on USB 1.1 systems, BUT I'm not sure if it has been tested on XP with ALL patches.

Has anyone else experienced this sort of problem? Any clues from the clue store?

kservice

A new drive without a partition cannot be assigned a drive letter in Windows XP. You have to partition it first.

You can do this in Start / Control Panel / Administrative Tools / Computer Management / Disk Management /

I just happen to have a side-business selling external drives online, so I know how common this problem is with most people that put together their own external drives. www.drivefusion.com

For this reason, I always partition and format my external drives for customers before I send them out so they don't complain.

It's a common mistake, and hopefully this will solve your problem. If creating a new partition does not assign a letter to your drive, then the enclosure is probably defective.

Another method of creating a partition is using Partition Magic or physically removing the drive from the enclsoure and installing it in your system.

andrescasta

It IS partitioned and formatted - I did that on a Win2k box with USB2 ports.

BUT - There is NO WAY for me to actually partition/format it on the USB 1.1 system because the DRIVE does not appear in Disk Manager (although it DOES appear in Device Manager)

THAT'S the crux of the problem - PHYSICALLY, it seems to work - Windows is able to identify the drive (it gets the "Fujitsu MHT2030AT" id from the DISK itself) - which implies to me that it is actually capable of 'talking' to the disk itself.

Logically, there's something stopping Windows from treating the disk as a disk - BUT, it does this WITHOUT issuing an ERROR or WARNING.

kservice

You may need to check how many USB devices you've got plugged in. USB has two limits, power and bandwidth. If you are using too many USB devices at once you may run out of bandwidth on your bus or power to one or all of your devices. These failures can be intermittant or consistant. USB hubs do not increase the amount of power or bandwidth that you have available on your bus. They just spread it out to more devices. Devices that pull a lot of bandwidth are items like usb network cards, usb hard drives, wireless mice/keyboard devices, etc... Try taking other items off your usb ports and see what you get.

For all I know you've already tried this. I also had a problem once with my external USB drive getting power to be detected properly and it was the drive, my manufacturer had to replace it.

andrescasta

Hi kservice,
If it's not the banwidth limit (as adrescasta suggested)..then suspect the 2.0 drivers as the problem. Check the manufacture's specs for a clue to potential problems or google the HD for user problems posted on the net. That should give you more info. It's probably not a PSU problem as the drive powers up & windows recognizes it... it just can't "talk" to it..which indicates an interface program problem (ie. drivers) or other program incompatibility.
Hope this is clear.
RGPHNX

When you format your hdd, did you format it into NTFS or FAT ? If you format the drive into something like EXT2 ( a file system uses by linux and stuff), windows will not assign a letter for it, unless you download a certain program and do it manually.

Try calling the company you bought it from.
i did this for my teachers external hdd and they told me step by step how to do it and it worked!!!

so yeah call them up deal with the damn computers at first then the damn india dude and stuff but it should work lol...

Did you ever get it running?
Xp Wont Assign Drive Letter To Usb 2.0 Hdd On Usb

I have the exact same issue...Same circumstances...Still no answer

-reply by Tobin

windows xp cannot show the pen drive but detect it
Xp Wont Assign Drive Letter To Usb 2.0 Hdd On Usb

When I plug a pen drive to my pc it can't show it in the My Computer. But it detect the pen drive. I can assign a letter to pen drive in disk management. But it doesn't appear in My Computer. But it detects portable hard drives correctly and assign letters and I can access them directly.
Has anyone get idea whats happen ??

Thank you in advance.

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