Toshiba 3.5" external hard drive problem

I have had my 250gig external hard drive for a few months and it has
behaved perfectly well.

I determined to reinstall Windows to clean up my PC tonight and
although the hardware is shown on the list of items in the system list
and the drivers appear to be all properly loaded, when I switch on the
machine, the icon simple doesn't show in "My computer" with the rest of
the storage devices. As a result I can't save anything onto the disk or
get anything off it.

Anybody know why?

Thanks

WAL

WAL <wadea.lowther@btopenworld.com> wrote:
> I have had my 250gig external hard drive for a few months and it has
> behaved perfectly well.
>
> I determined to reinstall Windows to clean up my PC tonight and
> although the hardware is shown on the list of items in the system list
> and the drivers appear to be all properly loaded, when I switch on the
> machine, the icon simple doesn't show in "My computer" with the rest
> of the storage devices. As a result I can't save anything onto the
> disk or get anything off it.
>
> Anybody know why?

Which version of Win ?

If it isnt XP, you dont in fact have the drivers loaded properly now.

Rod Speed wrote:
> WAL <wadea.lowther@btopenworld.com> wrote:
> > I have had my 250gig external hard drive for a few months and it has
> > behaved perfectly well.
> >
> > I determined to reinstall Windows to clean up my PC tonight and
> > although the hardware is shown on the list of items in the system list
> > and the drivers appear to be all properly loaded, when I switch on the
> > machine, the icon simple doesn't show in "My computer" with the rest
> > of the storage devices. As a result I can't save anything onto the
> > disk or get anything off it.
> >
> > Anybody know why?
>
> Which version of Win ?
>
> If it isnt XP, you dont in fact have the drivers loaded properly now.

It is indeed XP.

If the drivers aren't loaded any idea where I find them?

The thing is supposed to simply be plug and play. So the manual doesn't
help and I didn't get a disk with it

Thanks

Rod Speed wrote:
> WAL <wadea.lowther@btopenworld.com> wrote:
> > I have had my 250gig external hard drive for a few months and it has
> > behaved perfectly well.
> >
> > I determined to reinstall Windows to clean up my PC tonight and
> > although the hardware is shown on the list of items in the system list
> > and the drivers appear to be all properly loaded, when I switch on the
> > machine, the icon simple doesn't show in "My computer" with the rest
> > of the storage devices. As a result I can't save anything onto the
> > disk or get anything off it.
> >
> > Anybody know why?
>
> Which version of Win ?
>
> If it isnt XP, you dont in fact have the drivers loaded properly now.

WAL <wadea.lowther@btopenworld.com> wrote

> It is indeed XP.

> If the drivers aren't loaded any idea where I find them?

The problem will be elsewhere with XP.

> The thing is supposed to simply be plug and play.

Yeah, it should be with XP.

> So the manual doesn't help and I didn't get a disk with it

Did the XP reinstall go perfectly or did you have to kludge the reinstall ?

Why did you do a reinstall of XP ?


> Rod Speed wrote:
>> WAL <wadea.lowther@btopenworld.com> wrote:
>>> I have had my 250gig external hard drive for a few months and it has
>>> behaved perfectly well.
>>>
>>> I determined to reinstall Windows to clean up my PC tonight and
>>> although the hardware is shown on the list of items in the system
>>> list and the drivers appear to be all properly loaded, when I
>>> switch on the machine, the icon simple doesn't show in "My
>>> computer" with the rest of the storage devices. As a result I can't
>>> save anything onto the disk or get anything off it.
>>>
>>> Anybody know why?
>>
>> Which version of Win ?
>>
>> If it isnt XP, you dont in fact have the drivers loaded properly now.

I had just installed a broadband link and wanted to clean up the PC
which was getting cluttered with loads of dead files that were taking
up space. Rather than worry about removing individual files, it made
sense to do a full system restore and get everything where I wanted it
from scratch.

The reinstall went perfectly smoothly - apart from the reinstallation
of the hard drive.

Rod Speed wrote:
> WAL <wadea.lowther@btopenworld.com> wrote
>
> > It is indeed XP.
>
> > If the drivers aren't loaded any idea where I find them?
>
> The problem will be elsewhere with XP.
>
> > The thing is supposed to simply be plug and play.
>
> Yeah, it should be with XP.
>
> > So the manual doesn't help and I didn't get a disk with it
>
> Did the XP reinstall go perfectly or did you have to kludge the reinstall ?
>
> Why did you do a reinstall of XP ?
>
>
> > Rod Speed wrote:
> >> WAL <wadea.lowther@btopenworld.com> wrote:
> >>> I have had my 250gig external hard drive for a few months and it has
> >>> behaved perfectly well.
> >>>
> >>> I determined to reinstall Windows to clean up my PC tonight and
> >>> although the hardware is shown on the list of items in the system
> >>> list and the drivers appear to be all properly loaded, when I
> >>> switch on the machine, the icon simple doesn't show in "My
> >>> computer" with the rest of the storage devices. As a result I can't
> >>> save anything onto the disk or get anything off it.
> >>>
> >>> Anybody know why?
> >>
> >> Which version of Win ?
> >>
> >> If it isnt XP, you dont in fact have the drivers loaded properly now.

Did you format the partition before you did the reinstall ?

WAL <wadea.lowther@btopenworld.com> wrote:
> I had just installed a broadband link and wanted to clean up the PC
> which was getting cluttered with loads of dead files that were taking
> up space. Rather than worry about removing individual files, it made
> sense to do a full system restore and get everything where I wanted it
> from scratch.
>
> The reinstall went perfectly smoothly - apart from the reinstallation
> of the hard drive.
>
> Rod Speed wrote:
>> WAL <wadea.lowther@btopenworld.com> wrote
>>
>>> It is indeed XP.
>>
>>> If the drivers aren't loaded any idea where I find them?
>>
>> The problem will be elsewhere with XP.
>>
>>> The thing is supposed to simply be plug and play.
>>
>> Yeah, it should be with XP.
>>
>>> So the manual doesn't help and I didn't get a disk with it
>>
>> Did the XP reinstall go perfectly or did you have to kludge the
>> reinstall ?
>>
>> Why did you do a reinstall of XP ?
>>
>>
>>> Rod Speed wrote:
>>>> WAL <wadea.lowther@btopenworld.com> wrote:
>>>>> I have had my 250gig external hard drive for a few months and it
>>>>> has behaved perfectly well.
>>>>>
>>>>> I determined to reinstall Windows to clean up my PC tonight and
>>>>> although the hardware is shown on the list of items in the system
>>>>> list and the drivers appear to be all properly loaded, when I
>>>>> switch on the machine, the icon simple doesn't show in "My
>>>>> computer" with the rest of the storage devices. As a result I
>>>>> can't save anything onto the disk or get anything off it.
>>>>>
>>>>> Anybody know why?
>>>>
>>>> Which version of Win ?
>>>>
>>>> If it isnt XP, you dont in fact have the drivers loaded properly
>>>> now.

I think I beat you to it Rod.

It was the partitioning. Figure I must have left the drive plugged in
while the reinstall took place and accidentally deleted the partition.

I managed to find a CD with the full manual on it. The FAQs on there
answered the question and a reformat reinstalled the drive -
unfortunately, it overwrote the contents of the drive, but I have the
files on a DVD, so it was irritation, but not catastrophy. I also have
a totally pristine system, so it's not so bad.

So a big gold star for you.

Thanks for your time nd effort.

Regards

WAL


Rod Speed wrote:
> Did you format the partition before you did the reinstall ?
>
> WAL <wadea.lowther@btopenworld.com> wrote:
> > I had just installed a broadband link and wanted to clean up the PC
> > which was getting cluttered with loads of dead files that were taking
> > up space. Rather than worry about removing individual files, it made
> > sense to do a full system restore and get everything where I wanted it
> > from scratch.
> >
> > The reinstall went perfectly smoothly - apart from the reinstallation
> > of the hard drive.
> >
> > Rod Speed wrote:
> >> WAL <wadea.lowther@btopenworld.com> wrote
> >>
> >>> It is indeed XP.
> >>
> >>> If the drivers aren't loaded any idea where I find them?
> >>
> >> The problem will be elsewhere with XP.
> >>
> >>> The thing is supposed to simply be plug and play.
> >>
> >> Yeah, it should be with XP.
> >>
> >>> So the manual doesn't help and I didn't get a disk with it
> >>
> >> Did the XP reinstall go perfectly or did you have to kludge the
> >> reinstall ?
> >>
> >> Why did you do a reinstall of XP ?
> >>
> >>
> >>> Rod Speed wrote:
> >>>> WAL <wadea.lowther@btopenworld.com> wrote:
> >>>>> I have had my 250gig external hard drive for a few months and it
> >>>>> has behaved perfectly well.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> I determined to reinstall Windows to clean up my PC tonight and
> >>>>> although the hardware is shown on the list of items in the system
> >>>>> list and the drivers appear to be all properly loaded, when I
> >>>>> switch on the machine, the icon simple doesn't show in "My
> >>>>> computer" with the rest of the storage devices. As a result I
> >>>>> can't save anything onto the disk or get anything off it.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Anybody know why?
> >>>>
> >>>> Which version of Win ?
> >>>>
> >>>> If it isnt XP, you dont in fact have the drivers loaded properly
> >>>> now.

Thanks for the washup, too rare in my opinion.

WAL <wadea.lowther@btopenworld.com> wrote:
> I think I beat you to it Rod.
>
> It was the partitioning. Figure I must have left the drive plugged in
> while the reinstall took place and accidentally deleted the partition.
>
> I managed to find a CD with the full manual on it. The FAQs on there
> answered the question and a reformat reinstalled the drive -
> unfortunately, it overwrote the contents of the drive, but I have the
> files on a DVD, so it was irritation, but not catastrophy. I also have
> a totally pristine system, so it's not so bad.
>
> So a big gold star for you.
>
> Thanks for your time nd effort.
>
> Regards
>
> WAL
>
>
> Rod Speed wrote:
>> Did you format the partition before you did the reinstall ?
>>
>> WAL <wadea.lowther@btopenworld.com> wrote:
>>> I had just installed a broadband link and wanted to clean up the PC
>>> which was getting cluttered with loads of dead files that were
>>> taking up space. Rather than worry about removing individual files,
>>> it made sense to do a full system restore and get everything where
>>> I wanted it from scratch.
>>>
>>> The reinstall went perfectly smoothly - apart from the
>>> reinstallation of the hard drive.
>>>
>>> Rod Speed wrote:
>>>> WAL <wadea.lowther@btopenworld.com> wrote
>>>>
>>>>> It is indeed XP.
>>>>
>>>>> If the drivers aren't loaded any idea where I find them?
>>>>
>>>> The problem will be elsewhere with XP.
>>>>
>>>>> The thing is supposed to simply be plug and play.
>>>>
>>>> Yeah, it should be with XP.
>>>>
>>>>> So the manual doesn't help and I didn't get a disk with it
>>>>
>>>> Did the XP reinstall go perfectly or did you have to kludge the
>>>> reinstall ?
>>>>
>>>> Why did you do a reinstall of XP ?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> Rod Speed wrote:
>>>>>> WAL <wadea.lowther@btopenworld.com> wrote:
>>>>>>> I have had my 250gig external hard drive for a few months and it
>>>>>>> has behaved perfectly well.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I determined to reinstall Windows to clean up my PC tonight and
>>>>>>> although the hardware is shown on the list of items in the
>>>>>>> system list and the drivers appear to be all properly loaded,
>>>>>>> when I switch on the machine, the icon simple doesn't show in
>>>>>>> "My computer" with the rest of the storage devices. As a result
>>>>>>> I can't save anything onto the disk or get anything off it.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Anybody know why?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Which version of Win ?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> If it isnt XP, you dont in fact have the drivers loaded properly
>>>>>> now.