Date: 08/08/05 (Computer Help)    Keywords: web

I run Windows 2000 SP4 on my Dell laptop. With no DVD burner and less than 10 gigabytes on my C drive, I managed to acquire an old (I think; it doesn't look like any of the images of current drives on the WDC site) Western Digital USB drive. It seems to be from the WD60 series.

It took some effort--originally by my father, who provided the drive--to get it working with my computer and recognized as the E drive. After that, it worked fine--until I shut it down to avoid overheating in the depths of summer. Once again, it took some effort by my father to get my computer to recognize it.

Just a few days ago, after being reassured that this time it would work after I reattached it, I unplugged everything (making sure to properly stop the USB drive before removing it). When I reattached the drive, it was once again not recognized. This time, my father claims whatever he did last time (he's kind of vague on what that was) failed to work, so he gives up.

Taking matters into my own hands, I repeatedly reinstalled drivers and downloaded new ones from the WDC website. I uninstalled and reinstalled a number of other USB devices. I restarted again and again.

The device shows up in Device Manager as a USB drive, and the drive itself shows up as a disk drive. It does not appear in either Disk Management or the My Computer window. Device Manager claims that it's working perfectly. In fact, the only thing there that it says isn't working perfectly is a PCI device, for which the proper drivers don't seem to be installed. I'm not sure if that's relevant to this problem or not.

Help?

(Crossposted to computerhelp.)

Source: http://www.livejournal.com/community/computer_help/461911.html