Portable USB drive not working. Please help!

enkei said:

Update everyone!

I couldn't get the drive to appear when plugging it in to any USB port. So instead, I shut my computer off, plugged the drive in, and turned the computer back on.

Light came on and stayed on! But the drive still didn't appear! I went into Disk Management and the drive showed up plain as day. It was "Online". It didn't have a drive letter though. I tried to assign it a drive letter, but it said the action could not be completed because the page "had not refreshed"? I clicked refresh and that little circle "waiting" mouse pointer came up, then went away indicating it was done. I again tried to assign a drive letter, but the same error came up again! I couldn't even click properties. That error came up no matter what I clicked. Yet if I selected drive C, my internal drive, I could edit whatever I wanted. It's just the drive. Whattttt!?

Even still, a USB ONLY drive is supposed to be able to be removed and inserted while power is on. Hot-swappable? This is madness! Any ideas as to what's happening?

It is Possible that your particular USB drive requires More DC Power than your USB ports can deliver - You need to try it with a "Powered USB Hub" to test this out. I had a USB drive once that required so much power that it would only run properly from a "powered" USB Hub. :):):)

enkei said:

Okay thanks thehappyman, I'll see if I can find one and I'll give it a try. But even still, it is a portable drive, and I won't be able to carry around a powered USB hub with me everywhere. Do you think I'll need a special cable that converts one USB connection into two? For ten volts rather than five? Also the computer at work is recognizing it fine. It's been plugged in for hours and it has been displaying perfectly. It's plugged into just a standard USB 2.0 slot here. Same as home. The only difference is the motherboard here is OLD. The motherboard at home is brand-spanking new, with all the drivers installed.

Hi enki - It is quite likley that your USB port at home cant supply enough 5v power to the Drive while the USB port at work can.

No you would NEVER apply 10 volts to a USB device () and you wouldnt use any cable splitter either. The "powered" USB hub will convert your single USB port into more ports, but more importantly will give each USB port a +5V line that is able to source more current than a non-powered port.

A powered hub can be pretty small. I use one here that provides 4 powered ports and its about 2" x 4" x 3/4" (not too big) and is made by Belkin. But you also would have to carry the relativley small AC power Adapter that the powered hub requires.
Good luck with it. :):):)