Windows 7: Windows 7 can't detect my external hard drive

Hi,

Wondered if you guys can help me out.
I've spent most of the day trawling through this forum trying to look for an answer to my problem to no avail.
I have tried the following links:

http://www.sevenforums.com/hardware-devices/43735-my-devices-printers-wont-show-up.html



http://www.sevenforums.com/hardware-devices/49858-windows-7-failing-pick-up-external-hard-drive.html

and have had no luck therefore, I have decided to start a new thread....sorry

I have a Toshiba Sat Pro laptop about six months old and running with an external hard drive Western Digital My Book (works fine).

This is where my problems start.....I purchased a second hard drive to simply use as a back up for my main external hard drive (Western Digital).

The new Hard Drive is a Fujitsu Siemens Storagebird 35EV840 - 400GB. My problem is that my laptop will not recognise it at all. When I click on my computer it's just not there.

I have tried all different configurations of putting the USB into a different port / rebooting everything with no luck at all.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Ray Chisk

On the toshiba sattilite pro could you please inform us on the model please... under the laptop

it might be as easy as updating your usb drivrs

Hi

Thanks for replying so swiftly.

It's a Toshiba Satellite Pro L300-1FJ

Many thanks

Ray Chisk

Hi,

I have tried updating the USB drivers (all were aparently current).
It still doesn't work.

Regards

Ray Chisk

Have you installed the intel matrix storage manager - you would have the intel chipset - what happens if AHCI is enabled in the bios Windows 7 installs a intel driver for it during installation, but for correct functionality you need to install the intel matrix storage manager after the OS installation is complete.
If you get an error saying your system doesnt meet the minimun requirements when you try to install the software you dont need it. The latest version is 8.9.0.1023 and can be found here : http://downloadcenter.intel.com/default.aspx
Please reply if it works as others can benefit.

It could be the external harddrive you just bought is FUBAR. Try plugging it into another computer as a test or just trading it in.

Next question i am asking people along with their model is what country they live in...

I found out that Ray bought the computer and/or lives in the UK

Your support website for the computer:

Laptop Support - Toshiba

Satellite Pro

/
Satellite Pro L300 Series

/
Satellite Pro L300-1FJ


Here is the chipset for: Windows 7 64-Bit
http://support1.toshiba-tro.de/tedd-...1027134400.zip

Here is the chipset for: Windows 7 32-Bit
http://support1.toshiba-tro.de/tedd-...1027134334.zip

After you connect up your external Hard Drive, open up Device Manager and click on Scan for Hardware Changes. You should find that it will then be picked up!
You shouldn't really have to do this of course, but at least that may be a solution for you for now.

Hope this helps?

Hi all,

Thanks for all of your replys. I tried all the above and I even tried it in another laptop and it still didn't work so I decided to send it back to DABS where I got it from.
I then came accross this advice in the customer reviews section:

This is a fantastic value product and very well built
Just one tip though, it may need initialising and formatting before it shows up as a new drive. Just let your PC see the drive and install the drivers then go to My Computer -> Manage -> Disk Management - select you new drive, select initialise, then format Very straightforward but because slightly different from other external USB drives may confuse at first.

Firstly the drive didn't come with any drivers and I've no idea how to execute the above instructions in Windows 7.

Thanks once again for your help.

Regards

Ray Chisk

Sorry - i would of put this up only i read you tried everything - its very easy to initialise the disc just follow the instructions and select MBR(Master boot record).

To initialize new disks
In Disk Management, right-click the disk you want to initialize, and then click Initialize Disk.
In the Initialize Disk dialog box, select the disk(s) to initialize. You can select whether to use the master boot record (MBR) or GUID partition table (GPT) partition style.
Note the disk is initialized as a basic disk.

Additional considerations :
New disks appear as Not Initialized. Before you can use a disk, you must first initialize it. If you start Disk Management after adding a disk, the Initialize Disk Wizard appears so you can initialize the disk.