Windows 7: External Hard drive doesn't show up!

Hello guys,

I have a problem. Whenever i plug in my external hard drive (1TB Maxtor) in my pc, it doesn't show up. It has always been working, but since i've installed Windows 7 yesterday it doesn't work anymore. So it HAS to be something to do with Windows 7.

Anyone knows any solution? Please help me, because all my documents are stored on this external hard drive and i need them on this pc.

Thanks,
Pim

EDIT:
It does show up in disk manager (don't know how it's called in english, i use dutch windows 7) and it even shows the model and brand name of the drive. So i am wondering why it won't show up in explorer?

Welcome aboard. Did you try with a diff USB port?

Thanks .

Yes, i've tried 4 different USB ports, but nothing changes. Strange thing is, i can 'safely remove' my hard drive. So my pc does really recognize it, but it just doesn't show up.

When u insert the device, does it look like W7 is scanning it, or it doesn't even scan (knows that a USB device has been inserted)?

It does know that a USB device has been inserted because it does show up in disk manager, hardware manager or however thats called in english. Also, when i insert the external hard drive, the button with the 'safe remove' thing shows up in my taskbar.

Hi there
Quite a common problem

Just go into Control panel===>administrative tools==>Computer management==>Disk management

Now you'll probably see your disk WITHOUT a Letter

Give it a drive letter and you are up and running.

This often happens if you swap different usb disks especially between systems as the Drive letter sometimes gets "hosed up".

Cheers
jimbo

Thanks, but didn't work. Maybe it's just me, but i can't give it a drive letter?

Here's a screenshot (in Dutch xD):

Hi Pim Welcome to SevenForums

Not sure why you are looking at it in disk mgt, if you want to see whats on it shouldn't you be in IE, open IE then plug in USB cable (makeing sure connections are good) it will recognize the drive and you can open the tree.

Hi there
Right mouse click on the 931 GB partition and then assign drive and letter

I assume that's a Primary partition and it's already been formatted .

It should work.

Here's a screen dump of what you should get.

Cheers
jimbo

Sorry for being such a dumbass :P, but what do you mean by IE? 'cause I'm pretty sure you dont meant internet explorer xD.

It's a primary partition, and it's been formatted to NTFS. The problem is, when i right click the partition, all the options are unclickable. All i can do is remove it, but i don't know if that is a good idea :P.