New
#1
seagate usb external hdd - showing as 'unknown device'
I recently upgraded to Win7 Ultimate (clean install) from XP 3/4 weeks ago, and for the last week or so am having problems accessing my USB external drive (although it worked ok at first).
When I connect the drive to my laptop, after a few seconds I hear a windows sound which tells me that the connection failed. In the meanwhile, the drive light displays solid for a moment but then begins to flash at a constant rate that seems faster than when operating normally and the drive cannot be heard.
I went into device manager and checked the properties for the "unknown device" and it was displaying 'code 28' stating the drivers have not been installed, but the last few evenings (after around a dozen or so attempts over several hours during each evening), the drive is somehow detected and is accessible.
I have also tried the following to try and solve my problem
- uninstalled the drive via device manager when displaying as 'unknown device' and rebooted. upon connecting the drive, windows tries to install the drivers but soon displays an error message stating that the drivers are not available.
- updated the bios to no avail
- went into disk management and refreshed drives to no avail
I also tried googling the device id when the drive shows as unknown (which is 'USB\VID_13FD&PID_1618&REV_0100') which brought up many results which seemed to include the line 'pnpdrivernotfound'
I would appreciate any help that anyone can offer, thanks in advance.
=============================================================
UPDATE: last night (8/4/10) my drive was detected after 3/4 attempts (much less than usual) but upon connecting today, i was able to access my drive at the first attempt... computers eh?! :)
Last edited by FrEnZyUK; 09 Apr 2010 at 11:11. Reason: Update on problem