External Hard Drive Not Detected

I have a western digital mybook (WD5000C032-002) that for some reason is not being detected by Windows 7 RC. It is a USB connection straight from the mybook to one of the motherboard's usb ports. All my device drivers are up-to-date. If I go into "Devices and Printers" and click on "Add a device"... I get a window that says "Searching for devices... Make sure your device is discoverable." It stayed on this screen for up to 1/2 hour and then I gave up and clicked Cancel. Doing this this shouldn't be necessary anyway, because as soon as I plug in the mybook it should be detected automatically, if I'm not mistaken. By the way, I can confirm that this mybook is detected by an XP machine.

Anyone have any ideas? Thanks in advance!

wondering if you are connecting it via usb 2.0 port. Tho technically it SHOULD still find the drive, i have noticed win7 reporting fits here if anything like a hdd is not plugged into a 2.0 port here. Most of mine are 2.0, all but one set, and when the 2.0 gets filled up at times, this is my choice, and what i have seen.

Not much to really offer you here, i dont think THIS SHOULD be a problem, and it might not be. I just notice 7 complaining alot on 2.0 use or nonuse of actually.

Do any other usb devices work, like a printer or ipod etc?

should have done this before posting... it looks like the port i was connecting to has malfunctioned... i tried another port and now it works...

Hi Guys

Have read through this post, I have similar problem though I'm more confused now.
I have 3 External HD and one Semi-External (backup unit HP). None of them works through USB ports (none of my 8 ports).
Not even the four Mem sticks I have tried works.

W7 says unknown devices.
1. I have tried all ports.
2. I have tried on Vista and XP on other machines (no problems).
3. I have had these units working on this hardware before (in vista).
4. I have the latest of everything as it seems.. (i think).
5. I have reinstalled with them plugged in and not like 4 times..
6. I have tried several updates and even tried with old USB drivers..
7. I found a writing on a 4 step check and did that to (power management, uninstall, checking power etc.. )
8. tried different cables
9. ...


What the H...

My keyboard works (W-less).. My Camera works.. ? on all ports..

Any one have similar problems ?
This is driving me crazy ..

Best Regards
Harry

Have the same problem with the computer not recognizing external hard drives. Everything else works... even flash drives and external hard drives with separate power source but for me external hard drives without external power source are not recognized. The disk spins and led light is on but the computer doesn't recognize it. The hard drives however works in XP! Tried the disk management thingamajig and device drivers but no go... Hope someone finds an answer soon...

I had this same issue and it was driving me crazy!! I checked everything I could think of!! Until I thought I would check it out in the computer management..
Go to:
Control Panel
Admin tools
Computer management
Disk management
And sure enough there were my drives that I couldn't access. I had to right click on the drive header and select 'Online'
And now sure enough I see all my drives in the 'Computer'

If you're running Windows 7 Professional 64 bit the problem may be software (or firmware) related.

I have an Eagle-Tech external hard drive unit which uses two 1TB drives. It worked fine while running Windows 7 Beta and RC, both 32 bit versions. After I loading Windows Professional 64 bit one drive disappeared. Going to Control Panel/Adminstrative Tools/Computer Management/Disk Management/ both drives are displayed but one shows no label, no data and no free space.

I sent the drive for repair and it was returned with the same problem. I tested it on two other computers running Windows Home Premium, 32 bit and 64 bit, and both drives were displayed with all files showing.

Some SSD drives are reported to have problems with Win 7 Pro 64 bit and Intel is to introduce a new firmware update to solve the problems. My new Intel SSD is not as fast as I expected but I have to see if the new firmware improves performance.

In the meantime Eagle-Tech support is working on the problem and I'm waiting for an answer. You might want to check with your external hard drive support.

Hello,

My problem here is my external hard disk cannot be detected by my PC if I don't connect it when starting the Windows. So I have to restart my PC again so that it detects. There was no "Unknown Device" or "AutoPlay" and specification.

Also I cannot eject or remove safely the device. Always give the "Generic volume........" message.

I'm running Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. Details in my profile. I hope far a little help from any one of you guys. (I just got this PC recently, before using Dell Inspiron 640m Windows Vista)

I think the issue is with Explorer.exe. Obviously everything else works that has been suggested here...they all detect the external drives...however explorer.exe does not no matter what anyone does here. I have three external drives...no matter what I do every part of the system detects the drives except explorer.exe

now i have to allocate partition space on my main drive to make up for the loss just because Microsoft has a MAJOR bug on their Windows 7 x64 and x32 for that matter. Someone PLEASE tell these buttt-holes at Micro to hurry up and create a damn fix cause at this rate anything you connect to a usb is going to fail and Windows 7 isn't such a big deal to hurry to after all....(what a waste of OS).