After install, USB devices ID'ed but can't be accessed

[DDLUIGI]

Installed Windows 7 64 bit operating system yesterday. This was an upgrade from Vista. The computer will recognize anything that is connected to the USB ports, but it is unable to access the device. For instance, it shows my Seagate external hard drive but I cannot access it. It is all the same for any external device, although USB mouse is functional. New drive letters DO NOT show up under Computer. It also recognizes my Dell printer, but again it cannot access it.

Now here is something very serious... after I take the external hard drive off of this computer and put it on another, the other computer will not recognize it. I have 4 external hard drives, all of them were working just before the Windows 7 upgrade. Now none will. Another thing, the system will not even access flash drives. I have tried many. Again, it shows they're there, but cannot access them nor give them a drive letter.

I need to be very clear on this... even if I put a brand new, right out of the box, drive on this computer, it will not find the device. Is it possible that an operating system upgrade can damage a USB device?

Performed all diagnostic tests supplied by Dell, Microsoft, and Seagate. On my Seagate drive, there was an error for "generic short test" and "generic long test". On my printer, "no driver present", although all new drivers are loaded.

 

[kegobeer]

Have you installed the latest BIOS for your desktop? 1.0.13 was released to support Windows 7.

 

[DDLUIGI]

Hi Kegobeer,

Yes, the latest bios, 1.0.13, was installed yesterday.

Thank you for your assistance!

Dennis

 

[kegobeer]

Have you installed any of the Dell drivers for your desktop?

 

[DDLUIGI]

Hello again,

Yes, sir! All applicable Dell drivers are installed. This was also done yesterday.

Again, thank you!

Dennis

 

[kegobeer]

Did you do an in-place upgrade? If so, you should consider doing a clean install instead. Quite often an upgrade just doesn't work like it should.

 

[DDLUIGI]

Hi Kego,

If I can not resolve these problems by tomorrow, I will certainly try a clean install. The major problem is that I can not backup the computer since I can not access any external drive.

Thanks again,
Dennis

 

[kegobeer]

If you have space left on your drive, create another partition for your data and then copy the important files to the new partition.

 

[DDLUIGI]

Hi again,

Thank you for that idea. When I went to set up a new partition, I was prompted to shrink the original one. The system started searching for the amount of unallocated space it could use. When done, it only showed that 400 MB would be the new size. It also went on to explain the reason being unmovable files.

Thanks,
Dennis

 

[DDLUIGI]

New info on problem

I think I have narrowed down the problem, but have not found a solution as yet. All external USB devices that were connected to the system during the Windows 7 upgrade no longer operate on any computer. In my case, this is a 1.5 TB drive, a 640 GB drive, and a Dell printer.

It gets worse. . . USB drives that were NOT connected to the system during the upgrade, including flash drives, are prompted to format the disk. The formatting always fails. "Windows is unable to format this drive". If I format the drive on a different computer, and then place it back into the Windows 7 system again, it will still prompt to format the disk. Again, it will fail.

I feel like I am in the middle of a bad dream. I picked a bad day to give up drinking! The 1.5 TB external drive has everything that I have ever created, including all business transactions and contacts. I am out of business tomorrow, unless I get this drive working.

 

[kegobeer]

Your DVD drive works, correct? I'd download LiveCD and use it to access your files. It's an Ubuntu (Linux) disc that boots up and allows you to access everything on your hard drive. It also supports external USB devices, so you can back up your important data and then reinstall Windows 7

Or, you can remove your hard drive and slave it into another computer. Then, you can copy the files over, and then reinstall the drive and install Windows 7 again.

Or, you can install another drive in the original's place, and install Windows 7 on that one.

If you want to go the LiveCD route...https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCD

 

[kegobeer]

johnkelly - First, stop posting the same thing over and over again. Second, the OP doesn't have a problem with unrecognized devices.

 

[DDLUIGI]

Thanks again for your help, Kegobeer!!

I am having problems getting the Ubuntu boot disk to work. Getting tired...worked too long today. Tomorrow will be "Decision Day".

Dennis

 

[Dave76]

If you decide to do a Clean install, disconnect all peripherals keep only keyboard, mouse and monitor.

Did you try to assign a drive letter to your external HD?

If it won't in Disk Management then try a Partition Manager like Partition Wizard, Paragon Manager or Easeus Partition Manager.

 

[DDLUIGI]

Thanks Dave,

I just downloaded Partition Wizard and will be using it. I'll let you know what happens.

Thanks again,
Dennis