Posted on 01/12/2018 12:50:22 PM PST by pabianice
I bought an external backup disk and it will not install/PC will not recognize it. I am running Win 7 on a Dell PC. External drive is an ACOMDATA. Plugged it in the USB 2.0 port and no matter what I do the PC cannot find it except as "2.0 HDD Device." Cannot open it, cannot copy anything to it and it does not appear when I select Computer Devices. Cannot see it in "install a device."
Suggestions?
Thanks.
BTW, there is no “install” option on the CD, just a vague paper handbook that is useless.
Not enough info, but my first guess is that there is a bios setting that needs to be reset. Probably a boot disk security setting that you can override so it sees the attached drive correctly. Also look at your malware protection to see if it is blocking the port.
Set up the partition and format it.
JM2C.
Had the same problem once. Formatting the external hard drive made it visible to Win 7.
Good luck.
Easy things to try, there are lots more but these are fast:
(1) Go to start and open a “Run...” box by choosing Run; OR just type “WindowsKey-R” (the windows key on the left between the Ctrl key and the Alt key) plus an “R”).
Then guess at a letter for the drive. It will be “D” or higher. If you only have one hard drive in the copmputer and the CD drive is the only other drive, typing this might work:
d:
If that opens some other partition on your main hard drive, or does not work, you could try other drive letters from “d” on, e:, f:, etc.
OR YOU COULD TRY THIS
(2) open a run line as above and type “diskmgmt.msc”
That will open a program that manages disks on your computer.
See if there is a CD drive showing. Maybe it needs to be “assigned” a letter which you can do with that program by right clicking the drive in the scrolling list in the disk management program (”module”) you just opened.
Also be sure your drive is powered enough. Some drives need more power than is supplied by the USB port. Use additional power if needed according to how you drive works, some have a plug-in adaptor, some plug into a second USB port just to get power — these have a special cable with two UBS plugs in fact, and if you use the wrong one by itself it will not work, use both.
Hope this helps!
After looking through those replies it looks like the quickest solution is to just go to disk management and reformat the drive. This would blow away the backup software, but I wouldn’t use that anyway.
Yes, that’s what fixed the problem for me, too.
return it
That seems to be the consensus of the responses.
Plug ‘n Pray
Format.....................
Try plugging into a different usb port. Try all ports.
LOL
New drives now come in the new GPT (GUID partition table) file format which is only natively read by Windows 10. It has superior qualities to the old MBR (Master Boot Record) file format but lacks compatibility with older systems. You can either reformat the drive or upgrade Windows 7 to be able to read GPT disks.
You might try plugging it into a different USB port.
However, try the following:
Click on the start icon on the bottom left
RIGHT click on “computer” in the right hand column
LEFT click “manage”
left click “Disk Management”
wait a minute to see if the disk shows up in the top menu, it will say something “healthy” and/or “active partition”. If it says something other than that, you may have to format it by RIGHT clicking and then Left clicking “format”
That list was about as useless as tits on a boar hog.
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