Herculine Posted February 20, 2011 Share Posted February 20, 2011 I have two PCs, one running Windows XP and one running Windows 7. I recently purchased two 2TB hard drives, one internal and one external. To install the internal drive on the PC with Windows 7 I had to first format it on the PC with XP and then use the Win7 Device Manager to enable it, now it works fine. The external drive however is being more problematic. Neither OS or Bios will detect it. I'm %99 certain nothing is wrong with the drive itself since the power indicator lights and I can feel the vibration of it running. It's an Iomega drive, serial # XTA0512957. I've gone to their website and looked up the troubleshooting info for the drive but nothing they suggest has helped thus far. Any suggestions please? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qwaxalot Posted February 20, 2011 Share Posted February 20, 2011 If it's a USB drive, the Win7 computer should have recognized and installed a device driver. If it's a SATA interface, and device manager won't enable it, then you'll probably have to enable it in BIOS. Not much help, I know...sorry. :wacko: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bben46 Posted February 20, 2011 Share Posted February 20, 2011 I have an external on Win7. It can be hooked up as either USB or eSata. For USB, I can attach and detach it while the computer is running. But for eSATA use, it must be plugged in before booting for the BIOS to recognize it. I normally have it plugged in as eSATA on my desktop, but when I use it on my laptop, I use it as USB. Works fine both ways. :thumbsup: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evilneko Posted February 20, 2011 Share Posted February 20, 2011 Wait, so eSATA's not hot-swappable like USB, Firewire, etc? I have eSATA capability but have never used it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herculine Posted February 20, 2011 Author Share Posted February 20, 2011 It's a USB and Windows does not recognize it or install any drivers. I have a similar external drive that is only 500 GB and have been using it on both computers for a while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qwaxalot Posted February 20, 2011 Share Posted February 20, 2011 @ evilneko: eSata drives (like your internal Sata drives are most definitely NOT hot swappable. @ Herculine: If windows doesn't see a USB drive, it's pretty certain that the drive is bad. @ Bben: did you reformat to NTSC (I wouldn't have thought an eSata drive would work with Fat32 formatting) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimboss Posted February 20, 2011 Share Posted February 20, 2011 It's an Iomega drive, serial # XTA0512957. I've gone to their website and looked up the troubleshooting info for the drive but nothing they suggest has helped thus far.Can you give us the product name, please? It would make it easier to all to help you if we know what model you try to get running. I have experienced terrible with one product USB external drive from Iomega. In my and other peoples experience the main reasons have been these: One, the USB cable shipped was of low quality changing it to another solved the issue. Two, these take lot of power and sometimes the USB ports connected can't supply with enough power in that case the drive can't start up correctly (also you can have strange "click" sounds from the drive). If possible try to use USB ports (If you got a cable with two USB plugs to connect to the PC, and the PC got like 4 or 6 ports) from different USB pairs that might give enough power to start the drive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herculine Posted February 20, 2011 Author Share Posted February 20, 2011 Quoted from the box:iomega an EMC company Select Desktop Hard Drive 2TB PC/Mac USB 2.0 serial # XTA0512957 Assembled in China It has one USB cable and one AC power adapter. I've already tried the USB cable from the other drive which I know works. I'm gonna poke around in my bios and see if I can figure something out. I've heard that some bios don't handle large-capacity drives, but I'm assuming that if that was the case then the new internal drive wouldn't work either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qwaxalot Posted February 20, 2011 Share Posted February 20, 2011 You can try a different (powered) USB port. However your unit has it's own power supply. Since it's meant for PC or MAC it's formatted as "FAT32". All versions of windows from XP through Win 7 will recognize this drive. It's not a BIOS issue. Therefore the drive is defective. For drill, you can try it on another computer, but I predict it won't work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimboss Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 I think I have to agree with Qwaxalot. Since you have external power, lack of it should not be the issue. Also even if the size of the drive was not supported Windows should at least give you a pop up that a new device was connected, but not supported. USB units are handled a bit different from internally connected drives, BIOS settings should not be an issue, unless you try to boot from it (but that's another story). It sounds like it truly is defect, sorry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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