AllisonH 0 #1 November 6, 2009 Just tried to use my external hard drive for the first time since April or May. Not 100% sure if I've hooked it up to this computer before. In any case, I'm getting an error message saying that a driver for it can't be located. I don't remember installing a driver before using it previously, but it's possible that I did. Can't find it though. Does anyone know where I can find one? (Yes, I checked the Simpletech website, although it's possible I just didn't know what I was looking for. Only one I found was for Windows 98. I have Vista.) Or if there's any other way to make the darn thing work? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
npgraphicdesign 3 #2 November 6, 2009 (I dug this up on another forum after I had a similar issue. It works!) --------------------- First step, Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System Restore. Create a restore point and name it something like "Before USB Fix". This is to bail you out if something goes wrong during the following process and makes things worse. Unplug ALL USB devices. Open Device Manager. View, Show Hidden Devices. Uninstall all devices under USB Controllers. Uninstall all devices under Disk Drives that you know are not present. Uninstall all devices under Storage Volumes. Say no to any reboot prompts until you are finished. Also, if a Storage Volume doesn't uninstall, ignore it and move to the next one. If you have a yellow ? with unknown devices, uninstall all of the entries there as well. When this is done, reboot TWICE. See if the USB drive is recognized after the reboots. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AllisonH 0 #3 November 6, 2009 No luck, but thanks for the suggestion. There was 1 disk drive device I didn't uninstall because I had no idea what it was. Did learn some stuff about my computer though. Maybe I'll try it tomorow on my Mac at work. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
npgraphicdesign 3 #4 November 6, 2009 QuoteNo luck, but thanks for the suggestion. There was 1 disk drive device I didn't uninstall because I had no idea what it was. Did learn some stuff about my computer though. Maybe I'll try it tomorow on my Mac at work. Hmm...that worked for me on my Vista laptop. Are you getting any error messages? or nothing at all? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AllisonH 0 #5 November 6, 2009 Just that it can't find a driver. I may try it again tomorrow if I can't get it to work on my other computer. For now I'm going to e-mail someone I think has copies of the files I need and hope that he can find them! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
theonlyski 8 #6 November 6, 2009 QuoteNo luck, but thanks for the suggestion. There was 1 disk drive device I didn't uninstall because I had no idea what it was. Did learn some stuff about my computer though. Maybe I'll try it tomorow on my Mac at work. The one drive you saw is probably the OS hard drive, dont uninstall that one ;-) There should be another grouping, Unknown devices maybe? You can try to manually specify the driver as being external hard drive. I cant really walk you thru it, Im more of a hands on tech, but hopefully you're pointed in the right direction. XP, Vista and Win 7 all have default external hard drive drivers installed, why its not picking it up, who knows. You can try to unplug the usb, unplug the power to the drive, plug power to the drive in, wait ~30 sec to 1 min, then plug usb drive in. LACIE drives need that done occassionally because they get all screwy and boot into their bootloader mode, not their operational mode."I may be a dirty pirate hooker...but I'm not about to go stand on the corner." iluvtofly DPH -7, TDS 578, Muff 5153, SCR 14890 I'm an asshole, and I approve this message Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
