Computer can't see external hard drive

[m3incorp]

I have hooked up a 120 gig external hard drive that is in an enclosure made by Crescent. I have installed the drivers that came with the enclosure. When I open explorer or my computer it doesn't show up. When I click on the taskbar to safely remove hardware it shows up as USB 2.0 Mass storage and says that the device is working fine. I have removed drivers and reinstalled but it still won't show up in explorer or my computer. I am using Win XP Pro. Any suggestions? I have tried it on two laptops with no luck while my Maxtor one touch 250 gig shows up on both of them with no problems.

 

[ShoobieRat]

Yeah, i bet I know exactly what the problem is. The drive was loaded with the same alpha identifier as another drive on your machine.

In other words, it's calling itself D:\ when your CD-ROM is already called D:\ and thus is getting hidden in the background.

To fix this, go to START->RUN and type "diskmgmt.msc" (without quotes).

That should open up the Windows disk manager interface. You should see your external drive there. Click on the drive block at the bottom, right click and select "Change Drive Letter and Paths". This will let you pick a new drive letter for the drive. Pick something no other device is using. Hit okay, exit out, and your drive should now appear in "My Computer."

 

[m3incorp]

That was almost it. I figured it out...Went to Disk Management, assigned a drive letter, partitioned and formatted.