External harddrive is "Unknown Device"

[mack]

When I first purchased this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817145162

I installed my 250GB WD HDD into it. Plugged the USB into my laptop, and it worked flawlessly!

.. I reboot, go to access my drive and it's not there! I look in device manager and find that it's being picked up as "Unknown Device".

I uninstalled everything USB-related. Rebooted, and volia. There it was. My 250GB.

Worked great for two days.

I hook up my iTunes to my Logitech G15's USB ports, and guess what? I reboot, and my freakin harddrive is gone and it's now unknown device AGAIN!

I tried the same thing I did last time, but it did not work. All I wanted to do was transfer my songs to my itunes... now I can't because I have no external harddrive.

Why is my PC doing this? I have XP Pro.

My laptop specs is in my signature. I can't try it on my new computer, because all I have is a motherboard.

I have SiS 755 chipset (according to CPUZ). My laptop is ABS G4 A45.

Thanks!

 

[Osiris]

3 Why my computer lists the USB hard drive as "Unknown device" in "Device Manager"?
Because the computer fails to correctly recognizes the USB hard drive. There maybe several possible reasons: 1. The cables are not tightly connected, especially the power cable. For Y-251 and Y-252, the typical symptom is the LED keeping flashing green and red alternatively; for Y-350, listen to the noise of the USB hard drive carefully, if only the noise of the fan is heard, it means power connection is faulty somewhere (maybe inside the enclosure, do not ignore the "white pole" as the connect at this point became loose quite easily if the top cover was fixed with little attention).

Solution: Go to "Control Panel" --> "System" --> "Device Manager", remove the "Unknown device", and detach the USB cable, check the power connection points, then connect the power cable and USB cable again, restart the computer if necessary.

2. Installed driver manually under Windows ME, Windows 2000, and Windows XP by mistake.

Solution: Go to "Control Panel" --> "System" --> "Device Manager", remove the "Unknown device", and detach the USB cable, then connect the power cable and USB cable again, restart the computer if necessary.

3. Faulty hard drive /hard drive jumper setting (Y-350 only)

For Y-251/Y-252, try with another hard drive; for Y-350, you can first try different jumper settings, if this does not work, then the hard drive might be faulty.

4. Faulty cables (USB, power)

 

[mack]

Nope. OK get this. I have the Logitech G15 keyboard. I plug the drive into the USB on my keyboard and it installs the drivers, and pops up in My Computer. Problem, this is only USB 1.1

So, if I move it to my laptops USB it'll detect as unknown device. I checked all the connections, it's not that. Starting to think maybe a defective USB port? I can't send it back to Abs, they have crap tech support.

 

[mack]

How fast is USB 2.0 compared to USB 1.1 and 1.0? And firewire?

 

[derrmc]

When I first purchased this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817145162

I installed my 250GB WD HDD into it. Plugged the USB into my laptop, and it worked flawlessly!

.. I reboot, go to access my drive and it's not there! I look in device manager and find that it's being picked up as "Unknown Device".

I uninstalled everything USB-related. Rebooted, and volia. There it was. My 250GB.

Worked great for two days.

I hook up my iTunes to my Logitech G15's USB ports, and guess what? I reboot, and my freakin harddrive is gone and it's now unknown device AGAIN!

I tried the same thing I did last time, but it did not work. All I wanted to do was transfer my songs to my itunes... now I can't because I have no external harddrive.

Why is my PC doing this? I have XP Pro.

My laptop specs is in my signature. I can't try it on my new computer, because all I have is a motherboard.

I have SiS 755 chipset (according to CPUZ). My laptop is ABS G4 A45.

Thanks!

what is your drive jumper set on?

 

[KSoD]

How fast is USB 2.0 compared to USB 1.1 and 1.0? And firewire?

There is no USB 1.0. It was always 1.1 as far as i remember. It transfers at a slow speed.

Here you go.

USB 1.1 is 12 Mb/s
USB 2.0 is 480 Mb/s
Firewire 1394a is 400Mb/s
Firewire 1394b is 800 Mb/s

They are working on a USB 3.0 to be released soon also. They are talking speeds over Firewire 1394b with that one. Dont know the exact specs yet at it is still in Development.

 

[mack]

The jumper is set on primary I believe, however, I don't think it's that as it just randomly uninstalls the driver. I have it hooked up VIA my Logitech G15 keyboard and so far it's not been a problem (although it's USB 1.1).

 

[KSoD]

It might just be that when you have other devices hooked up that it can not handle the stress of transfering all that data. Since USB 1.1 is so slow it would take some time to transfer your music.

I think it has to do with the USB port. Are you hooking both devices up thru a USB hub or something? How many USB Ports do you have on you Laptop? If you are hooking up thru a USB Hub that is your problem. With USB when you hook up multiple device to 1 port they go at the slowest transfer rate. While your external drive wants to tranfer at the 12Mb/s you keyboard/mouse doesnt need to. So it goes at that speed which is most likely to slow for the external drive to be recognized as what it truly is.

 

[mack]

My external harddrive is USB2.0, which is why I didn't really want to use my keyboard.

I have three USB ports on my laptop. How can I tell I'm hooking both up to a USB hub?

 

[KSoD]

Well i can guess that your not. Since you have 3 ports on the back you wouldnt need to use a Hub. A Hub is just a USB device that allows you to connect multiple USB devices to 1 USB Port.

Sice your USB is at 1.1 and your USB drive is at 2.0 it could just be that when you hook up multiple devices it takes away from the transfer rate of the drive and doesnt recognize it as a drive but as a unknown device.