External HDD recognized but not shown in the computer

[KevinG1]

Hi people..

I have one Seagate FreeAgent External HDD

It turns ON fine, is recognized in all of my computers BUT it does not show up in My Computer.

I have tried the following:

1) Checked if the hard disk letter is not clashing with other HDDs i.e. it was G: and made sure there is no other G:
2) I have checked in Device Manager that no USB ports are faulty.
3) I have uninstalled all USB Composite, Root Hubs (I know this wouldn't matter much but still tried) and Generic USB Hub. Restarted the computer, let it install, and then re-plugged my HDD and still the same thing--It is being recognized but not shown.


The only thing that I can think of is I may need to change the HDD case, but anything else I can do which will save me money and still work?

 

[Indigo]

Hold on. How did you "check" to see that there were no other "G" drives? Because if you're just opening the computer browser / explorer, that's not enough.

On Windows XP / Vista / 7 click start, then point to, but don't click on "Computer" then RIGHT click and choose "manage"

Go to Disk Management

Plug your drive into the system

Does it show up at the bottom anywhere? If it does, you may need to assign a drive letter to it here.

If it doesn't show up, then it could be a problem with the USB cable or the enclosure, as you suspected.

 

[KevinG1]

Hold on. How did you "check" to see that there were no other "G" drives? Because if you're just opening the computer browser / explorer, that's not enough.

On Windows XP / Vista / 7 click start, then point to, but don't click on "Computer" then RIGHT click and choose "manage"

Go to Disk Management

Plug your drive into the system

Does it show up at the bottom anywhere? If it does, you may need to assign a drive letter to it here.

If it doesn't show up, then it could be a problem with the USB cable or the enclosure, as you suspected.

Yea, I did go in Disk Management to check.

hmm..ok so it means I need to get an enclosure..here goes $40

 

[~Darkseeker~]

my first question would be, what filesystem does it use?

 

[Indigo]

Filesystem won't matter if it doesn't show up in the computer management console. If the drive were showing up in that list, then it's another matter.