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External HD Problem

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PAUL161

PAUL161

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I have a 500 gig external hd that for some reason my lap top will not assign a drive letter to it! It is recognized as a mass storage device, but without a assigned drive letter, there seems to be no way to access it to transfer files! It will not except drag and drop files either. Any clues? I have an external floppy drive that is recognized as the A drive as soon as it's plugged in, this external hd doesn't do that. PJ
 
External Floppy??
fred_and_barney_flintstone_by_natt2004-d4ypn08.jpg
 
GregW said:
Is it a new drive? You may have to format it.
Click to expand...
That was my thought. Or it may already be formatted with a format that your system doesn't recognize. (The cure is the same.)
 
Yes it's a new drive! If my system doesn't recognize it, how do I format it? It's unusual as the light on the box is lit, indicating power is to it through the USB port and the system recognizes it as a mass storage device, but will not let me format it or use it in any way. I'm going to try it in another computer and see what happens. I believe it's something to do with this W-8, as It's given me headaches before when trying to install other software. PJ
 
Not sure with win8. Older windows, you'd Start> administrator tools> computer management. Then choose disk manager on the left side. From there select the new drive and make a primary partition. Then format with NTFS.
 
GregW said:
Not sure with win8. Older windows, you'd Start> administrator tools> computer management. Then choose disk manager on the left side. From there select the new drive and make a primary partition. Then format with NTFS.
Click to expand...

Yup. That's what I'd have suggested.
 
Interesting and odd. I have an external/portable HD (Seagate) that works fine with Win8. No formating required. I plug it in and it's found just fine. Did you wait a bit to be sure it had been found?
Surely the manual with the hard-drive will clarify. Time to call the manufacturer.
 
Ummm... is it USB3 compatible? Just a thought.
 
My new laptop is a Toshiba, I tried the external drive on the wifes Dell and it works like it's supposed to! I've made every kind of change imaginable in the Toshiba, Bios and all and it still doesn't recognize the drive!? So, I've had my suspicions and now I know that this Toshiba is a piece of junk! Never again! And, the next computer will NOT have W-8 in it! It's my fault as I bought it because it was cheaper than other brands, so I got what I paid for. PJ
 
Supposedly, there will be a big Service Pack for Win8 coming out soon... and it might include making it look and feel like 7. I sure hope so.
 
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