A Man and His Music
I have a SFF computer with 3 internal hard drives. I also have an external, I have my videos on. I tried to add another hard drive, and my machine won't recongnize it. Even though, the other external is disconnected. I did some trouble shooting, and it seems that I can only have 4 drives at a time. There was an implication, that there was a way around this. Is there a way to get this machine to see this drive?
Inviato Mon 14 Nov 05 @ 6:36 am
vpcdj
just a suggestion... remove one of ur cd-drives. i mean if u have a cd drive that can read dvds and is a fast burner that's all u need.
Inviato Mon 14 Nov 05 @ 6:34 pm
A Man and His Music
I am not sure you understand my situation. I have 3 internal hard drives and 1 external hard drive. I would like the machine to recognize an additional hard drive. The external is connected via usb, and has my videos on it. I would like to be able to use another external hard drive at the same time, or instead of. The problem is the machine does not recognize the drive, even if I remove the first external. When I remove the external, it is not listed in "my computer", so why can't I add a different drive? There was some message about XP only recognizing 4 drives by default. Which gave me the impression, that there was a way around this. Surely, I am not the only one trying to use this many drives. I understand it knows there is a drive assigned to a letter, and will see it when I reconnect it. I just want to add another drive, with a different letter. The way this is going, I would not be able to use one of those little usb keychain drives
Inviato Mon 14 Nov 05 @ 7:42 pm
dj_spangle
This may sound dumb, but:
1. disconnect external drive 1
2. power up, boot windows, power off
3. plug external drive 2
Try it, hope it helps!
sp.
1. disconnect external drive 1
2. power up, boot windows, power off
3. plug external drive 2
Try it, hope it helps!
sp.
Inviato Mon 14 Nov 05 @ 8:47 pm
A Man and His Music
Nothing sounds dumb to me, cause I don't know jack. Will have to try when I get home, am at the club. Thanks.
Inviato Mon 14 Nov 05 @ 8:56 pm
vpcdj
i dont think i can help [coz im not home].
r u sure ur usb slots works?
how about boot and get into ur bios and look at what ur current settings look like.
r u sure ur usb slots works?
how about boot and get into ur bios and look at what ur current settings look like.
Inviato Mon 14 Nov 05 @ 10:01 pm
djdad
if we are talking about a new HD, have you formatted the disk?. If not, go Control Panel->System->Device Manager (If i am not wrong), find the USB device that refers to your new HD and make a partition. Then Windows will give a letter to your HD and you will be able to see it in your Explorer.
I don't think there is a limit on how many HD you can use as long as you have enough USB ports.
I don't think there is a limit on how many HD you can use as long as you have enough USB ports.
Inviato Mon 14 Nov 05 @ 11:29 pm
Dj Xeo
hold on did we establish that it works one at a time but not with bot externals at the same time. have you tried unplugging one of the internals and seeing if reducing the number of total drives makes any difference to 2 externals working? know for a fact that you can have more than 4 and have them all work fine together as my friend (a little nerdy) has a computer with 9. have you tried using something other than explorer/my computer to look for the drive?
Inviato Tue 15 Nov 05 @ 4:05 am
A Man and His Music
Ok guys, thanks for your help. heres what's going on.
1. The usb port works, because the other drive uses it.
2. Device Manager, disk drives, it says that the drive is there.
3. I don't have to have both on at the same time, right now. I can't get it to see the new drive, by itself, with the other drive removed. There are only 4 drives hooked up, but it only sees 3.
4. When I first hooked it up, it went through the "found new hardware thing".
5. I have even hooked it to a new usb port, and nothing.
1. The usb port works, because the other drive uses it.
2. Device Manager, disk drives, it says that the drive is there.
3. I don't have to have both on at the same time, right now. I can't get it to see the new drive, by itself, with the other drive removed. There are only 4 drives hooked up, but it only sees 3.
4. When I first hooked it up, it went through the "found new hardware thing".
5. I have even hooked it to a new usb port, and nothing.
Inviato Tue 15 Nov 05 @ 6:29 am
A Man and His Music
The BIOS says that this drive is hooked to a usb port. I have not been able to format or partition this drive.
Inviato Tue 15 Nov 05 @ 7:19 am
acw_dj
A Man and His Music,
With Windows XP you could have more than 4 drives working at the same time. I have installed more than four HD in my PC and I have more logical drives too.
Your problem is in other place. First lets review the HD setup. You have and External Disk with USB connection. You plug the HD and get a message from Windows that said "New Device..." Then you got this message gone. Go to "My PC" Icon right-click the Icon and select "Administrate" goto STORAGE->Disks Managment (or something like that). You must be able to see your new disk in there and in there you must to PARTITIONATE and after that select QUick Format. Give a Letter or change others (like CD-ROM Drives or DVD-ROMs or USB Flash Memorys) to organize your disks as you wish.
After doing these steps you must be able to work with your new HDs.
Good Luck!
With Windows XP you could have more than 4 drives working at the same time. I have installed more than four HD in my PC and I have more logical drives too.
Your problem is in other place. First lets review the HD setup. You have and External Disk with USB connection. You plug the HD and get a message from Windows that said "New Device..." Then you got this message gone. Go to "My PC" Icon right-click the Icon and select "Administrate" goto STORAGE->Disks Managment (or something like that). You must be able to see your new disk in there and in there you must to PARTITIONATE and after that select QUick Format. Give a Letter or change others (like CD-ROM Drives or DVD-ROMs or USB Flash Memorys) to organize your disks as you wish.
After doing these steps you must be able to work with your new HDs.
Good Luck!
Inviato Tue 15 Nov 05 @ 9:39 am
A Man and His Music
Yo acw_dj, thanks for the imput. I knew I should have bought that drive to the club with me. Will try this when I get home.
Inviato Tue 15 Nov 05 @ 8:13 pm
A Man and His Music
acw_dj, that was the ticket. You know your shisit. The thing is, I remember doing that when I added the last drive. I don't remember how I got that wizard the last time. Maybe it came up automatically. At any rate, thank you. Now I do remember that I "marked partition as active" for the last drive. I am not sure if that was the right thing to do. So the status of my drives are C, Healthy(System) the other 2 internals, Healthy(Page File). The first external, Healthy(Active), and nothing for the drive I just formatted. Sholud it be Active or page file, and why?
Inviato Wed 16 Nov 05 @ 4:31 am