Question For You Computer Geeks.

carneyman · January 2, 2009

I've got an external harddrive, ESATA capable. I had it hooked up, the computer recognized it and everything, but when I restart the computer, no more external harddrive. If I unplug it and plug it back in, it recognizes it. Any ideas on how to fix this?

Its a Seagate FreeAgent Xtreme if that helps, and the motherboard is a Gigabyte EP35C-DS3R.

Darkanion · January 2, 2009

I'm running a Seagate Free-Agent 1GB drive too. I've been running into the same issues. I can unplug it and plug it back in, *poof* Winders sees the drive. Reboot without unplug/replug and I get alerted that the drive isn't there..

I figured it was "just mine," so I hadn't looked for a solution. I'm kinda glad to see I'm not the only one.

compulynx · January 2, 2009

It is possible that other drives on the machine (cd,dvd,flashdrives,sd sockets) conflict with the drive letter. Try this. Go to control panel, then Administrative tools, computer management. Select Disk management. Go to the drive and right click and change the drive letter of the external drive to something like R or S. Then restart, and see if that fixes it.

I am assuming you have Xp.

C

GARB55 · January 2, 2009

It is possible that other drives on the machine (cd,dvd,flashdrives,sd sockets) conflict with the drive letter. Try this. Go to control panel, then Administrative tools, computer management. Select Disk management. Go to the drive and right click and change the drive letter of the external drive to something like R or S. Then restart, and see if that fixes it.

I am assuming you have Xp.

One other note. The drive is probably formatted to FAT. I would also recommend to reformat it to NTFS. Not a "Have to" but much more reliable.

C

+1

or you can just go start right click my computer and then choose manage then disk management and follow same steps!

geektoad · January 2, 2009

*cough*getamac*cough*

carneyman · January 2, 2009

Its vista. I don't have a mac because

a)Posers.

b)Can't do what I want to a mac...upgrade, take apart, rebuild, etc.

c)Can't run CAD on a mac...not my version anyway.

MarkD · January 2, 2009

Vista is the same thing.

Right click on my computer

choose Manage

Choose Disk Manager

Assign drive letter to the disk

I Generally assign M, or Q to an external. Maybe S for Seagate?

geektoad · January 2, 2009

Its vista. I don't have a mac because
a)Posers.

b)Can't do what I want to a mac...upgrade, take apart, rebuild, etc.

c)Can't run CAD on a mac...not my version anyway.

A) whatevah!

B) not true. don't believe the hype.

C) fair enough

carneyman · January 2, 2009

Its vista. I don't have a mac because
a)Posers.

b)Can't do what I want to a mac...upgrade, take apart, rebuild, etc.

c)Can't run CAD on a mac...not my version anyway.

A) whatevah!

B) not true. don't believe the hype.

C) fair enough

No hype. I can't do what I want to a mac simply because there aren't as many manufacturers that make parts for macs. I can find parts for my desktop just about anywhere.

Darkanion · January 2, 2009

It is possible that other drives on the machine (cd,dvd,flashdrives,sd sockets) conflict with the drive letter.

Well, in your scenario, there would be a conflict on a cold boot, too. I don't know about Mr. DryCounty, but mine works fine on a cold boot, but not on a reboot. When I cold-boot the machine, the Seagate drive shows up on H:. When I reboot the machine, nothing shows up on H:, nor is there anything in Device Manager to indicate that the Seagate drive is even hooked-up.

I can typically unplug the drive's power, plug it back in, and it works. But, that gets annoying after a while... That's not a big deal for me, since I typically go weeks between reboots. But, that also makes it easier to forget to unplug/replug the drive for automatic backups, too..

I shutdown the machine a while ago, left the drive on, and turned the machine back on. I noticed that the drive blinked off and back on, when the power to the desktop came back on. I'm guessing that's related to the eSATA port being initialized. I don't remember seeing that on reboots, though... I'll go digging around in the BIOS, to see if there's anything in there that may be causing the problem.. (Maybe update to a new Rev, to see if that fixes it.)

svensk · January 2, 2009

Known issue with drives that were originally formatted on XP, then used on Vista machines. Do what was suggested earlier by changing the drive letter first. If that doesn't work backup the hard disk and format it on your vista machine and it should fix it.

thecraft · January 2, 2009

*cough*getamac*cough*

Worst... Advice... Evar...

Darkanion · January 2, 2009

Known issue with drives that were originally formatted on XP, then used on Vista machines. Do what was suggested earlier by changing the drive letter first. If that doesn't work backup the hard disk and format it on your vista machine and it should fix it.

Unless it was hooked-up to XP at the factory, this drive has never has been attached to (or had anything else to do with) an XP machine... Next!?