Computer newbies forum: Unable to see any External Drives??????

Thxs for your reply. This PC is a Lan Box that I built about a year ago. It has 4 USB 2.0 ports. I presume that they are working fine due to the fact that I use them normally for my Printer, and keyboard. the two in the front of the PC I have used off/On for my GamePad which when inuse work just fine, but this si the second extrnal Har Drive that I've purchased and it has recognized either one of them. I thought it was the first drive so I purchased the Seagate FreeAgent...Go. But it didn't recognize it either?? So it's beyond me. If you need additional info I can provide it.

I get the beeping sound when I plug in both of the USB connections but still says no drive connected. The troubleshooting directions stated that I should plug the USB connections first and then connect the drive to the cable. So I did just that, but same result

That I haven't tried as yet. I will give that a try.

The problem could be that you have a non-standard computer. The "experts" not withstanding, building your computer yourself is not foolproof.

With my external hard drives I have received a CD that contains drivers etc. and if I use it, I have had no trouble, including 2 of my seagate drives.

power than the USB connection is providing (this is why many of the small 2.5 inch external drives have a USB cable with three USB connectors - two go to USB ports on the computer and the single one at the other end of the cable goes to the external device..

Try unplugging ALL OTHER USB devices then plugging in ONLY the external drive (try this on ALL your USB ports). If you get any type recognition of the drive go get yourself a POWERED USB HUB and use it with the external drives.

This may be too elementary, but here is what I do at work (XP based computers, have Vista at home): right click on 'My Computer' and go to 'Manage.' Go to 'Storage' and 'Disk Management' and you should see the drives (you can tell by the size or storage available which they are); often, when external jump drives, card readers, hard drives don't show up, it is because there is a conflict with the automatic letter that is assigned to them (there is already a drive on your system with that letter) so you have to re-name them with another letter. Right click on the drive that you need to change the letter for and choose 'Change Drive Letter and Paths' and choose a letter that is not assigned to one of your other system components. I usually choose 'X' or 'W' or something similar. You will get a warning message stating that you 'could lose information' or something to that effect, but go ahead and give it a new letter name (you will have the option via a pull-down menu). This is not exact step by step, as I don't have access to XP, but it is worth a try if you are still having trouble. I have done this many times. Hope it helps.

Go to divice manager
Click on drives


Right click and scan for new hardware

if that does not work

above click on actions and scan for hardware chages

you may also need to reactivate under storage

you may need to go into the bios of your computer to check to see if the usb ports that you are using for your external drives have been disabled. If they have been disabled, then your PC will not recognize the drives. If that's not the problem, then it may be that you did'nt install the drivers for the external HD's BEFORE you plugged the HD's into the usb ports. The PC will also not recognize the devices if you don't install the drivers first.