Storage forum: Connecting two external hard drives at once

I was just asking a question in a post above and saw this so I figured I'd drop in...

I run 2 Seagate externals along with a Maxtor external into 5 different USB onboard ports, the 2 Maxtors into the box directly and the Seagate into a hub that also has a printer, an Ipod, a digital camera and a housed laptop HD for carting around stuff bigger than my flash drive will handle...the HD maker shouldn't be an issue, the OS should see them as separate entities..

I've found that an external USB hub with its own power supply helps because sometimes the amperage draw from the external drives collapses the onboard USB feed. Also, there's USB cables to be had with one connector on one end and 2 on the other for hookups that need more power. Depending upon the onboard current availability of the system, this has always worked for me...

I've never run 2 drives in series, it's an interesting thought if you can provide them the power they need...but please don't take that as an endorsement, I really don't know...and on my machine the Firewire bus is it's own boss so I also plug stuff in there from time to time. If your machine has a separate amperage source for USB and Firewire it's an easy answer...

And in reality, Maxtor is the second line of Seagate. Happened a few years ago. WD is a stand alone who bought the company who developed SATA technology...and in general, 1TB drives are 2 500s slaved in the same housing...hmm, if they share a partition I guess your thoughts or ganging them could be a good one...

So I hope that helps, if for no other reason than to say I run different brands of HDs all the time and have never had a problem, except the weird thing I posted before...

Good luck!
Wayne

Alright, you are having a drive conflict, so here's what you need to do:

1.) Click START, and then right click on MY COMPUTER. Select MANAGE -- this will bring up the COMPUTER MANAGEMENT WINDOW.

2.) On the pane furthest to the left in the COMPUTER MANAGEMENT window, there should be an option for DEVICE MANAGER. Click on DEVICE MANAGER.

3.) Now, the DEVICE MANAGER should open in the middle pane of the COMPUTER MANAGEMENT window. Click on the arrow next to the DISK DRIVES option in the middle pane. Make sure that both External Hard Drives.

4.) With the DISK DRIVES option selected, back over on the left hand pane of the COMPUTER MANAGEMENT window, select DISK MANAGEMENT. DISK MANAGEMENT will now open up in the middle pane of the COMPUTER MANAGEMENT window.

5.) In the DISK MANAGEMENT window, scroll down until you see your unrecognized EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE. It will be showing a status of OFFLINE. You need to right click on this option and select GO ONLINE.

I have the same problem and seen this solution on another website. It fixed it. Hopefully it will fix yours also.