[bobbysgirlonly]

i just hooked up my new fantom 160gb external hard drive.

now in the system tray a thingy popped up saying new drive found, then ready for use.

but i cannot find it! it is not listed in my computer, or per their advice in the computer management/drive managemet section.

i do however have some listed under usb controllers, as usb mass storage device.

but that is it.

i have unhooked the thing, and re installed everything. nothing is working here!

i know i have to format the new drive before i can use it, but how do i even access it to do it?

of course there is no 800 help number to call, just an email for for tech support!! i have faith in you guys, you have helped me in the past, so i was hoping it would just be quicker to come here.

thanks in advance for your time and advice!

[Rich-M]

Right click My Computer, choose "manage", "Disk Management" and format it there.

[bobbysgirlonly]

thanks for the reply,

but, it is not listed there.

under disk management, the only things that show up are my hard drive and my dvd drive.

the only place i see what may be the new drive is in device manager, under USB devices as USB mass storage device.

[rollnw24inkmc]

try using PowerQuest PartitionMagic to format it, that program will see anything

[JohnWill]

I'd look again in Disk Management. If the hard disk is truly blank, you have to "Initialize" it first, check the left colum of the graphical display for a disk that isn't initialized.

[bobbysgirlonly]

thanks again for the replies

in computer management, under storage i click on disk management,

to the right that only brings up my actual hard drive (c) and my dvd drive (d).

there is nothing else showing there.

the only place i see any trace of what could be the new hard drive is in disk manager, under USB controllers, there is a listing for USB mass storage device. the only thing i can do with that is driver related stuff.

but this new drive is not showing up anywhere as a drive.

anything else i can try?

[JohnWill]

Can you post a screen shot of the whole Disk Management screen? Also, when you select the properties of that new USB Mass Storage Device, does it say it's working properly?

[bobbysgirlonly]

i sure can if you tell me how to do that...

and yes, it says it is working properly.

[bobbysgirlonly]

[bobbysgirlonly]

this is the image of the disk drive folder and the usb devices in the device manager

[JohnWill]

OK, Device Manager just says USB drive. This indicates that the actual drive is not being recognized.

First, find another system (friend, store, etc.) to connect the drive to. See if it's properly recognized. That will narrow it down to either the drive or the system. If it's the drive, take it back.

If the drive tests OK on another system, let's try cleaning out the USB driver parameters and retrying the drive.


First step, Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System Restore. Create a restore point and name it something like "Before USB Fix". This is to bail you out if something goes wrong during the following process and makes things worse.

Create a file with NOTEPAD containing the following lines and save it as FIX.REG
-------------------------- Use text after this line --------------------------------
REGEDIT4
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment]
"DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES"="1"
-------------------------- Use text before this line --------------------------------

Double click on FIX.REG and say yes to the Merge Into Registry question.

Unplug ALL USB devices.
Open Device Manager.
View, Show Hidden Devices.
Uninstall all devices under USB Controllers.
Uninstall all devices under Disk Drives that you know are not present.
Uninstall all devices under Storage Volumes. Say no to any reboot prompts until you are finished. Also, if a Storage Volume doesn't uninstall, ignore it and move to the next one.
If you have a yellow ? with unknown devices, uninstall all of the entries there as well.

When this is done, reboot TWICE.

Reconnect the USB devices and see if they're recognized properly.

NOTE: If you have a USB keyboard and/or mouse, you'll have to modify the instructions and leave enough parts for those to function. I don't have one yet, so I haven't had time to modify the instructions.

[bobbysgirlonly]

thanks for getting back with me, sorry for being a bother...

it did the same thing on another computer.

when i plug it in, it says new device found, disk drive...the device ready for use.

it is NOT listed in the disk management, just in the device manager, as a usb device and usb mass storage device.

so then, is that the drive, or should i do the other things you said to do with the usb parameters?? if so i do have my mouse through the usb port and my printer, plus my camera.

[JohnWill]

The drive is most likely broken, time to take it back. A working USB mass storage drive will show up in Disk Management, perhaps uninitialized, but it'll be there.

[dustyjay]

Perhaps it isnt the drive itself. Most external enclosures I have used require that the drive be jumpered as master. However this should be spelled out in your installation instructions for your enclosure. I have made this mistake and found that correcting it made the drive show up finally.

[JohnWill]

This is a packaged drive, I have a Fantom drive here. Since it's new, it's a return.