New Maxtor 3200 external hard drive won't open

frank4al · 11-Jul-2007, 01:25 PM #1

Using Windows XP. Hooked new hard drive via USB, computer recognizes the drive and said it is working properly. Unable to access the drive. There is no installation disc or manual.

Skivvywaver · 11-Jul-2007, 01:46 PM #2

Go to control panel, administrative tools, computer management, disk management and see if the drive is listed there.

If it is, you need to format the drive and then it will be recognized by windows.

JohnWill · 11-Jul-2007, 04:10 PM #3

You can mark your own threads solved using the thread tools at the top of the page in the upper right corner.©

Skivvywaver · 11-Jul-2007, 04:16 PM #4

Quote:

Originally Posted by JohnWill

You can mark your own threads solved using the thread tools at the top of the page in the upper right corner.©

Is it solved?

I am beginning to think you are clairvoyant John.

JohnWill · 11-Jul-2007, 04:24 PM #5

Sounded good.

Skivvywaver · 11-Jul-2007, 04:31 PM #6

Hey, for once I gave sound advice. I say it is solved.

frank4al · 11-Jul-2007, 05:10 PM #7

Skivvywaver: My computer recognizes that the drive is installed and working. How can I format the drive if I can't see it?
frank4al

Skivvywaver · 11-Jul-2007, 05:53 PM #8

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skivvywaver

Go to control panel, administrative tools, computer management, disk management and see if the drive is listed there.

If it is, you need to format the drive and then it will be recognized by windows.

:edit: Right click the drive................format. Make it NTFS if you are using Windows 2000-Vista. Fat32 if using Windows M.E. and prior.

JohnWill · 11-Jul-2007, 07:26 PM #9

Start, Run, diskmgmt.msc

Right click on the left hand panel for your external drive and select "Initialize".

Then you'll be able to right click on the unallocated graphic and partition and format it.

frank4al · 12-Jul-2007, 11:50 AM **#10**

JohnWill,
Thanks for your response. When I right click as you suggested the only choices on the drop down are "properties" and "help"
frank4al

JohnWill · 12-Jul-2007, 06:10 PM **#11**

Please post a screen shot of Disk Management and the right click menu opened as you describe.

To post a screen shot of the active window, hold the Alt key and press the PrtScn key. Open the Windows PAINT application and Paste the screen shot. You can then use PAINT to trim to suit, and save it as a JPG format file. To upload it to TSG, open the full reply window and use the Manage Attachments button to upload it here.

frank4al · 13-Jul-2007, 09:01 PM **#12**

JohnWill: I'm with you most of the way. I have disc management in Paint, but don't know how to get it into JPG format. The TSG couldn't send it as is. Bear with me a little longer.
frank4al

frank4al · 14-Jul-2007, 04:16 PM **#13**

to JohnWill: OK, I have my file to send in jpeg format but it is 1.16MB and too large to be accepted by TSG. Next step??
frank4al

JohnWill · 15-Jul-2007, 11:42 AM **#14**

When you take a screen shot, crop the picture to only show the necessary parts, not the whole desktop. If you hold the Alt key and then press PrtScr, you'll only get the active window in the screen shot.

frank4al · 17-Jul-2007, 12:41 PM **#15**

JohnWill:I had already taken out all the background and the file still was too large....

However, using copy and paste I copied all my files to the external drive. I still don't know how to "format the drive" or an easy way to periodically back-up all data.

Thanks for your help,

frank4al

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