[clark.pcjr]

Does anyone know where I can locate a driver for the SimpleTech hard drive called "SimpleDrive External"? It worked great on XP, but when I transferred to my new VISTA compunter, VISTA does not recognize the device when plugged into the USB 2.0. VISTA attempts to check the driver and says the correct driver is installed, but it still does not recognize the device as a hard drive when plugged in. Any tricks to make VISTA recognize it if the driver is not the problem? One person said the hard drive must be reformatted to "NTFP" but this would erase all the data on the hard drive. I don't want to do that... Thanks.

[Sithtradmus]

http://www.simpletech.com/support/support_downloads.php

[clark.pcjr]

Will the Windwos 98 Driver they have listed work with VISTA? I see no VISTA drivers at that link... Thanks

[Sithtradmus]

It should work, some others listed Win98/95 Only, but this one just said Win98, so it's not limited to just that version of windows...

Actually, all of them basically say Wi98/95, so it should work...

[clark.pcjr]

I downloaded the driver, and VISTA refuses to install it... Thanks for your help in trying... I suspect the manufacturer will need to develop a driver...

[JohnWill]

You don't need any drivers for USB mass storage for anything but W98.

[Courtneyc]

There are no drivers for Vista (or XP). They aren't needed. (At least they aren't for mine. I didn't install anything.

Courtney sends....

[Skivvywaver]

You know, this might be slightly OT for this thread but it is worthwhile mentioning. I installed Vista knowing full well I didn't have the drivers for my Canon pixma MP450 USB all in one printer.

I did a clean install and then put the printer disc in the tray and turned on the printer thinking I was going to have to grit my teeth and pray I could get the XP drivers to work. The found new hardware message came up and the OS installed the printer, scanner, copier, everything.

The only issues I have had with Vista is getting my crossfired cards to work with some of the Catalyst drivers. That isn't a Vista problem, that is an ATI/AMD problem. Vista has been almost too friendly at times. I am not used to not having to fight to compute.

[clark.pcjr]

Thanks for all the input, however, none of the posts explain why Windows XP automatically recognizes the hard drive when I plug it into the old computer, but VISTA does not recognize the device when I plug it into the new one. I thought maybe I had damaged it somehow during the move, but XP still recognizes it just fine when I plug it back in. I guess my only option is to see what the manufacturer says... which will probably be nothing... Does anybody know of a way to manually tell VISTA what kind of device it is?

[JohnWill]

Try this.

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.

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.

See if the USB drive is recognized after the reboots.

[clark.pcjr]

Wow, thanks. I'll give it a try and let you know....

[juanv68]

Clark,
I have the same problem with my SimpleDrive and Vista. Did you find out how to fix it. Pleas let me now.

[98GreenGT]

The info Johnwill gave worked for me..i made a thread about mine doing this exact same thing the other day and it works fine now