External hard drive problems HELP!?!

Hi there,
I wonder if anyone can help me? I have had a plug and play external hard drive (Iomega) for a year and had no bother with it what so ever. I use it purely to store photos. I plugged it into my netbook the other day to add some more photos to the drive and it just wouldn't come up. It wasn't in 'my computer' either. Yet when I click on the safely remove hardware button in bottom right of computer screen it is there so the computer obvisouly knows its plugged in. It doesnt make the sound anymore that it used to make when you innitially plug it in. I have tried all three USB ports and non of them work. Any ideas how I can find it on my netbook? Thanks, Cheryl.

 

Try right clicking "My Computer" then "Manage" next click on "Disk Management" if you can see your drive in the right hand window click on it and select "Change Drive Letter and Path" if you do this it should remember the drive letter everytime you plug it in. Any problems get back in touch.

 

I did as you said but the drive isnt there? Theres one that says acer (c and then another that says pqservice. However underneath there are three boxes - two with the two drives I previously mentioned in and then another with my hard drive in which says disk 0 but it doesnt give me the option to change drive letter and path like it does with the other two?

 

Ok, right click "My Computer" go to "Properties" click the "Hardware" tab then "Device Manager" and have a look to see if you are showing any yellow question marks. They are for unknown attached devices (windows dows not know what it is) and cannot install because it has no driver in its database to recognise it. If the Hardware is plugged in, do a restart of the computer navigate your way to the above device manager and see if it still does not show any new devices. Plug and play has been disabled if not in the systems bio's then possibly in the administrators system services file.

Let me know the outcome.

 

Is this external harddrive a portable (2.5" drive, requires only a USB cable and no external power supply), or is it a desktop sized drive (3.5") that has its own power supply? If it is the former rather than the latter, it is very possible that the netbook is not providing enough power over USB to power the harddrive, resulting in the drive not properly being recognized within Windows.

 

Can you try removing the hard disk drive from the external case and plug it directly to your SATA/IDE port? Then check if your BIOS recognizes it.