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Solved: Windows XP won't recognize my external hard drive

6K views 7 replies 3 participants last post by  Elvandil 
#1 ·
I recently got a WD Caviar Green 3.0TB drive to replace my failed 320GB "portable" external. I got a case with it's own power source & USB interface, which works fine on my girlfriend's (Vista) computer, but my computer (running XP with sp3) refuses to connect to it. The installation software that came with the case is only good up to Windows 98 (I know, right??), so that's no help either.

Thanks.
 
#2 ·
#3 ·
That's awesome (both legitimately - for the info, which is exactly what I needed to know - and sarcastically - for Windows' data limits).

That leads me to a new question:

The article (also very helpful, thank you) referenced Paragon GPT Loader which is no longer in beta. $20 isn't awful, but are there any alternate freeware/beta programs anyone knows about? (Legit only, please.)
 
#4 ·
Sorry, Mark1956; I forgot:

I'm living in Japan, so I only took a brief glance at the specs in Japanese before I bought the drive. Taking a closer look at it now the packaging doesn't mention anything about a problem with XP, so had I been a bit more careful the result would have been the same. And, as mentioned above, the case I got came with three drivers, all for Win98, and the drive itself came with nothing besides a static-free bag; it didn't even have a warranty card.
 
#5 ·
Is it safe to say that you are running a 32-bit version of XP ( Right-click Computer > Properties -64-bit can use much larger drives)?

Paragon says this about their loader:

Only internally connected single 2.2TB+ drives are supported, not external storages, or those combined into RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks).
And can you tell me the model number of that drive? You should be able use the full capacity of a 3TB drive via USB--with a drive enclosure that supports it. The SATA-to-USB bridge chip inside the enclosure takes care of any addressing issues on most externals now. So that makes me wonder if you got an older model. You can certainly find a 3 TB drive that is usable on XP.

Can you tell us exactly what you see on that CD you got? There is no way at all that Windows 98 could ever use a drive that large. Sometimes companies package things in strange ways. Some Mozilla browsers, for example, are still files at some FTP sites under "win95" as a generic name for all Windows operating systems.

In addition, I found this:

To get around these barriers, WD is bundling its new drives with an Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI)-compliant Host Bus Adapter (HBA), which will pair legacy operating systems with a driver than can support bigger drives.
It makes me wonder if that driver was, in fact, supplied.

良い一日を! (Listening to KAT-TUN.)
 
#6 ·
Right, so: I’m running a 32-Bit version of Windows XP (which also means I only get to use 3 of the 4 GB of upgraded RAM I recently installed; sigh). Also, it’s a laptop (if you want, I can give exact specs), so it’s not an option to actually install the drive; it will have to run from an external case.

The drive itself is a Western Digital 3.0TB drive (model number WD30EZRX – 00MMMB0). According to the box it has a 3 to 6Gbps SATA interface, & a 16~64MB cache. But, as mentioned before, literally nothing came with the drive at all besides the box & the static bag.

The case came with a CD that has software for both data wipes & recoveries, and a FAT32 formatter, and upon closer inspection those are all good for everything from Win2000 to Vista. But everything else on the disc is in Japanese and contains symbols I don’t know. If the driver came pre-installed or something that does me no good.


Another interesting problem that only came to light recently: My computer can’t recognize my girlfriend’s 1TB external either. When I plug in the USB the new hardware chime sounds, but nothing shows up in My Computer.


A friend who used to work for Microsoft has an extra Windows 7 license; would switching over to that completely sidestep the whole problem?
 
#7 ·
Windows 7 will have no problem with a drive of that size but it is the enclosure that might still cause an issue as it must be capable of supporting a 3TB drive.

With Windows 7 installed you should have no problem using the 1TB external drive.
 
#8 ·
If you bought an OEM verson of the drive rather than a normal retail model (OEM's are often the ones on sale), then it is likely that extras like the CD and possibly the cable were not included as they are with retail packages.
 
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