USB Mass Storage

Vista Ultimate
Seagate 500GB USB2 Drive

Where you can see the drive:
Drive shows-up under disk drives in Device Manager (working).
You can see it (sans drive designation (i.e. "D:," etc.)) in the "Safely
Remove Hardware" area.
You can even see it as an "unallocated" drive in the lower pane of the "Disk
Management" utility.

Where you can't see the drive:
Doesn't appear under "My Computer."
Doesn't appear in the upper pane of the "Disk Management" screen where
drives are listed by their drive designation.

Bottom line, because of the places the drive can't be seen it is not
accessible. Need some help badly.

Bill

You have to partition and format the drive partitions before it will show up
in Explorer and be able to be used. The fact that you have unallocated space
tells me that you have not done this yet. A fully partitioned and formatted
drive will have NO unallocated space.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

"Bill George" <BillGeorge@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:F053CAF4-255E-47B4-8B95-1C1E40107469@microsoft.com...
> Vista Ultimate
> Seagate 500GB USB2 Drive
>
> Where you can see the drive:
> Drive shows-up under disk drives in Device Manager (working).
> You can see it (sans drive designation (i.e. "D:," etc.)) in the "Safely
> Remove Hardware" area.
> You can even see it as an "unallocated" drive in the lower pane of the
> "Disk
> Management" utility.
>
> Where you can't see the drive:
> Doesn't appear under "My Computer."
> Doesn't appear in the upper pane of the "Disk Management" screen where
> drives are listed by their drive designation.
>
> Bottom line, because of the places the drive can't be seen it is not
> accessible. Need some help badly.
>
> Bill

You've answered your own question and didn't know you did. Your USB drive
needs to be allocated (partitioned) and formatted to appear with a drive
letter. I use Disk Management where I can set an explicit drive letter when
I do the partitioning and formatting.

Bye.

"Bill George" <BillGeorge@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:F053CAF4-255E-47B4-8B95-1C1E40107469@microsoft.com...
> Vista Ultimate
> Seagate 500GB USB2 Drive
>
> Where you can see the drive:
> Drive shows-up under disk drives in Device Manager (working).
> You can see it (sans drive designation (i.e. "D:," etc.)) in the "Safely
> Remove Hardware" area.
> You can even see it as an "unallocated" drive in the lower pane of the
> "Disk
> Management" utility.
>
> Where you can't see the drive:
> Doesn't appear under "My Computer."
> Doesn't appear in the upper pane of the "Disk Management" screen where
> drives are listed by their drive designation.
>
> Bottom line, because of the places the drive can't be seen it is not
> accessible. Need some help badly.
>
> Bill

Drive partitioned and formatted. Came out of the box that way with XP and
then Vista Business recognizing it immediately. Even has data on it from
backing-up XP to install Vista.

Been using it for a couple of weeks now (not a boot drive obviously), but
then I had a problem with my RAID1 array and had to break one of the disks
out as an SATA boot drive (worked fine with no loss of bootability or data on
that drive) and after doing that the USB drive has had this problem, even
after upgrading to Vista Ultimate (from Business).

"David Sommers" wrote:

> You've answered your own question and didn't know you did. Your USB drive
> needs to be allocated (partitioned) and formatted to appear with a drive
> letter. I use Disk Management where I can set an explicit drive letter when
> I do the partitioning and formatting.
>
> Bye.
>
> "Bill George" <BillGeorge@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:F053CAF4-255E-47B4-8B95-1C1E40107469@microsoft.com...
> > Vista Ultimate
> > Seagate 500GB USB2 Drive
> >
> > Where you can see the drive:
> > Drive shows-up under disk drives in Device Manager (working).
> > You can see it (sans drive designation (i.e. "D:," etc.)) in the "Safely
> > Remove Hardware" area.
> > You can even see it as an "unallocated" drive in the lower pane of the
> > "Disk
> > Management" utility.
> >
> > Where you can't see the drive:
> > Doesn't appear under "My Computer."
> > Doesn't appear in the upper pane of the "Disk Management" screen where
> > drives are listed by their drive designation.
> >
> > Bottom line, because of the places the drive can't be seen it is not
> > accessible. Need some help badly.
> >
> > Bill
>

Drive partitioned and formatted. Came out of the box that way with XP and
then Vista Business recognizing it immediately. Even has data on it from
backing-up XP to install Vista.

Been using it for a couple of weeks now (not a boot drive obviously), but
then I had a problem with my RAID1 array and had to break one of the disks
out as an SATA boot drive (worked fine with no loss of bootability or data on
that drive) and after doing that the USB drive has had this problem, even
after upgrading to Vista Ultimate (from Business).

"Richard Urban" wrote:

> You have to partition and format the drive partitions before it will show up
> in Explorer and be able to be used. The fact that you have unallocated space
> tells me that you have not done this yet. A fully partitioned and formatted
> drive will have NO unallocated space.
>
> --
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Richard Urban
> Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
> (For email, remove the obvious from my address)
>
> Quote from George Ankner:
> If you knew as much as you think you know,
> You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
>
> "Bill George" <BillGeorge@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:F053CAF4-255E-47B4-8B95-1C1E40107469@microsoft.com...
> > Vista Ultimate
> > Seagate 500GB USB2 Drive
> >
> > Where you can see the drive:
> > Drive shows-up under disk drives in Device Manager (working).
> > You can see it (sans drive designation (i.e. "D:," etc.)) in the "Safely
> > Remove Hardware" area.
> > You can even see it as an "unallocated" drive in the lower pane of the
> > "Disk
> > Management" utility.
> >
> > Where you can't see the drive:
> > Doesn't appear under "My Computer."
> > Doesn't appear in the upper pane of the "Disk Management" screen where
> > drives are listed by their drive designation.
> >
> > Bottom line, because of the places the drive can't be seen it is not
> > accessible. Need some help badly.
> >
> > Bill
>
>

If you are seeing the drive space as unallocated - all partitions are gone.
Time to start fresh.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

"Bill George" <BillGeorge@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:28E55769-C34F-4216-896D-5089C03C6B1F@microsoft.com...
> Drive partitioned and formatted. Came out of the box that way with XP and
> then Vista Business recognizing it immediately. Even has data on it from
> backing-up XP to install Vista.
>
> Been using it for a couple of weeks now (not a boot drive obviously), but
> then I had a problem with my RAID1 array and had to break one of the disks
> out as an SATA boot drive (worked fine with no loss of bootability or data
> on
> that drive) and after doing that the USB drive has had this problem, even
> after upgrading to Vista Ultimate (from Business).
>
> "Richard Urban" wrote:
>
>> You have to partition and format the drive partitions before it will show
>> up
>> in Explorer and be able to be used. The fact that you have unallocated
>> space
>> tells me that you have not done this yet. A fully partitioned and
>> formatted
>> drive will have NO unallocated space.
>>
>> --
>>
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Richard Urban
>> Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
>> (For email, remove the obvious from my address)
>>
>> Quote from George Ankner:
>> If you knew as much as you think you know,
>> You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
>>
>> "Bill George" <BillGeorge@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:F053CAF4-255E-47B4-8B95-1C1E40107469@microsoft.com...
>> > Vista Ultimate
>> > Seagate 500GB USB2 Drive
>> >
>> > Where you can see the drive:
>> > Drive shows-up under disk drives in Device Manager (working).
>> > You can see it (sans drive designation (i.e. "D:," etc.)) in the
>> > "Safely
>> > Remove Hardware" area.
>> > You can even see it as an "unallocated" drive in the lower pane of the
>> > "Disk
>> > Management" utility.
>> >
>> > Where you can't see the drive:
>> > Doesn't appear under "My Computer."
>> > Doesn't appear in the upper pane of the "Disk Management" screen where
>> > drives are listed by their drive designation.
>> >
>> > Bottom line, because of the places the drive can't be seen it is not
>> > accessible. Need some help badly.
>> >
>> > Bill
>>
>>

In article <28E55769-C34F-4216-896D-5089C03C6B1F@microsoft.com>, Bill
George says...
> Drive partitioned and formatted. Came out of the box that way with XP and
> then Vista Business recognizing it immediately. Even has data on it from
> backing-up XP to install Vista.
>
> Been using it for a couple of weeks now (not a boot drive obviously), but
> then I had a problem with my RAID1 array and had to break one of the disks
> out as an SATA boot drive (worked fine with no loss of bootability or data on
> that drive) and after doing that the USB drive has had this problem, even
> after upgrading to Vista Ultimate (from Business).
>
Was this drive part of the RAID array?


--
Conor

Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright
until you hear them speak.........

No, this was strictly a USB data storage drive that existed on a machine that
had a raid array.

"Conor" wrote:

> In article <28E55769-C34F-4216-896D-5089C03C6B1F@microsoft.com>, Bill
> George says...
> > Drive partitioned and formatted. Came out of the box that way with XP and
> > then Vista Business recognizing it immediately. Even has data on it from
> > backing-up XP to install Vista.
> >
> > Been using it for a couple of weeks now (not a boot drive obviously), but
> > then I had a problem with my RAID1 array and had to break one of the disks
> > out as an SATA boot drive (worked fine with no loss of bootability or data on
> > that drive) and after doing that the USB drive has had this problem, even
> > after upgrading to Vista Ultimate (from Business).
> >
> Was this drive part of the RAID array?
>
>
> --
> Conor
>
> Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright
> until you hear them speak.........
>

So what the heck did Vista do to it.

This drive was working perfectly (it is brand new) under XP and then under
Vista for 1-week. As it is a storage drive it is not like it was getting
pounded daily and now all of a sudden it is wiped. What happened?

"Richard Urban" wrote:

> If you are seeing the drive space as unallocated - all partitions are gone.
> Time to start fresh.
>
> --
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Richard Urban
> Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
> (For email, remove the obvious from my address)
>
> Quote from George Ankner:
> If you knew as much as you think you know,
> You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
>
> "Bill George" <BillGeorge@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:28E55769-C34F-4216-896D-5089C03C6B1F@microsoft.com...
> > Drive partitioned and formatted. Came out of the box that way with XP and
> > then Vista Business recognizing it immediately. Even has data on it from
> > backing-up XP to install Vista.
> >
> > Been using it for a couple of weeks now (not a boot drive obviously), but
> > then I had a problem with my RAID1 array and had to break one of the disks
> > out as an SATA boot drive (worked fine with no loss of bootability or data
> > on
> > that drive) and after doing that the USB drive has had this problem, even
> > after upgrading to Vista Ultimate (from Business).
> >
> > "Richard Urban" wrote:
> >
> >> You have to partition and format the drive partitions before it will show
> >> up
> >> in Explorer and be able to be used. The fact that you have unallocated
> >> space
> >> tells me that you have not done this yet. A fully partitioned and
> >> formatted
> >> drive will have NO unallocated space.
> >>
> >> --
> >>
> >>
> >> Regards,
> >>
> >> Richard Urban
> >> Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
> >> (For email, remove the obvious from my address)
> >>
> >> Quote from George Ankner:
> >> If you knew as much as you think you know,
> >> You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
> >>
> >> "Bill George" <BillGeorge@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> >> news:F053CAF4-255E-47B4-8B95-1C1E40107469@microsoft.com...
> >> > Vista Ultimate
> >> > Seagate 500GB USB2 Drive
> >> >
> >> > Where you can see the drive:
> >> > Drive shows-up under disk drives in Device Manager (working).
> >> > You can see it (sans drive designation (i.e. "D:," etc.)) in the
> >> > "Safely
> >> > Remove Hardware" area.
> >> > You can even see it as an "unallocated" drive in the lower pane of the
> >> > "Disk
> >> > Management" utility.
> >> >
> >> > Where you can't see the drive:
> >> > Doesn't appear under "My Computer."
> >> > Doesn't appear in the upper pane of the "Disk Management" screen where
> >> > drives are listed by their drive designation.
> >> >
> >> > Bottom line, because of the places the drive can't be seen it is not
> >> > accessible. Need some help badly.
> >> >
> >> > Bill
> >>
> >>
>
>

You installed the drive yourself in an external case?

I have had to discard 4 different brands of external cases now as being not
compatible with Vista. I now use only Adaptec cases (you know, the ones that
cost 4 times the amount that you pay for the no name/little known brands you
can get at a computer fair). I have never had any problems with an Adaptec
external hard drive case.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

"Bill George" <BillGeorge@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:550C1056-8FB2-4A42-B5AD-732C6B9D2D8C@microsoft.com...
> So what the heck did Vista do to it.
>
> This drive was working perfectly (it is brand new) under XP and then under
> Vista for 1-week. As it is a storage drive it is not like it was getting
> pounded daily and now all of a sudden it is wiped. What happened?
>
> "Richard Urban" wrote:
>
>> If you are seeing the drive space as unallocated - all partitions are
>> gone.
>> Time to start fresh.
>>
>> --
>>
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Richard Urban
>> Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
>> (For email, remove the obvious from my address)
>>
>> Quote from George Ankner:
>> If you knew as much as you think you know,
>> You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
>>
>> "Bill George" <BillGeorge@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:28E55769-C34F-4216-896D-5089C03C6B1F@microsoft.com...
>> > Drive partitioned and formatted. Came out of the box that way with XP
>> > and
>> > then Vista Business recognizing it immediately. Even has data on it
>> > from
>> > backing-up XP to install Vista.
>> >
>> > Been using it for a couple of weeks now (not a boot drive obviously),
>> > but
>> > then I had a problem with my RAID1 array and had to break one of the
>> > disks
>> > out as an SATA boot drive (worked fine with no loss of bootability or
>> > data
>> > on
>> > that drive) and after doing that the USB drive has had this problem,
>> > even
>> > after upgrading to Vista Ultimate (from Business).
>> >
>> > "Richard Urban" wrote:
>> >
>> >> You have to partition and format the drive partitions before it will
>> >> show
>> >> up
>> >> in Explorer and be able to be used. The fact that you have unallocated
>> >> space
>> >> tells me that you have not done this yet. A fully partitioned and
>> >> formatted
>> >> drive will have NO unallocated space.
>> >>
>> >> --
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> Regards,
>> >>
>> >> Richard Urban
>> >> Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
>> >> (For email, remove the obvious from my address)
>> >>
>> >> Quote from George Ankner:
>> >> If you knew as much as you think you know,
>> >> You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
>> >>
>> >> "Bill George" <BillGeorge@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> >> news:F053CAF4-255E-47B4-8B95-1C1E40107469@microsoft.com...
>> >> > Vista Ultimate
>> >> > Seagate 500GB USB2 Drive
>> >> >
>> >> > Where you can see the drive:
>> >> > Drive shows-up under disk drives in Device Manager (working).
>> >> > You can see it (sans drive designation (i.e. "D:," etc.)) in the
>> >> > "Safely
>> >> > Remove Hardware" area.
>> >> > You can even see it as an "unallocated" drive in the lower pane of
>> >> > the
>> >> > "Disk
>> >> > Management" utility.
>> >> >
>> >> > Where you can't see the drive:
>> >> > Doesn't appear under "My Computer."
>> >> > Doesn't appear in the upper pane of the "Disk Management" screen
>> >> > where
>> >> > drives are listed by their drive designation.
>> >> >
>> >> > Bottom line, because of the places the drive can't be seen it is not
>> >> > accessible. Need some help badly.
>> >> >
>> >> > Bill
>> >>
>> >>
>>
>>