External USB drive Q.

[[joecomp]]

I have recently put together an external drive for plug and play(USB). The device does not show up in "my computer" as a new external drive like it should. The external device shows up under C:\ as H:\ . Maybe I have configured the partition incorrectly and listed it as an internal drive. Mind you the drive works fine and I am able to store data on this drive. Any clues as to what is wrong and how to change this so that it shows up in "my computer" as external mass storage?

[Platypus]

Sounds normal to me.

I just took my external enclosure off my desktop system where it's eSATA and connected with USB to the laptop where I'm posting now.

The 2 partitions on it show in My Computer as Local Disk F: and G:, the only thing in the Devices with Removable Storage category is the DVD.

Does a Safely Remove Hardware icon appear in the systray?

[Platypus]

Darn it - the drive works perfectly as either USB or eSATA on the desktop system with Win2k, but XP on the laptop has taken to insisting the device has malfunctioned...

Grrr, anyway, I don't use it on the laptop.

[[joecomp]]

In MyComputer under > Devices with removable storage' I can only see D: (dvd) and A: (floppy) Having the USB plugged into my desktop computer I thought there should be another drive listed as F: or what have you for the removable external drive. In the system tray there is a "Safely Remove Hardware" icon yes. Do I use this (click icon) before I remove the USB external drive and travel away to another computer? Anyhow as to your delema Playpus about the laptop "malfunction" did you install the driver for your USB external drive in your windows? Just a thought. I also find most new USB devices don't take very well to anything but XP SP2.

[geoscomp]

yes..you should always stop a usb external device before removing it to prevent data loss..the reason it doesn't show up in my computer as removable is because windows sees it as a hard drive..and doesn't care if you can remove it or not.