External Hard drive Tech Question
 

My friend gave me his external hard drive to load up some files yet it doesn't work on my computer. My computer sees the drive but when I click to open it, there is about a 40 second delay and then I get an error.

"G:\ is not accessible.
The request could not be performed because of an I/O Device Error."

I have used a card reader, web cam, ipod, and a micro drive through this USB drive and they have all worked fine. Whats weird to me is that this External Hard Drive will work on my laptop when I plug it in. I am confused.

OS on desktop vs. laptop?

OS on friend's machine?

XP and Vista should recognize any drive, but 2K, NT and earlier may need drivers.

Another problem comes along if it is a large HD running FAT32 instead of NTFS

I'd try shutting down, plugging in the USB drive into a port on the back of the computer (if there is one) and restarting.

You could also check the drive manufacturer's website for troubleshooting and/or drivers.

The OS on my laptop and Desktop is XP. The drive is a 320G SimpleTech.

Weird. Or not!!! What AV are you running on each. Desktop may not be allowing it to mount if the drive is infected.

Otherwise, go with Cody's idea.

Shut down, plug it in a different port and reboot...

AVG on both computers. I will try the reboot.

Cody you WROK!:banana:

It's almost like I do this stuff for a living. :P

I'm not sure "Have you tried rebooting" in a Windows environment gets you voted into the PC support hall of fame. :)

Though I admit I had to do exactly the same thing this weekend with a USB flash card reader that wouldn't fly.

I occasionally forget there are "users" out there that have forgotten or weren't around in the Win9x days when that was the solution for everything and that XP and Vista occasionally need a restart too. (The second "o" in too is dedicated to Scott who provides us wih this great forum.).

Ha! :)

I make all my users reboot every night (all XP). It's made an enormous difference in the number of computer issues.

I try to get everyone to do it when they come in in the morning. AVG runs at night.

*shrug* It's just easier to get them to do it as they shut off their screen and leave for the night. Ghost or a batch file backs up all computers every week night. Defrag and Virus scans run on the weekends.

I don't reboot.

I run my dev machines for 100 or 200 days straight. Then I backup my important files and make IT reimage the machine and reinstall everything. That's my reboot.

It's kinda like my WRX. Instead of changing the oil, I just rebuilt the motor. :mad:

Awesome. :lol:

I bet every week you just buy new underwear.

"My house is dirty; buy me a new one!"


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