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  • #2226093

    External hard drive (new) enclosure and Vista problem

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    by donnaandneil ·

    Hi,

    First of all Im not big on technical hardware issues but today I bought a Samsung 160gb external hard drive (in an enclosure) for my Toshiba M200 laptop which is running Windows Vista basic. Although Vista detects and installs drivers for the hard drive..the drive does not appear in ‘Computer’. I go to ‘Disk Management’ and I am unable to intialise or format the drive. The drive appears as unreadable and unallocated. I right click on the unallocated area and I dont get any other clickable options other than properties or help. The ‘New Simple Volume’ option is unclickable.

    Can anyone help me fix this problem?

All Answers

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    Replies
    • #2609054

      Clarifications

      by donnaandneil ·

      In reply to External hard drive (new) enclosure and Vista problem

      Clarifications

    • #2608329

      This is a well known Vista Issue

      by oh smeg ·

      In reply to External hard drive (new) enclosure and Vista problem

      What you need to do is format the Drive in the Drive Management and that should not only allow the Vista OS to see it but allocate it a drive letter and make it available for use on that computer.

      Just a word or warning however once you make it readable on this computer the possibility exists that it will be unreadable on another. So if you are saving any critical data to the drive you need to keep this in mind.

      Col

      • #2608283

        unable to format

        by donnaandneil ·

        In reply to This is a well known Vista Issue

        Thanks for your reply. There is no option to format the external in Disk Management. I right click on the area which reads unallocated and I can only click on properties and help. I dont understand why I cant even format the drive?

        • #2608232

          Are you logged in with Administrator Rights?

          by oh smeg ·

          In reply to unable to format

          Or is this account a Limited User Account? That would be my first thing to look at here. If you have a Limited Account you need to log in with Admin Rights or disable the UAC to give you Admin Rights.

          Col

        • #2608199

          yes

          by donnaandneil ·

          In reply to Are you logged in with Administrator Rights?

          My account is an adminstrator acount. It doesn’t have any limits on it. I’ll try disabling the UAC though but I think I already have admin rights.

          Any other ideas?

        • #2608082

          Well if you have a Admin Account

          by oh smeg ·

          In reply to yes

          When you click on the Format Option you should be prompted to type in a Password to grant you Admin Rights. If the box isn’t active or you don’t get prompted for the Admin Password you don’t have an Admin Account.

          Col

        • #2608924

          I have admin rights but no format option

          by donnaandneil ·

          In reply to Well if you have a Admin Account

          Hi,

          I am logged in as admin with full access rights but there is no option to format the drive. All I get when I right click on the unallocated space for the external drive are clickable ‘properties and help’ options.

    • #2608748

      solvable?

      by donnaandneil ·

      In reply to External hard drive (new) enclosure and Vista problem

      Im still pulling my hair out on this…Please somebody help me before I go bald!

      • #2453316

        If you’ve solved this, then ignore, problem is with PL-2506 controller!

        by cerealdud ·

        In reply to solvable?

        Not sure it is solvable.

        Is the enlosure based on PL-2506 chipset-controller?
        2nd, are you running Vista 32?
        If so, the following info may or may not help. I was running Vista 32 at the time.
        While attempting to access the enclosure with an IDE hard drive enclosed, I received the following error code :
        “”Compatibility issue between Windows Vista and PL-2506 Hi-Speed USB-to-IDE controller.”
        The error message also says, ” Prolific Technology, INC., the company that manufactured the PL-2506 Hi-Speed USB-to-IDE controller, has informed Microsoft that they do not expect to offer updates to fix this problem. ” This was under Vista 32. Unless MS releases a driver patch to address this issue, there is little chance this will ever work under Vista. I also, haven’t gotten it work under XP. I am not sure if this version of XP has updated to the point it will not work with this chipset.
        3rd, you may have to do some homework on what chipset your enclosure uses.
        If possible, I would try to find a enclosure not based on the PL-2506.

    • #2633968

      Same Problem – Help?

      by lozzbyrne ·

      In reply to External hard drive (new) enclosure and Vista problem

      I managed to get one step further I think… and managed to get Vista to think it could inititialize the disk.. but then received another Error.
      Unexpected failure. Error code: 45D@0200001A
      I’m am demented! The drive worked fine a couple of days ago. I have yet to find anyone with a solution to this…
      My email address is lozzbyrne@hotmail.com
      Thank you!
      Additional details: It is not a power supply/cable problem. It is not a disk letter allocation problem – that used to be fine at G:/ – I am now unable to allocate a letter. The disk appears in Disk Management as unallocated and unreadable.

    • #2633967

      Same Problem – Help?

      by lozzbyrne ·

      In reply to External hard drive (new) enclosure and Vista problem

      I managed to get one step further I think… and managed to get Vista to think it could inititialize the disk.. but then received another Error.
      Unexpected failure. Error code: 45D@0200001A
      I’m am demented! The drive worked fine a couple of days ago. I have yet to find anyone with a solution to this…
      My email address is lozzbyrne@hotmail.com
      Thank you!
      Additional details: It is not a power supply/cable problem. It is not a disk letter allocation problem – that used to be fine at G:/ – I am now unable to allocate a letter. The disk appears in Disk Management as unallocated and unreadable.

    • #2611189

      Partition

      by smarmybastard ·

      In reply to External hard drive (new) enclosure and Vista problem

      Did it allow you to Partition, I believe you need to rt. clik in the allocated area to do that. Format is an option for post partition.

    • #2811336

      Failed to create partition in External Hard drive.

      by kishoreapu ·

      In reply to External hard drive (new) enclosure and Vista problem

      I have one Transcend 80GB External Hard drive. As it had some data, I took one backup and formatted it. Now when I try to create partition, I could not do it. In windows disk management, it is shown as Removable, 74.53GB NTFS, online and Healthy. I formatted it again there, but the delete partition option is not highlighted. I tried with Easeus Partition Master, but still could not. Otherwise the hard disk works fine. Why I am unable to create any partition ?

    • #2811329

      Connect to XP machine and format using NTFS

      by sandy@ ·

      In reply to External hard drive (new) enclosure and Vista problem

      First connect external drive to an XP machine and format it using NTFS. do not enable encryption or compress. Now you should be able to use it normally on other Vista / Win7 systems.

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