I used to have a computer which happily ran Windows XP, with a slave (internal) drive and two external hard drives plus other USB devices (all connected via a hub). Then Windows XP had to be reinstalled. Now I have no slave and no external hard drives – all the other USB devices are working as they should. The only drives showing in My Computer are A:/, C:/, D/: (internal DVD writer) and E:/ (external DVD writer). When I connect either of my external hard drives, nothing happens – no message to say that new hardware has been detected, I mean.
I have disconnected the USB hub, re-booted, then re-connected and added the USB devices one by one. Again, everything works except the external hard drives. Plus I have no internal slave, of course.
I’d like to know if I have one problem or two (ie. is the internal slave hard drive a different problem from the external USB drives), and how can I (with little experience of messing about inside my computer) put my problem(s) right?
