Unable To Connect To External USB Drive
Mar 23, 2008
When I try to connect an external USB hard drive or a USB memory stick to my laptop, Vista throws up a message saying: ???Windows needs to install driver software for your Unknown Device???. I let Vista search, but Vista cannot find the required driver. However, when I connect the same external USB hard drive or a USB memory stick to my desktop PC, also running Vista Ultimate, Vista has no problems recognizing the device and installing the required driver automatically and without throwing up any messages. I suspect that some Vista service(s) on my laptop might be disabled or not functioning properly, but I cannot find out which one could be the cause. Perhaps someone here could point me in the right direction.
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Jun 18, 2009
I have an HP laptop with Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit and I have two external usb hard drives; one to store everything (my files, videos, etc.) and I use the other one for virtual machines (although virtual machines are a bit slower because of the usb speed, but I'm really worried not to harm my laptop's hard disk)
1. The question I had is that: should I connect these hard drives all the time or I can unplug them if I do not intend to use them, especially the one used for virtual machines because it is used occasionally?
2. And another concern that I have is that when I have both hard drives connected and I start my computer up, it takes much longer time for my system to boot up and sometimes even my computer hangs when starting up when both hard drives are connected...........
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Apr 24, 2010
It's unable to either normally format any external memory devices into a FAT or FAT32 format, or unable to read it at all. I keep trying to open the device but it keeps saying that i need to format it, but because of problem 1, it can't be formated (it almost completes but the process shuts down, stating that it can't be formated). This problem has been happening for the longest time and I really need this fixed.
When I say external memory devices, i mean CDs, DVDs, Flash drives, SD cards, memory card readers. Everytime I check the disk management of these devices, it says they are Primary Partitioned (which is the normal status right?). And the only thing that seems to be the problem is the RAW file system (which I heard windows doesn't read)............
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Mar 23, 2008
When I try to disconnect my external usb drive I get the following message. " Windows can't stop your Generic volume device because it is in use. Close any programs or windows that might be using the device, and then try again later." I have no programs running that would be accessing the USB external drive that I know of. Is there some way to find out what program is accessing it? I have things in the back ground like Windows Onecare who uses that drive to back up my files, but happens in the middle of the night.
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May 5, 2008
I am unable to send email. Using Vista. Have emptied outbox as suggested in other posts. Outbox was emptied without difficulty, sent to drafts, then deleted. Created new email - tried to send - still couldn't. Error message - unable to connect to smpt server. Have gone to tols - accounts - servers - re-entered info.
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Mar 23, 2008
when booting up from a vista cd I accidentally had my usb external hard drive plugged in and the drive has been emptied and replaced by windows there are sintimental photos etc on the drive can anyone help me to restore them
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Jul 2, 2008
Does 'Local Disc' D mean it is a drive inside my machine or could it be my external hard drive?
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Oct 6, 2009
I was starting my computer today (that has Vista), and during the start up process, a black screen came up stating that there was an error opening up my external hard drive and it was checking for errors. After it finally booted up, I went to open the hard drive files, and it was totally BLANK! I then restarted the computer, and still the hard drive is EMPTY! I had ALL my important files in there!
The ONLY thing that looks promising is that when I go to Start then to Computer, it shows the hard drive there, and it still shows that 43GB are free of 111GB of storage (same info shows by right clicking on it and going to Properties). Why would it show this if nothing is on the hard drive anymore? Is there ANYWAY to recover these files again you think???? I NEED those files!!!! Remember that the hard drive STILL PHYSICALLY WORKS. It's just that I cannot access the files on my pc at the time for some reason.......
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May 21, 2008
I just bought and installed a external hard drive. I am fairly knowlegable about computers but this is my first Ex. Hard drive and know very little about there use. So what I want to know is how to save my Family Tree Makers files to it. And once I do that how do I know for sure it is opening from my new drive and not my computer C: drive? I saved it to a DVD one time but when the time came when I needed it all that was there was a short cut but no files.
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May 18, 2008
I just used Windows Vista to back up my drive to an external drive. It said the backup was successful but when I went to safely remove hardware, I got this message: " Windows can't stop your Generic volume device because it is in use. Close any programs or windows that might be using the device, and then try again later. "I made sure everything was closed, checked with Task Manager and tried again. Same message. After 20 minutes, I finally just disconnected it.
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Sep 8, 2009
I have Windows XP and Vista. I always go through "safely remove hardware" before pulling off USB drive on XP. However, I have been trying to do the same on Vista, it seems that I cannot do the same as XP. For instance, I plug in my USB on Vista and it appears as H drive on Vista, when I am ready to do "safely remove hardware", I don't see the device drive H is on the "Safely remove hardware" window, so I cannot stop the H drive. I am concerned about the Vista hardware.
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Mar 23, 2008
ok lets try again.......my newsreader windows mail just suddenly stopped
working with "unable to connect to server"....i have deleted norton using
their program - no change.....i have deleted my news accounts and set them up
again - no change
this is bogus...for what i spent for freaking vista and a new computer to
have something stupid like this to have happen.
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May 4, 2009
I brought a laptop of mine over to my gfs today and connected it to anexisting network that her roommate has setup. I have not had any luck getting it to connect either by wireless connection, connecting to an ethernet cable to a wireless router which goes to the modem, or connection to the ethernet cable which goes directly to the modem.
I had no problems with this laptop at my place connecting to wireless or wired and both places use comcast cable for internet.
I've been searching forums all day looking for clues. I have seen a lot of talk of MAC addresses, unable to contact your DHCP server, ip renewing etc. But nothing seems to work. It defaults to a 169.254.*ip which I believe means it cannot connect to the DHCP server.
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Jul 11, 2009
I am having trouble booting up my computer. Vista SP1. My computer hangs occasionally during start up. And usually when i just turned it on, it gives a few long beeps and nothing happens on the screen. Could it be having problems with the CPU or my screen?
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Mar 1, 2009
I have been using a legal version of windows vista business with SP 1 and have installed all the recent updates. Just a few days ago some of the applications that I often use dont work any more. The applications are freecall ( a voip software ), Bit Comet and DC++ . I have searched many forums on all the above mentioned applications and also many Windows vista forums but still am not able to figure out what has gone wrong or why am unable to fix this issue. Some of the things that I have tried,
1) Tried system restore by restoring the system to a week earlier settings. This didnt work out.
2) uninstalled the firewall ( comodo ) I had on my comp. Disabled windows firewall . Even this didnt work.
3) I had VMWare installed and hence I thought that it had disturbed the network settings . So later i also uninstalled this VMWare application.
4) Then after reading some posts in other forums, I ran services.msc then disabled UpnP and SDSP . Even this didnt work out.
5) Now I have only my windows firewall turned on with exceptions to all the applications mentioned above.Even now it does not work out.
For the Dc++ thing, am unable to connect to the university Hub.
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Apr 17, 2008
I was wonder if anyone know a solution for the following problem. I have a ethernet hard drive and I've never had a problem until using vista and windows server 2008. both operating systems are unable to browse the drive, instead it completely crashes explorer.exe. Windows server 2003 & XP have never had trouble.
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Jul 30, 2008
I am unable to connect to internet using my wireless. I have tried resetting the router and rebooting the laptop. Each time I try connecting to internet the system throws and error " the dependency service or group failed to start". I have tried using vista's diagonse and repair option, but no luck. I have tried restarting the wireless, troubleshooted drives. On doing the ipconfig /renew at the command prompt the following was seen. " No operation can be performed on wireless network connection while it has its media disconnected.No operation can be performed on bluetooth network connection while it has its media disconnected. An error occured while releasing interface loopback pseudo-interface1" On futher diagnoses i have notice that DHCP clinet service is stuck in the "STARTING" state. I am unable to stop and restart it. I have logged using the administrator.
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Sep 21, 2009
I am unable to connect to any wireless network. When diagnosing why i cant connect, i am simply told 'you are unable to connect'. additionally, when directly connecting through a cable, I still cannot use internet, however my AOL instant messenger will work fine. I have tried restarting my computer and router with no success. All settings have been set to match my home network. I am lost as to what the problem could be.
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Aug 23, 2008
ave had a this acer lap top for 2 months.. using charter cable for internet access.. ethernet cable cannection.. 3 weeks ago stopped being able to to connect to the internet... charter says it is the computer.. i am able to user the wireless connection fine.. have taken the laptop to the electronics store and it connects to their lan good and surfs.. but at home it will not get a valid ip addresss. per the cable company, the problem is the computer.. also when connected i am not able to select private network in network and sharing..
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Sep 28, 2006
I am testing Vista RC1 on my work laptop. I have to map several drives on my machine to the company SCO server in order to get some software to run. However, i am able to ping the SCO server but unable to connect to any of the network drives with my username and log on. I am also an administrator on this system, and cannot even map with the admin password.
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Apr 20, 2010
I am having Windows Vista and Ubuntu. Ubuntu gets connected with LAN as soon as i plug in wire and also connects to the wireless network in my home ( via router ). But windows shows no sign of network connection. Could some guide me what should i do even to give you guys detail of technical problem since i am not a windows user but desires my laptop to be connected to internet !
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Jun 5, 2009
I have an hp with vista hp 32bit and recently I am unable to connect to the Internet. My Internet icon has a red X over it and it says connection:unknown the dependency service or group failed to start. I have no idea why this is happening. I tried system restore but an errormessage says it's unable to restore. I ran the antivirus (norton 360) and 3 Trojans were found and destroyed. Still doesn't work. Ran the cmd prompt and tried the sfc /scannow fix and nothing was found. I'm flatout of ideas.
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Mar 23, 2008
I recently bought a western digital 1TB hard drive which I had to reformat before I could use. Everything works good now, except for onething. Sometimes the computer doesn't want to restart while the new drive is plugged in. If I remove it from the USB port prior to restarting, it will restart just fine.
It shuts down and turns on without an issue. This only happens when I
restart the system with it plugged in.
So while it's not a big issue,it is an annoyance.
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Dec 8, 2008
I just Bought a 120Gig External HardDrive and i want to put An O/S on it how do i do that? i bought an external HDD because all my PC games take up all my HDD space in my computer :P)
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May 9, 2009
I got a large external hard drive today and it's instructions say to go to
disk management and do format and partition. I messed up and deleted the
drives volume. Now it is not listed in disk management. I looked everywhere
to get it back and can't figure it out. How do I make Vista recognize this
drive again so I can partition and format it?
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Apr 24, 2010
For some reason, It's unable to either normally format any external memory devices into a FAT or FAT32 format, or unable to read it at all. I keep trying to open the device but it keeps saying that i need to format it, but because of problem 1, it can't be formated (it almost completes but the process shuts down, stating that it can't be formated). This problem has been happening for the longest time and I really need this fixed.
When I say external memory devices, i mean CDs, DVDs, Flash drives, SD cards, memory card readers. Everytime I check the disk management of these devices, it says they are Primary Partitioned (which is the normal status right?). And the only thing that seems to be the problem is the RAW file system (which I heard windows doesn't read). However, the wierd thing is if I plug in something like a USB mouse, or a camera, it has full functionality (I.E. the mouse works/files are reachable on the camera). I then tried to format it using the cmd lines, and tried to format it to FAT32, but after it says 100% formated, and i try to use it again, Disk Management tells me that it's back in RAW format.
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May 17, 2009
i have simpletech 160gb external drive. i cannot access my external drive,i can see the drive but i cannot access it i dont want to format because lots of important file are in it. when i check it from disk management right click the drive E: then on the property windows i choose tools clik the check now boton. it gives me error "The disk check could not be performed because Windows cannot access the disk."
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Jul 29, 2009
I am in need of assistance concerning my external hard drive. My hard drive has been working flawlessly for the past 3 years. As of today, my computer no longer recognizes it. This is what I have done so far:
-Unplugged it, plugged it back up, and my computer made a chime saying that it was recognized and said that it was ready to go.
-However, the HDD does not show up on the my computer tab.
-I removed the HDD from its enclosure, purchased a USB 2.0 to SATA/IDE and tried uploading the HDD to my wife's computer. Once again, her computer chimed saying that it was recognized (she runs XP, i have vista), but, once again, the hard drive was not in the my computer folder.
-I then proceeded to Computer Management, Disk Management, and noticed that my external hard drive is not there either.
I thought that maybe intially my power cord to the outlet in the wall just went bad, but after I bought the USB to SATA/IDE adapter and it still didn't work...well, I ran out of options.
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Nov 18, 2009
I have a simpletech external hard drive. When plugging it into the USB port windows vista is not recognizing the disk in my computer.
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Apr 6, 2009
I'm running a visa 32 bit laptop and a Windows xp PC on a network and im trying to send files from the laptop to the PC. My laptop is unable to connect to the internet and I think the problem is that I have a virus so I'm just going to reformat the whole thing. I want to send my laptop files to my PC, but when I go to the network and sharing center on the laptop to turn public folder sharing on, the whole window just freezes when I apply the setting. The workgroup names are the same. Is there anything else that I have to do to be able to share the files?
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Mar 23, 2008
I can't get the drivers to install on vista for my new motorola cell phone, so I can import music to the phone. I already tried going to motorola's website and downloaded a newer version of the software, it still doesnt work.
The phone will not connect to the computer. Its a motorola v3m phone from verizon wireless. Any one else seen this problem? have a fix?
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