External hard drive

[sueandcarol]

Just bought an external HDD to store my cds as mp3/wma files.  I am running Windows XP.  I have it connected and the device manager says the drivers are loaded ok.  How do I get the computer to recognise it as a removeable drive and assign a letter to it?  I can find it as a USB mass storage device and that is as far as I get

[KebabMeister]

Are you using a laptop?

Does the external HDD have an external power supply as well as the USB cable?

[Radiospy]

Hi there.

If you go to 'My Computer' Xp should automatically confire it as a removable drive and assign a drive letter. Simply double click it and it will open up. You can drag and drop your files to it if you wish.

Hope this helps

[j2buttonsw]

Find My Computer and right click it > Manage. In here will be Disk Management (under Storage) where your new hard drive will be. You must create a partition then format it (use quick NTFS) before it can have a drive letter and be visible in My Computer.

[fly258]

Try THIS to format your hard drive, its very good.

[SuRichardson]

When I go to My Computer - I cannot find it.  it is only  when I go to Control Panel and System and expand the Disk Drives or USB ports that it shows up.  I thought it would be as simple as it showing up on My Computer - as it does when I connect a small MP3 player - as a removable drive

[Fitzer]

We had this the other week and the answer I gave here http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Internet-and-Technology/Question111416.html seemed to do the trick.

I don't think operating systems see the device properly 'til it's been formated.

[SuRichardson]

Thanks Fitzer - I will try this.  Sounds just what I need