Vista - External Hard Drive

I have a Western Digital external HD that I've used for sometime with my XP
machine without problem. When I connect it to my Vista Home Premium machine
it works fine for a couple of weeks then it becomes unrecognized. I get a
message that "the device needs to be replaced". I then connect it to my XP
machine where it works fine. Then I move it back to the Vista machine where
once again it work fine. Then the cycle begins again. Thinking it might need
a Vista specific driver I find there is none. It's doesn't require a driver
because the drive is "plug and play". Anyone know what the deal is with
this?

"Bob" <nowhere@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:4qudnbIrvuzb0inanZ2dnUVZ_qGknZ2d@xxxxxxBob,

I am using two WD My Book Premium 500GB external drives. They came
formatted in Fat32. I used the drives for awhile before I reformatted them
to NTFS. They worked perfectly well with the Fat32 file system but I changed
to NTFS due to the limitation of file size in Fat32.
It's possible you need a firmware update to the hard drive. You should
be able to find it at WD's website in the support section. I assume you have
a driver for the WD external or Windows would not know how to communicate
with it. You need to go to WD's website and search for the drivers, don't
just try to update them in Device Manager. I needed additional drivers for
mine because I use firewire connections.
In any event, if you are going to purchase another hard drive I would
suggest the My Book Premium edition. You can leave them connected at all
times. The drives will sleep when not in use and they will automatically
configure themselves to shutdown safely with Windows. However, you must be
sure to backup your important files and data to more than one external drive
or DVDs if you desire to leave the externals connected at all times as I do.
Also, please keep in mind that any connected external drive can suffer
the same damage as internal drives in the event of a lightning strike or any
other type of electrical surge or fluctuation. I use an APC UPS for surge
protection and also to assure myself that my system will shut down properly
in the event I suffer from a power outage. An outage itself sometimes is all
that is necessary to toast your motherboard and hard drive. It doesn't have
to be a surge.

C.B.


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