Vista - WD external drive works with XP, not with Vista

I have a WD 250GB external hard drive, the MyBook. It works absolutely fine
on a HP laptop running XP, but on another HP laptop running Vista Basic does
not work properly. Symptoms as follows. Does not show in Explorer. Shows
in Device Manager and claims it's running properly, but shows no Volume
under the volumes tab. Shows in Computer Management, but no details and
cannot perform any operation on it, such as Change Drive Letter or Delete
and Create Volume. In Computer Management it shows as Disk 1, but has no
Drive Letter, and no status such as "Healthy".

Any help appreciated, I have no idea how to get the drive back again.

Andy G

When I upgraded from XP to Vista I had to get Vista drivers for my MyBook
from the Western Digital Website.
"Andy G" <georgi66@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:ekQJlpNcJHA.5092@xxxxxx

Thanks for the suggestion but I already checked the WD website. There are
no Vista drivers for my particular model. There are about a dozen different
MyBook models. Mine is the "Essential".


"Curious" <mailmenot@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:%23Mvav5OcJHA.4664@xxxxxx

Here are 2 items to try -

1. Delete the file c:\windows\inf\infcache.1

2. Check that the DevicePath registry key is present in
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
and that it's value includes '%SystemRoot%\System32'
--

"Andy G" <georgi66@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:ekQJlpNcJHA.5092@xxxxxx

Many thanks for that suggestion. Things are better but still something not
right!

I can now see the drive in Explorer under "Computer", but it's shown as a
Removable Disk and claims to have no media.... So if I right click on it
and try to Open or Format, system tells me there is no disk and to insert
one...

In Computer Management things have changed a bit too. The drive now seems
to have two listings in the lower half of the window. It is shown as Disk 1
(Removable G, No Media. To the right there is no information.

Secondly it is listed as Disk 2, Basic, 232 Gb, Online. To the right there
is the blue bar that denotes a primary partition and below a hatched block
showing the size, 232 Gb. Again I cannot perform any operations on it in
Disk management which gives a variety of obscure error messages when I try
to format or change drive letter.

None of this means much to me but I'm hoping something might ring a bell
with you? Any help much appreciated.

Andy G.



"GTS" <x@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:%233AZ6kacJHA.1528@xxxxxx

On Thu, 8 Jan 2009 18:53:29 +0200, "Andy G" <georgi66@xxxxxx>
wrote:
If you right click on the leftmost section (where is says "Disk 0",
"Disk 1" etc) and select properties and then select the "Volumes" tab;
what does it say the "Partition style" is?

I had a flaash drive that act in a similar way and I couldn't use it
in Vista at all, however Windows XP had no problems with it. This was
because the "Partition style" was "GUID Partition Table". When I
reformatted it in XP, it changed to "Master Boot Record(MBR)" and
Vista was then able to use it.

You're welcome. I suggest you now delete both partitions (Volumes), create
a new partition and then format it. I think you can probably do it all in
Vista, but if any problem, delete them on the XP machine.
--

"Andy G" <georgi66@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:OhkskGbcJHA.3708@xxxxxx

If it was formatted with NTFS there may be some ownership issues. Google
taking ownership of a drive and there are several step by step walkthroughs
to show how to take ownership of the drive.

--
David Vair
CNE, CNA, MCP, A+, N+



"Andy G" <georgi66@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:OhkskGbcJHA.3708@xxxxxx

Cheers Steve, but the Partition Style is already set to "MBR". At least I
now know you can right click on the left section!

Andy G


"Steve Pearce" <*stevepearce@xxxxxx*> wrote in message
news:qrecm49t8dh1cosddpo72ngacu3l36llp2@xxxxxx

AAArgh. Prior to getting your latest post, I powered off the external
drive, ejected it, and rebooted the PC. When I reconnected the drive I'm
back to where I was before, it no longer shows in Computer and disk
management only shows one disk!!!!

Does this suggest anything to you?

I've tried deleting the volume in disk management, although it looks to me
like no actual volume is being recognised as it does not show in the list at
the top of the Disk Management window. After churning away for a while it
comes back with a message about "Cannot complete operation as Disk
Management Console is not up to date".

None of the actions it suggests achieve anything.

Andy G.



"GTS" <x@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:u8GB10ccJHA.5092@xxxxxx