Maxtor OneTouch III Mini problem...

[Mobyseven]

Hey all. I'm having some issues with the Maxtor One Touch III Mini external hard drive that I bought to use as a backup drive.

Simply - when I plug it in to the USB hub, the computer recognises that there is an external storage device attached (it even recognises it as the MOTIIIM), but it doesn't assign it a drive letter or anything similar. As such, I can't use the drive.

Any suggestions? I've already tried searching for a driver on the net, powering off my computer and the hard drive and then restarting, and banging my head against a brick wall...

[BenK]

Here's a troubleshooting guide from their site. link (http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?locale=en-US&name=External_Drive_Troubleshooter_-_Windows_2000_XP_-_Operating_System_Detection_Issue&vgnextoid=1b734a3cdde5c010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD )

[jsfisher]

Is the drive partitioned and formated?

[MortFurd]

If you have other removable drives, then your new one may be trying to use a drive letter assigned to one of the others.

The Seagate site mentions the Windows Disk management tool. If you can find your drive there and it is partitioned and other wise OK, assign it a drive letter that is not being used by any other device.

[bruto]

Have you always been the administrator of the computer? It's possible in Windows to force drive letter assignments, and also to hide drive letters. If someone else changed these settings your drive may be invisible. You can check for disabled drive letters, as well as changing settings, with Microsoft's TweakUI program.

[Mobyseven]

I've always had administrator rights on the laptop, and it isn't a drive letter allocation problem. Other than that, I'm back in Ballarat for the moment, the minute I get back to Melbourne I'll try the other suggestions.