Any IT Techie Genius types out there ?

[Wiped]

Hi All ... please bare in mind , Im not too techy so bare with me. So here's my problem , I bought a Western Digital 250GB My Notebook Esssential External HD because I was running out of room on my Dimension 2350 60GB Desktop. This is supposed to be "plug 'n' play" so I connected via a USB port & the little bubble popped up saying "New Hardware Found" - all good so far. Next I was asked do I want to install the software manually or let Windows Find it , obviously the HD didn't come with software cos it's supposed to be plug n play , so I picked "Let Windows blah blah" ... after searching it says that my HD wasn't installed because no Driver could be found - so Im at a catch 22 situation ...

Just to double check I plugged the HD into my laptop in work (runs on Windows 2000) and it installed no problems !! ...

Is there somewhere to download missing drivers for XP from ? ... Microsoft and WD support have either been :

a) Useless
b) Just a mindfield of different pages , mostly leading back to the same "Support" page.
c) Haven't replied to my emails

Am I simplifying the problem , are bigger issues afoot ? ...

Any help would be much appreciated

[general eclectic]

best I can offer is: have you tried the technobabble forum?

pity it's so late at night in the States, someone there would have jumped in and helped you by now...

Personally,as my 250GB drive (with 80GB slave) was getting too full, i recently bought a samsung 400GB drive and a Sun Bright external case. The case is plug and play with XP, and after formatting the drive I was off and away...

[Wiped]

Ta man ... I'll try there

[toys]

i'll move this thread there for you

[guygee]

Right Click on My Computer =>Manage => Storage => Disc Management (Local).
Is the drive showing up there? Maybe the disk just needs to be formatted and partitioned?

It can be very frustrating when plug-in-play won't work, sometimes these problems are due to flaws in an old bios or chipset firmware. Don't know much about Dells, as I always put mine together from scratch. Real sysadmins love Dells because of the support and uniformity, maybe you could call Dell?

[Wiped]

Thanks toys ...

When I do Right Click on My Computer =>Manage => Storage => Disc Management it shows a big yellow question mark where the HD is so it senses it , but doesn't know what it is ... hence I need a Driver ... :(

[diggrd]

You may need to create and format a partition on the new drive.
I have an external drive that everytime I move it from one PC to another I have to go through all those steps guygee outlined cause it comes up as a foreign disc and needs to be imported.

[trustthex]

Dell support is going to be useless here, trust me, i usta work there. might try updating your usb drivers from the dell website... or plugging it into a different usb port on the pc.

[sadu]

just a long shot..and not sure what you have checked already.

1. This USB drive is usb2.0 correct? Make sure the xp machine is not 1.1 only

2. check WD for drivers...believe it or not some usb2 drivers can be different. I have an external that didn't work with the regular windows drivers but did after installing their usb2.0 driver.

3. google it. I returned a drive last month which was giving me trouble. I checked online and everyone was having an issue...no wonder I got a 350gb for 60 canadian which is like 0.12 american ;)

4. Have a router? Plug external into the win2000 machine, network them and map a network drive on your xp machine.

5. Return the dam thing and make sure to get one with installer. I'm fed up with these BS windows "plug and play" peripherals because so many of them just don't work. Install disc works 99% of the time.

good luck

[Wiped]

None of that worked ... :mad: ... keept getting error 28 - No Driver Found ... need a download link for WD Drivers from somewhere !!! aaarrrggghhh

[direwolf-pgh]

Code 28
The drivers for this device are not installed. (Code 28)
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310123

sounds like you need some drivers my friend - (you knew this)

right click: MyComputer>properties
select Hardware tab>Device Manager

your drive should be listed with a yellow warning (needs driver/attention)
right click the device and select: uninstall > reboot

there are no XP or 2000 drivers for that device from WD
- remove it completely and reconnect :)

[Unidecker]

western digital.com

[stantheman1976]

Do you have WinXP Service Pack 2 installed? Also, have you let Windows update itself lately? That might take care of it. Also, check Western Digital's website and see if they have a support section with drivers for that device.

[Wiped]

Finally fixed it by placing the original XP CD into the PC and doing a search on the disc for driver.cab , copied that folder from the CD into a folder in the C drive called i386 and then reinstalled the HD manually by pointing the New Hardware Wizard to i386 to search for the compatable driver .... just in case anybody has the same hassle