no drive letter given to my mass storage unit

[nita]

:confused: HI, i have just purchased a maxtor diamond plus 9 80gb hard drive and set it in an external case to be connected via usb 2. The purpose of this purchase is to use it as an external mass storage unit. Ie, to store all my music and files on it, and then be able to take off or read what i need via my laptop or my home pc. I have connected it to my home pc as a master drive via usb2, but win xp does not show a drive letter for it, therefore i have no access to it.

Windows automatically loaded the drivers, when i first connected it but how do i go about accessing it as when i need it.
Can anyone help?

Thanks
Nita.

[Sterling_Aug]

You need to fdisk and format it first before Windows will assign a drive letter.

[nita]

Hi, thanks for reply,
Is there a simple way of fm hard disk. I dont know how to do this.
and can i use the hard drive as a portable mass storage device, like i hoped.
regards Anita

[Sterling_Aug]

You have WinXP so you should start getting familiar with the built in help and support features of XP.

You will be using the administrative tools to format the drive.

It depends on the external case you bought weither you will be able to move the drive around.

What case did you get?

[BipolarBill]

Originally posted by nita
[B I have connected it to my home pc as a master drive via usb2, but win xp does not show a drive letter for it, therefore i have no access to it.[/B] Do you think it's wise to be bouncing all over town with the master drive from your home PC? One good rap and you lose it all.

Yes - use Disk Management in Computer Management to import the drive.

[Midknyte]

you can also run diskmgmt.msc

you can partition and format from that console.

[Johnny Fist]

Forget running diskmgmt.msc. The administrative tools should be in your start menu somewhere already. If they're not, right click your start button, go to properties, start menu, customize, advanced and there will be something about adding it to the start menu in there. You'll know it when you see it.

[nita]

Originally posted by BipolarBill
Do you think it's wise to be bouncing all over town with the master drive from your home PC? One good rap and you lose it all.

Yes - use Disk Management in Computer Management to import the drive.
Hi thanks for help. This drive is a new spare and will only contain music and any other data, that is already on my home pc. My intended use was to be able to access any info i might need from my laptop, as it only has a 20gb and i dont really want to bog the laptop down will all these files.

If i am careful and carry it well wrapped and padded, will it be ok for this useage. As i say, it only contains duplicate info from home.
The drive is encased in a 3.5 Stackable Hard Disk Enclosure, made by "Best Connectivity" and they quote its uses as being:

Stackable, can fit into any standard 5.25 drive bay or use as standalone external HDD case. Supports plug -n-play, Hot -swap and wake up. Accommodate all standard 3.5 IDE HDD
Support Self Power Mode. Support Windows 98,98SE, Me, 2000, XP and Mac os (depending on Chipset)"

If i format it on my home pc, and then want to access it on my laptop (also running windows XP) via usb 2. will the format completed by my home pc, be compatable with my laptop??

Sorry if all these questions are obvious to those of you in the Know. I appreciate all the replys and the help.

:) Regards Nita

[Sterling_Aug]

Yes, once the drive is formatted, then it will work fine as long as it is carried with lots of padding.

[nita]

:) tHANKS FOR ALL OF YOUR HELP.
DRIVE IS NOW FORMATTED AND PC NOW RECOGNIZES IT.
tAKE CARE
NITA.