New problems with ext hard drives & Win 7?

CClub wrote on 7/17/2010, 6:32 AM
I know when Windows 7 first came out, there were issues where the OS wouldn't recognize many external hard drives. But then it seemed to straighten out. I just tried to start up three external hard drives via Windows 7 as I'm redoing an older project for a client, and I hear the hard drive start, I hear the initial sound that Windows recognizes it, and then nothing. They're not even recognized in Disk Management. They appear in Device Manager at first, but then when I start trying to look into the drivers, etc., they disappear. I brought the drives over to my laptop with WinXP, and no problems with the hard drives at all. So I got what I needed, but I'm wondering if there's been a recent change with Windows 7.

Was there a recent update with Windows 7 that has affected anyone else's hard drives getting recognized in Windows 7?

Comments

farss wrote on 7/17/2010, 6:49 AM
Are these USB drives?
If so sure you're using the right cable, some needs connection to two USB ports to get enough power. Reason I suggested this it's odd that the OS would mount the drive and then drop it, that sounds more like a power issue than an OS issue.

I just tried one of mine, formatted under XP no problem and I have used a couple more recently ,again no problem. This is under Win7 64bit Pro, all up to date.

Bob.
ECB wrote on 7/17/2010, 7:04 AM
This does not help your problem but I have been running win7 X64 (all updates applied) since it was released with no problems with external drives. I am running an all Intel MB Core 2 Quad 2.66 GHz 8GB ram. Maybe you need to update the MB device drivers and BIOS.

-Ed B

If it is a USB supplied power issue as Bob suggested you can go to the Device Manager > USB port ( the one your USB drive is attached and click on the power tab and see if it is shut down. You can also boot up with the drive not attached open up the USB ports in the Device Manager plug in the drive and see if a port shuts down. Also, USB ports came in two power rating low max 100ma and high max 500ma .
reberclark wrote on 7/17/2010, 8:57 AM
I was able to connect two Seagate 500GB USB drives to my Windows 7 Pro 64bit setup with no issues, AFTER I had visited the Seagate site and downloaded and installed the Windows 7 drivers for them.
Woodenmike wrote on 7/17/2010, 9:07 AM
If your drives have their own power supplies, that may be the problem. I have gone through many power supplies for my Lacie drives over the years and figured out (duh) that leaving them plugged in shortened their life span by a LOT (too lazy to bend over and unplug from under my workstation). The earlier power supplies definitely had some issues and have gotten better with the later generations (they even look different). typically the drives would not mount when the power supplies were getting weak even though the lights on the drives would light up and flash indicating it was trying to connect. New power supply...it would connect right up.
CClub wrote on 7/21/2010, 3:59 PM
Thanks for all the input above. I finally had the time to try the suggestions out today, so I figured I'd start with updating the BIOS. Ya know... I should have left well enough alone with the system that worked and the hard drives that didn't. I tried updating the BIOS, and now I can't access my system drive. On restarted, I get the message that now the bootmanager can't be found. I load the Win 7 repair disc, it says it fixes the bootmanager, and I restart. It gets to Windows and shuts down. I had created a Restore point just before changing the BIOS, so I try to revert the system back. It appears successful in loading the Restore point, but again Windows can't start.

I had ALSO created a full Acronis system backup prior to installing the BIOS update, but Before I try that, I'm wondering if different BIOS settings are the big problem here. I believe I had the Storage Configuration set to AHCI before the BIOS update, but when I updated it, I accepted Default BIOS settings without thinking when it asked. I'm wondering if the default BIOS setting of IDE storage configuration would cause this much trouble, if my Windows/hard drive settings are looking for AHCI from BIOS. I tried changing this in BIOS, but I wonder if the damage was done.

Any feedback?

Edit: through a number of trials, I did get my system back & running. Still working on accessing the discs.