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PC will not detect 2 external hard drives

(5 posts)
  • Started 3 years ago by lancex95
  • Latest reply from ispalten
  • Topic Viewed 1176 times

lancex95
Posts: 120

I am a person who uses ALOT of storage space (i actually have a 750gb hd, 1tb WD external drive, 2 250gb seagate external drives, and a 250gb element external drive and several 8gb flash drives xD)

well i finally found one of my seagate drives and i noticed that for some reason, when i plug both of them into my pc (or my laptop for that reason) the operating system only detects whichever one was plugged in first. the other one still lights up, but just doesnt show connection. is there a way to solve this? becuase i tend to keep all these drives connected at once to expand my file organization,and stream media and stuff off to all the other pcs in my house.

if it helps im running windows 7 ultimate

1 of the drives is a 250gb Seagate FreeAgent Go
and the other is a 250gb Seagate FreeAgent Drive (One of the stationary ones that stands vertically)

both have been formatted and renamed

Posted 3 years ago #
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ispalten
ispalten
Posts: 6259

Is it only the Seagates that have this problem? That is if you remove one of the other external drives and plug it in after the Seagate does that show?

I'm wondering if it could be your computer? Are all externals connected to the same controller, that is all in the back or to an external hub? Is the one that doesn't show connected to a front connector, maybe that is a dup of a connector in the back?

Does the USB port work with any other drive?

When you open REMOVE H/W on the Systray, does it show all drives?

Just guessing here, no answers?

Irv S.

Posted 3 years ago #
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LH
LH
Posts: 20002

Do they both show up in Disk Management ?

Posted 3 years ago #
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lancex95
Posts: 120

im pretty sure they both show up, its only the seagates (tho i did have a similar problem when i tried connecting 2 WD 1tb drives to my laptop)

i think they were both plugged into the front, due to a lack of available slots on the back

the usb ports work with all other drives

ill try removing a connection in the back

EDIT: It definately detects both, but i can only access the first plugged in (all drives work)

my theory is it may have something to do with them being the exact same brand, as well as the exact same size drive. so it causes some form of confliction perhaps?'

honestly its no big deal, because i dont need to keep the freeagent go (its a portable pocket kinda drive) plugged in. i was just curious as far as it would be convenient for the extra space on my pc

Posted 3 years ago #
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ispalten
ispalten
Posts: 6259

I'd report it to MS... I saw recently they released a new USB driver due to conflicts with I think Nvidia USB devices, ahh, yes, HERE is the KB Article.

I've got a USB problem on my Dell as well. The 15-in-1 card reader, which is a USB device actually, 'hangs' when I get a BSOD and doesn't get properly initialized on restart, so the devices are not loaded. Have to remove the power from the system, wait a few seconds, and plug the power cord back in, then the device gets reset. Must be a USB driver problem I think? Dell can't fix it, says 'do not do that', and I've removed the offending program, DVD Flick, a solid BSOD producer on W7 for me but was only randomly occasional under Vista.

Irv S.

EDIT: corrected link

Posted 3 years ago #
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