XP doesn't detect Lacie external disk...!

vinegar_tom · 4 Jul 2006 at 14:11

Hi all,

I need some advice...

My Lacie external HD has a problem talking to Windows XP. XP knows it's there, and I can see it in Device Manager. The entry in Device Manager says it's working OK, but in My Computer, the drive doesn't appear. Nor does it appear in context menus (so I can't transfer data by right-clicking on folders and sending-to, as there's no drive to send to).

Any idea why this might be happening? Do I need a Lacie GUI to interact with it?

One thing...it is and has been used also by Mac users. Could this be the problem?

Thanks for your help and advice.

vinegar_tom

|Ric| · 4 Jul 2006 at 15:05

have you checked for it in disk management?

(right click on my computer -> manage -> disk management (may be hidden under storage))

utherpendragon · 4 Jul 2006 at 22:43

Have you formatted it? If so, what was it done with, NTFS, FAT, another?

vinegar_tom · 5 Jul 2006 at 15:20

how do i find out if it has been formatted or not? i think that it has as it has some data on it. do macs use a different formatting system?

the drive appears as 'disk 2' on the disk management utility and is listed as 'basic' (what does this mean); it says it has a capacity of 465.77, is online but 'unallocated' and is in black. does the fact that it is 'unallocated' indicate that it is not formatted and/ or has no information on it?

when i right-click it offers the option of 'new partition...'. if i do this, will i put any of the data that is on the drive at risk?

thanks for your help,

vinegar_tom

jimblowscash · 7 Jul 2006 at 11:23

format needed

a common issue with the D2 range as they are made to be both mac and windows compatable, easily resolved, do the following....
select the drive in disc manager, chose format ( make sure quick format is selected) and then choose ntfs (if used only on a pc) or fat32 if you want to use it on both a mac and a pc

you dont need partition's if your going to use them on a mac and or pc just make sure your formating to fat 32

AND MAKE SURE YOUR SELECTING QUICK FORMAT if you dont youll be there a while.

hope this helps.... let me know

jimblowscash · 7 Jul 2006 at 11:26

if unsure

if your unsure about data on the drive currently ,slap it on a mac and take a peek, if it has save the data to the mac, re format the disc on a windows machine to fat 32 and then copy the data back to the disc from the mac.it will appear on both pooters

Doug · 7 Jul 2006 at 16:11

jimblowscash said:
re format the disc on a windows machine to fat 32

You can skip this bit and just do it on the Mac

If it's been used exclusively with Macs, chances are that it's formatted HFS+. Install a program called MacDrive, this will let you read from an HFS partition, if one's there.

If it shows nothing, you should be good to just format and get on with things

vinegar_tom · 9 Jul 2006 at 21:13

hi all,

thanks for your help and advice on this.

will macdrive allow me to write to the hfs-formatted disk?

if not, will fat32 definitely allow read AND write on mac and PC without any issues?

thanks again,

vinegar_tom

jimblowscash · 9 Jul 2006 at 23:05

yes

fat 32 is read and write on both mac and pc

bledd · 10 Jul 2006 at 02:59

yup, fat32 can be read by both

mp3 players are usually fat32 (hard drive mp3 players), and work on both

hp7909 · 10 Jul 2006 at 07:44

bledd. said:
yup, fat32 can be read by both

mp3 players are usually fat32 (hard drive mp3 players), and work on both

That makes sense! I've been formating flash disk & some MP3 players (=<512MB) as FAT