External USB drive vista compatibility issue

[usjcb]

Hi,

I have an HP Slimline 7700n with Vista premium.

My old Compaq X1015 has stopped working and in order to re-use the 2.5 HDD I have bought an USB - IDE external case.

I plugged the drive, I had the successful installation message, the drives appears then with letter K in the explorer, but then the explorer freezes, and I cannot access it anymore. The internal HDD light blinks rapidly (showing important read access to it).

Once I unplug the drive, the explorer unfreezes.

I have tried to uninstall and reinstall, to update the driver but nothing helps.

I have connected the same usb drive to an Lenovo laptop running XP and it works fine.

Thanks for the help.

[erico]

Hi,

I have hed similar experiences with external drives. One thing I have found is that the using the shortest possible USB cable possible helps. Also be sure that you are using the USB ports at the back of your computer as they are generally USB 2.0 in newer PCs.  BTW...what brand is the external drive housing and is it USB cable powered or does it have its own power supply?

Regards,

Eric

[usjcb]

Eric,

Thanks for the advice,  I haven't tried the USB ports at the back yet, I will try it tonight.

Regarding the brand of the case, ... I just can't find any the the package, however I have found a 2-TECH case on amazon that looks exactly the same.

It is USB powered (I though all the 2.5 external drives were usb powered), the light turns on when I plug the drive, turns red the first 2 seconds (indicating read access) and then stay green.

JC

[usjcb]

I have tried the usb at the back and same problem, I have cheked the BIOS version which is the lateste available, and I am up to date regarding Vista upgrades.

I don't know what to do next ...

[erico]

Hi,

Here is a link to an HP webpage about these issues. Read the first note about the Microsoft Hotfix for usb issues in Vista. It could apply to your PC. 

Regards,

Eric