At 11/18/2002 04:03 PM, Dwight Thornton wrote:

I recently added an external, USB2.0, 120GB HD to my P4
(running Windows XP Home Ed.)for back-ups and music files.
 The internal primary drive is an 80GB drive partitioned
into approx. 3 equal partitions.  Also installed are a DVD
and CD-RW drives.  The installation went smoothly and the
new drive was identified as drive H.  I then made my first
complete back-up of the C, D, and E partitions of the
primary drive using "Backup My PC"   Sometime later, I
don't know when or what caused it, in Windows Explorer the
external drive became identified as "Removable Drive H"
when I click on this "H" drive a message in the right hand
panel of Explorer says, "insert disk in drive."  I am now
unable to view the contents of my external drive or add
any files to it.
I also have Norton SystemWorks installed and Norton's
Speed Disk, System Doctor and Disk Doctor now identify the
external drive as Drive "I" not Drive "H" as originally
done.  I am at a loss.
=======================

Was the disk "unplugged" from the USB connector without
first "Stop"-ing it from the Unplug or Eject Hardware
option in Add/Remove Hardware?  I am using a USB 1.0 drive
and if I don't "stop" or Eject it first, the data may get
corrupted to the point that I have to reformat the drive
to make it recognizable.  I am using Windows 2000 but I'm
fairly sure that the same would apply.  The reason is that
my virus scanner may be reading ane writing to the disk in
the background or the write-behind cache may still be
trying to access the drive  when it is unplugged.  This
may not be your problem but something to keep in mind.

Doug

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