hi, a fren has a portable external harddisk which has been formatted and works fine under notebook's win2k. but wen try to use the external harddisk on desktop, also runnign win2k, it cant be detected. i've tested the external harddisk on win98, winxp all works fine. can copy transfer files as per normal no problem. but this particular fren's desktop cant detect the harddisk. it has usb 2 installed. oyjrt drivers seems to be in place. any clue wat might be wrong wif the desktop win2k? thanks in advance.

1st question 4 u: is it USB or Firewire HDD, if USB is it 2.0? 2nd Question do other USB/Firewire(depending on previous answer) devices work on the desktop? 3rd question did you try windowsupdate.microsoft.com for any driver update for the USB/Firewire controller, & is SP4 on the desktop? 4th question if you look in device manager do you see any conflicting devices? answer those and i can further help you

hi drek, 1. it's definitely USB. but now i'm not sure usb1.1 or usb2.. how can i check? it's hitachi mini portable harddisk. i cant find the model 2. yes, other USB devices (card reader, thumbdrive etc) works fine on the desktop usb ports. 3. yes it's win2k SP4. havent been to MS update. trying now. i'm at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/results.aspx?productID=&freetext=usb&DisplayLang=en and i think i shd try numbber 6. 4. device manager shows no conflict. all good to go. ok, have installed the fix from MS update (the number 6 above) and it still doesnt work! sigh.. disappointed.

sounds like the usb ports (am i right in saying it uses 2 of them!) in the desktop pc dont have the resources nor power to handle it. i have 8 in total and can only use 6 due to power issues.