This is my first post here. Sorry for my poor English. I have a 200GB Western Digital HD with a USB-to-IDE external enclosure. Everytime when I plug the USB cable into to my Toshiba L25-S119 notebook computer, the Windows XP Home hangs/freezes. The following are some information about my computer hardware, OS, and HD: Computer maker and model: Toshiba Satellite L25-S119 Hardware information (general): CPU: Intel Celeron M 370 (1.5GHz) 1MB L2, 400MHz FSB RAM: 768MB (256 + 512) PC4200 DDR2 533MHz SDRAM 1.8V SODIMM Chipset: ATI RADEON XPRESS 200M Chipset Southbridge: ATI SB400 Internal HD: 60GB FUJITSU MHV2060AH, 5400RPM, EIDE (ATA-6) Optical drive: MATS.H.I.TA DVD/CDRW UJDA770 USB ports: USB 2.0 OS and BIOS information: OS: Windows XP Home with SP2 BIOS: Toshiba v1.80 (12/14/05) External USB HD: Western Digital 200GB HD (IDE)in NTFS with 2 partitions. (approximately 150 + 50 GB) External Enclosure: Metal Gear Box with AC-to-DC power supply. (USB 2.0) Other information: The external USB HD works fine with my another two desktop PCs: Windows XP Pro SP2 and Windows 98 SE (with NTFS for Win98 and USB driver). And, it also works perfectly with my friends' Sony and HP notebook computers (Win xp Home). My first thought was a driver problem. However, I checked the drivers it installed in this notebook were same as my other PCs. I tried Windows XP Pro SP2 clean installation on this computer, but the problem still occured. Therefore, it is not some problems with the Home edition of Windows XP. The external enclosure has a DC power supply, so power won't be the problem. I have tried all my three USB ports. All the three USB ports works fine with my SanDisk 1GB Flash drive. I did a CHKDSK using my desktop PC, and the disk was fine. I also uninstalled and reinstalled all the USB and disk drivers, but it still the same.(set DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES=1 devmgmt.msc) Actually, the Toshiba NB CAN recognize the WD HDD. Each time when I plug it in, windows installs driver for it and then the whole system freeze. After that, I shut down the NB and re-boot. It would take about 20 mins to see the windows desktop after I turn the power on. After the re-boot, I can see there are two new HDs under "My Computer" (remember? I have 2 paritions). However, when I double click either one, the system hang again. Sometimes I might be lucky, the Windows runs fine, but I get an I/O device error message. The only situation that it works with this computer is when I boot the computer from Knoppix Linux CD. So, I guess this is not a hardware problem. How do you guys think? Thanks in advance. One more thing... I took out my Maxtor 91531U3 15.3GB HD (FAT32) from my old desktop PC and put it in the same enclosure. Then plug it in this Toshiba NB. Guess what? It works. So, it should be some problems with this Western Digital HD, right? Thanks,

Qduck, my 2¢ worth (SWAG), sounds like a driver issue to me. I know you have the latest drivers, but it doesn't sound like they're being used. Each time Windows realizes a new device is present, it retrieves what it thinks is the correct driver and throws out the one you have chosen. Not sure that's the problem or if it is, just what needs to be done, but maybe it'll put you on the right track? HTH. Ed in Texas.

How to Perform a Clean Boot in Windows XP How to perform advanced clean-boot troubleshooting in Windows XP Print the articles for reference. ----------------- See if any of the above helps to find the cause.

Ed in Texas, thank you for your reply. Yeah, my first guess was a driver issue, but I don't think it is now. I converted one of the partitions from NTFS to FAT32, and it did work. I was able to copy a file into it for a test. However, It worked only once. Right now the problem is still the same. Does anyone have an idea about this problem?

Hi, I'm having the same problem on ASUS, XP PRO SP2 with Fujitsu 40gb. Any Flash USB device works fine though. XP PRO SP1 on a diferent PC works fine !! amg