I posted a previous message about this problem I was having on my own PC, but now there is a different problem relating to the same equipment on my husband's PC. He has Win XP Home Sp1, all updates. The new AcomData external hard drive - which is supposed to work on USB2 and firewire, both of which he has - is recognized by XP as a removable storage device, 4 drives showing up in both Disk Mgt and Explorer. When I try to format the drive, XP says there is no disk in the drive (it is powered on and plugged in). I have gone into the Phoenix bios and made sure USB2 devices are active. There is, however, no bios selection for mass storage. The ext drive case is sealed, so I can't remove it and install it onto an IDE slot on the motherboard, as some postings on Microsoft Community newsgroups have suggested. On another PC, the drive doesn't show up all. Both PCs are HP Pavilions, only a few months old. No XP drivers came with the drive. The AcomData technician said they aren't needed. Can anyone help on this one?

Try going into Disk Management and see if the drive is found. You may have to make it a "basic" disk first. Then you should after a reboot, format and select a drive letter. (Don't make it a "dynamic" disk, whatever you do)

My experiance with the SP1 USB2 is that it isn't. I've had to install a USB2 Adapter (@$20.00) into the motherboard and use that as the source for external hard drives, scanners, etc.

Try these: Right Click on My Computer Go to Manage.. Go to storage – disk management A wizard should appear if the drive has never been connected to your machine. Follow the direction, selecting the drive not checked. If the wizard does not appear, Right click on Disk X (X being the drive that is unknown), select “Write Signature..” or “Initialize..”. Click OK. Right click on the unallocated disk Select Create Partion A wizard will appear Click next Select Primary Partion Select size of the partion (use the default value to use all of the drive) Specify drive letter (it is recommended to use the default) To format use: NTFS – if for use on Windows 2000 only. This is the only option if the drive is larger than 32 GB. FAT32 – if for use on both Windows 98/ME and Windows 2000/XP if the drive is less than 32 GB. Click finish When finished formatting (100%) exit the utility. Goodluck.