USB to external SATA drive problem
 

Ok folks. I could use some help here. I'm feeling like a bit of a tech idiot.

I bought a Rosewill external dock that allows you mount any SATA drive up to 2TB and connect it to your system via USB 2.0. At the same time, I bought a 1TB Samsung 3.5" SATA drive. They were actually bundled together from NewEgg.

So, everything is supposed to be plug and play. I powered the dock, plugged it to USB and docked the drive. The computer says, USB mass storage device found, then Samsung (some model number) found, and finally your hardware is ready to use. All familiar, all ready to go, right?

Yeah, except... there is no drive in My Computer, File Explorer, nothing. It is like the drive is mounted, but it isn't. I can't get to it, can't use it.

What am I missing? Something to do with assigning a drive letter? Somebody out there has got to know the answer to this.

Oh, and I did try the drive in another USB external enclosure to the same result.

Look for an option to format it. Go to Disk Management, see if it finds anything.

Like biz said, go to disk management. In xp it is in control panel under administrative tools. Go to computer management. At the bottom of the left toolbar, you will see disk management. See if there is any disk drives without drive letters. Sometimes windows gets confused about what letter the drive should be, especially if you have a internal card reader.

Bingo! That's got it guys. Thanks so much for your help.

Late last night, I was thinking that it might be something to do with the new HD not being formatted. I'm glad to learn that can be accomplished via USB connection.

Thanks again!

Yeah that drive letter problem happens all the damn time at work. It can get REALLY messy if the person has 3 different thumb drives.