Results 1 to 4 of 4

Thread: USB external hdd will not initialize (find) at startup

  1. #1
    paabrown Guest

    USB external hdd will not initialize (find) at startup

    I have always had the above problem, from XP, XP Professional and now
    Vista Home Premium. Unplugging the drive and plugging it in again
    fixes the problem. This problem has occurred with 2 different laptops
    and a desktop, and with 3 different usb external disk drives. Just to
    further confuse the issue, over the last couple of weeks a usb hdd on
    the wife's laptop (Presario running XP Home) after being turned on for
    about an hour 'suddenly' recognises the hdd. Tried to find a solution
    on the web but have been unsuccessful. Can anyone help please?

  2. #2
    AlexB Guest

    Re: USB external hdd will not initialize (find) at startup

    Make sure there are such files in this folder:
    Directory of C:\Windows\Inf
    angelusb.inf angelusb.PNF
    irstusb.inf irstusb.PNF
    stusb2ir.inf stusb2ir.PNF
    usb.inf usb.PNF
    usbccid.inf usbccid.PNF
    usbcir.inf usbcir.PNF
    usbport.inf usbport.PNF
    usbprint.inf usbprint.PNF
    usbstor.inf usbstor.PNF
    usbvideo.inf usbvideo.PNF
    wceusbsh.inf wceusbsh.PNF
    wdma_usb.inf wdma_usb.PNF
    winusb.inf winusb.PNF
    26 File(s) 1,113,306 bytes
    3 Dir(s) 53,645,410,304 bytes free
    [usbhub]

    Make sure there are such drivers:
    Directory Windows\System32\drivers\
    usb8023.sys USBAUDIO.sys
    USBCAMD.sys USBCAMD2.sys
    usbccgp.sys usbcir.sys
    usbd.sys usbehci.sys
    usbhub.sys usbohci.sys
    usbport.sys usbprint.sys
    USBSTOR.SYS usbuhci.sys
    14 File(s) 857,472 bytes

    In one of my Vistas 6 files were missing in the first directory and one
    driver in second.

    Although I fixed that it did not resolve the story completely. I had this
    problem for many years in XP and then in Vista.

    What I ended up doing after a person from another forum suggested me to do
    was to purchase a Belkin Internal 5-Port USB PCI card. He purchased Belkin.
    I did not quite trust the maker but went for his pointer. It resolved the
    eissue completely. I removed a firewire PCI card in the back that I never
    used and plugged in Belkin. It isntalled itself and I've never had any
    problems since.

    This card and similar cards by other makers allow for the 5-th USB port to
    be engaged. It is not exposed to the elements. It faces the internals of the
    computer. However, if you have a floppy you do not need you can buy another
    External USB card (not PCI) and mount it up front ripping off the floppy
    drive. Thus you will have 8 fully functional USB ports and they will all
    work.

    I did it on 2 machines so far. I do not need to use the 5th, internal port.
    I now have plenty.

  3. #3
    RalfG Guest

    Re: USB external hdd will not initialize (find) at startup

    It seems to be a common problem with no real solution. A workaround is to
    turn the external USB drive off until after Windows has booted. On the
    occasions that the drive isn't recognized during boot up (unknown device is
    installed instead), I see in UVCview that the USB port the hard drive is
    connected to has failed to initialize properly and isn't working. The port
    resets to normal after turning off the harddrive or unplugging it from the
    USB port.

    It doesn't seem to matter which port the drive is plugged into, happens
    anywhere. I got the impression it happens more frequently if USB1.1 devices
    are connected to the same root hub.

  4. #4
    AlexB Guest

    Re: USB external hdd will not initialize (find) at startup

    I completely fixed it on two machines as I described in my post. A PCI USB
    card appears to be perfect.

    This is the reason why it happens.

    I think that onboard USB ports have some kind of power limit. It is not
    characteristic of old motherboards. I think the limitation is a recent
    renovation. Each USB port takes 0.5 A and perhaps even more if the device
    does not have internal PSU like some USB hubs do.

    When you do it via a PCI card, you relieve the rest of the machine. So far I
    haven't had any failures.

Similar Threads

  1. Replies: 3
    Last Post: 30-11-2010, 12:22 AM
  2. External USB Hard Disk Won't Initialize in XP/7
    By Kalav in forum Windows XP Support
    Replies: 5
    Last Post: 30-04-2010, 09:54 PM
  3. External USB HD won't initialize
    By abdulthekewl in forum Hardware Peripherals
    Replies: 9
    Last Post: 01-08-2009, 08:55 AM
  4. How Do i Find out What runs at startup
    By TAARIQ in forum Operating Systems
    Replies: 2
    Last Post: 20-06-2009, 10:20 PM
  5. Initialize USB external drive
    By kraal in forum Hardware Peripherals
    Replies: 3
    Last Post: 03-09-2008, 01:57 PM

Tags for this Thread

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  
Page generated in 1,711,637,497.42045 seconds with 17 queries