Vista not detecting external Western Digital Hard Drive

[LavRaj]

I have a Vista system. I bought a new Western Digital external hard drive. When I connect it through usb port it remains un-detected. I checked in Device Manager and found that there is no usb mass storage driver listed. That is the only thing through which this external usb devices are basically detected. Where can I find appropriate usb drivers for Vista. I am a bit confused to locate the same. Thanks.

[Toby-Martin]

Check for Windows Update. You might be able to find proper drivers through that. You can also check the same on Western Digital site also. I am using a Maxtore drive. This works well with XP, but it took some time to install the same on Windows Vista. I found some driver updates on it official website and after adding that things went back to normal. XP does not has any issue related to driver updates. It is much easier to install.

[EltonJ]

Afte upgrade I too face the same kind of problem. Later on I had updated my motherboard drivers and thing went to back to fine. After Vista upgrade whenever I connect my drive I get a blue screen error. I was fedup with the same. Later on I searched for some Vista compatible chipset driver and was able to find it. It started working. Your system is not having proper drivers due to which you are getting that error.

[alx6]

Hi, useless message I know, but I have the same problem...

Vista Ultimate OEM (all legit and paid for with hard earned money...), everything up to date... At first my external USB2 harddrive worked like a charm (it's a LaCie Brick) but now Vista always asks for drivers.

Same problem with my IPod :/

All work fine under XP or MacOSX...

[alx6]

Hi again, replying to myself... Posting this in case people stumble on this thread while looking for information on this damn external USB drive / iPod problem with Vista...

After trying everything listed here I found a more complete solution and it's now working 100% :)

Turns out it *was* a corrupted driver database problem, but deleting the infamouse infcache file was not enough.

I just unplugged all USB drives, deleted all the files mentionned in the link, rebooted, plugged again, when vista asked for drivers I pointed it to c:\windows\system32 and this time it worked! I only add to do it once per peripheral. The whole hardware process seemed faster and less sluggish too, I guess cleaning this driver database really helped. It didn't do a thing to my other otherwise functionning peripherals too, so it doesn't seem dangerous.

Here's the link to the instructions on how to totally delete the driver database :

http://forums.logitech.com/rss/messa...essage.id=3755


If you're desesperate like I was, try it, it worked for me ;)

(also no need to boot on install CD to delete the files... just use the same method as explained for infcache : right click, properties, security, and change permissions so that user as total access)


Enjoy Vista USB freedom!!!

(yeah I'm really happy after spending hours rebooting...)

HTH

[Fajardo]

I had bought Windows Vista Ultimate Edition. It was installed fine but due some problem I was facing issue with installation of my printer and a external hard drive. So later on I downloaded some older XP drivers and installed them on compatibility mode. It worked.