Can't see USB drives

[Bombadil]

I recently installed and made a full backup of my system using DriveImage XML. I also built bootable CD's using both BartPE and UBCD4WIN and am able to boot with both CD's.

My problem after booting with either disc is that I do not see any of my two USB (external) drives. One is a Seagate Freeagent (NTFS) (250GB) on which the DriveImage XML file was backed up. The other drive is a Buffalo MiniStation (FAT32) (320GB) drive with hardware encryption.

Even when I use BartPE's file mgr., A43 the USB drives still don't show up. I can see my internal (SATA) hard drive and my DVD and CD drives. Also, I can see the unencrypted portion of the Buffalo drive.

PC: Dell Dimension
CPU: 3GHz
Mem: 3GB
Internal Hard Drive: Seagate SATA, 160 GB

I would greatly appreciate any suggestion anyone might have on this issue.

Thanks.

Sam



________________________________________

this thread moved here from the Drive Imaging review page

[Mike Connor]

I don't know whether you got this sorted out, but just in case you didn't, here are a few points.

When you build various system CD's then you must have your USB devices connected and powered up, as some systems simply will not find them otherwise. They must be accessible to the machine when you commence the build.

Various Linux variants and proprietary systems will only recognise devices when they are connected to the machine in question, and running, when the system is installed.

In a few cases I have had USB devices which were not supported ( often due to the reason given above), block a system ( i.e. Prevent a boot, or "hang" the machine). Turning off such a device usually unblocks the system, but of course the device can not be addressed if it is turned off!

Just because Windows can address a device does not automatically mean that other systems from boot CD's will be able to!

Also, a couple of systems will not automatically re-mount a device if you turn it off ( or disconnect it), and then turn it on again.

Lastly, although Windows allows "Hot Plugging", ( means you can remove a USB device while the system is running), other systems don't, and if you try this while the device is in operation, then you will lose data!!!

Make sure all operations are complete ( and if necessary cache buffers flushed) BEFORE you turn off or disconnect USB devices.

The icon which shows in the Windows tray ( if it is enabled), which when clicked allows you to "Safely Remove Hardware", closes any pending operations and flushes the buffers so that you can remove the hardware without losing data.

If you remove a device without clicking on this icon first, so that Windows knows you are going to remove it, then you may corrupt the data on your disc. This will not cause any physical damage to such devices under normal circumstances, but it can render a disc image etc completely useless!

Other systems do not have such a "Warning and information" capability, so you simply have to wait and ensure all operations are complete before you remove the device.

Lastly, there are some systems that will not recognise external drives. There is nothing you can do about it, unless you can find drivers for the system concerned and install them on your boot disc.

EDIT: If you can not see the Windows icon to "Safely Remove Hardware", but you have USB devices connected and running, then you can force the "Safely Remove Hardware" dialog to show by going to "Start" "Run", and then typing, ( or copy and pasting of course!), the following;

RunDll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL hotplug.dll

This will display the dialog box;



Regards.....

Mike Connor

[johnebadbak]

also if the drives are external SATA2usb windows some time won't initialize the drive. Enter disk management you may find the drive listed but not activated.you can reactivate the drive to come on line.
I use Bartpe and don't have any problem with usb devices. and i use nortons Ghost for my image of the system drive.

[wdhpr]

My problem after booting with either disc is that I do not see any of my two USB (external) drives. One is a Seagate Freeagent (NTFS) (250GB) on which the DriveImage XML file was backed up. The other drive is a Buffalo MiniStation (FAT32) (320GB) drive with hardware encryption.

I will try and take a stab at this problem.

If understand you correctly. You made a image of your system using driveImage XML.
Question: Was your USB external drives connected at the time you created your bootable CD's?

You may have to remake your boot CD's with the external drives mounted.

Also, like in the case of my computer I had to edit my bios to include USB devices in my boot sequences. To access my Bios I have to tap the F2 key during startup. Then I would go to advanced options to include my USB /removable devices in the boot sequence.

I realize Mike covered much of this in his post but I thought that another way of looking at this issue may help.

Cheers
Wdhpr