Recognized on device manager but does not show up in my computer as an active drive

It will only show USB devices that have been formatted. Have you tried going into the Computer Management, Disk Management to see if the usb drive is recognized? Can another windows PC recognize the USB drive?

You could check Computer Management > Disk Management. It should show up. If it does not a have drive letter it is not recognizing the format structure and sees it as new. I would test on a different system before committing to any changes.

If you have not used the external hard drive before, you will have to go into your drive management and initialize your drive and possibly format it. The fact that your computer recognizes it is a good sign. It means that the external drive is working properly and the computer recognizes that the external drive is there. I have an short paper I have written describing how to use the drive management utility in windows. It is too long to post here. I can either post part of it or you can give me your email and I will send it as a MS word attachment so you can have the entire paper.
I hope you find this helpful Brian
Here is the part I can post here:

Using Disk Management Utility

Disk management utility will help you see all the drives that are connected to your computer, including internal hard drives, CD or DVD Drives, and removable storage like USB sticks and external hard drives. Using this utility, you can check for attached drives that are not visible in windows when attached to your computer. You can also format drives, change drive letters, mark a partition as active and delete partitions. A word on caution about using the Disk Management Utility: This utility can cause destruction of data. If you are not sure of what you are looking at and uncomfortable with using this utility you should consult with an advanced user before making any changes to drives using this utility.

Right click on you "My Computer" Icon

A menu will open

Chose "Manage"

The Computer Management window will open

The Computer Management window is broken down into 3 sections. The first section on the left side of the window shows a menu. Disk Management is on the lower portion of the menu.

The right side is separated into two sections, top and bottom. The top portion shows a list of active drives on the computer. The lower portion shows all drives connected to the computer. CD or DVD drives that have not disk will not show as active drives on the top section, but can be seen in the lower section.

The lower section will show the drive description, drive size and drive condition (online or off line) in small box on the left side of that section. Disk drives will designate a "Drive" and a number. Drive 0 is usually your internal hard drive. Then it would list drive 1, drive 2, etc, depending on how many internal and external drive sources you have connected to your computer. Then it will list your CD drives and generally show their drive letter assignments.

Next to the smaller section described above, is a larger section which shows the driver letter, size of the driver and condition (if working correctly will show "healthy")

This is the area you can right click and get a menu that will allow you to open, explore, mark the partition as active, change the driver letter, format the drive or delete a partition. (A note of caution here. Changing the driver letter on your main hard drive partition will cause windows to stop functioning. The main hard drive, or hard drive partition, is normally given the letter "C".) A hard drive may show two or more partitions with separate drive letters designated for each partition.

A drive this is having a problem may show that it needs to be formatted (status as Unformatted). This can be done from this window. An external drive, whether it is a hard drive or CD/DVD drive, can have the letter designator change done if you want to organize your external drives. There are times when a drive will not show up because the drive letter that they are programmed to use are taken.

hello
at end of this instruction set, see link to review more questions/answers,as your issue with CD/DVD ROM will vary .


This document applies to HP and Compaq desktop computers with Windows XP, Me, and 98. Use this document to make Windows and the CD writing software recognize the CD or DVD writer drive. Start at Step 1; do not skip to other sections until Step 1 has been completed. Step 1: Does Windows detect the CD or DVD drive? Use Device Manager to determine if Windows is recognizing the drive:

1. In Windows XP, click Start , and right-click My Computer . In Windows 98 and Me, right-click the My Computer icon on the desktop.
2. In Windows XP, select Properties , click the Hardware tab, and then click the Device Manager button. In Windows 98 and Me, select Properties , and click the Device Manager tab.
3. Click the plus sign (+ ) next to DVD/CD-ROM Drives (or similar) category.
4. Do the following depending on what is listed in the DVD/CD-ROM drives category:
   • If the CD or DVD drive name is missing , the drive is not being detected by Windows. Close Device Manager and skip to the section CD or DVD drive is not recognized by Windows .
   • If a drive name is shown but is disabled (icon is marked with a red X, ), the drive has been disabled. Right-click the drive name and select Enable . You may have to restart the computer to complete the enabling process. The drive should work correctly once it has been enabled. NOTE: If the drive cannot be enabled, a required service or driver that the drive needs is not functioning or has been disabled. Click the plus sign next to IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers and troubleshoot any problems found according to any error codes in Device Manager. Resetting the BIOS may also resolve this problem.
   • If a drive name is shown but contains an alert icon (an icon marked with an alert symbol, ), then use the section Using Device Manager error codes to troubleshoot the problem. You may also use the next section Disc burning software does not recognize the original drive to reset the drive configuration.
   • If the CD or DVD drive is listed as normal but your disc burning software does not recognize the drive, Device Manager shows no special icons . Windows is detecting the drive but the writing software does not. Leave Device Manager open and continue with the next section Disc burning software does not recognize the original drive .

here is a link that will give you several other questions and answers to CD/DVD ROM issues.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/documentSubCategory?tmp_rule=11843&tmp_task=solveCategory&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=ca&lang=en&product=443069

please rate me with 4 thumbs UP to keep my services active

Dear Sir,madam
You have to do some steps about fixing this problem :
1: Go to Device manager by right click on my computer then manage and then device manager.
2: Go to universal serial bus controller and export it.
3: in each USB root hub right click and then properties.
4: In properties screen select power management tab and unmark on " allow the computer to turn off this device to save power ".
5: After finishing this steps in each USB root hun restart your computer and then done

Win 2k, XP, Vista, and Win7 have a CONTROL PANEL applet called Administrative Tools - opening that there is a sub applet called Computer Management - and openint that there is another sub applet called Disk Management. In Disk Management you will usually find all of your drives (including those that don't show up in Windows Explorer). A new drive will probably be listed as drive 1 or something like that and shown as UNALLOCATED space. Right click that drive (my best advice on how to be sure its the right drive is to know the drive size .. ie 500 gb or 750 gb etc AND seeing that it is inactive) to activate it and to partition and format it.

heyy..

go to disk management, and make it active and assign it a letter.

this shld work

if it doesnt show in disk management also then lemme know

Try going to Disk Management and see if they show up there.

1. Click Start
2. Right Click My Computer
3. Click Manage
4. Click Disk Management

If your computer is recognizing a mass storage device they should show up in disk management and you can just assign them a drive letter.

Go to your control panel open up 'administrative tools' Open Computer management, then choose disc management instead of device manager. Make sure that you have the drives pluged in and connected before you do that. All connected drives formatted or not that are in working order should show up under disc management. If they are not showing up they are not compatable. Make sure that they are marked as active and format them if they need to be formatted. Do so by right clicking on the drive in the disc management window.

Hi, it is usual to drives not recognized if it is new and connected to the system. Now, try this one to make it active. Go to Control Panel, Performance and Maintenance, Administrative Tools, Computer Management.
Under Computer Management, expand Storage->Disk Management. On the results panel, Right Click the Volume(X:) then click Mark Partition as Active or click Reformat.

*I hope this fixes your problem. If you have problems, please drop me a comment and I'll gladly help you.