Laptop is not detecting new Hitachi x500 external hard drive

A Hitachi USB external hard drive is a device that acts as portable, removable storage for your personal computer. If you need additional space to house files on your computer but don't want to go to the trouble of installing an internal drive inside the case, a USB external hard drive is your best option. These drives are "plug and play" devices, which means that very little can actually go wrong. If you're having problems, fixing them shouldn't take more than a minute or two.

Check your connections. A USB cable needs to be connecting your Hitachi external hard drive to your computer. Your external hard drive's power cable also needs to be plugged into a functional wall outlet, surge protector, extension cord or power strip. Make sure your Hitachi USB external hard drive is turned to "On." An "On/Off" button is present on the front of the unit. If the indicator light around said button is not illuminated, the drive is "Off" and your computer won't be able to recognize it. Press it to turn it on and then try to access your drive again. Format your hard drive. If your Hitachi USB external hard drive doesn't currently have a file system on it, you won't be able to use it to store data. Open up the "Computer" icon in the "Start" menu. Right-click on your USB external hard drive's icon and click "Format." Click "Start." This will install a file system on your Hitachi USB external hard drive. After this process is finished, you will now be able to use your drive. Restart your computer. Certain models of computers (especially older models) won't recognize new hardware unless your computer boots with the hardware already connected. Leave your USB drive plugged in and restart your computer. Once you do this, your Hitachi USB external hard drive should appear as normal in the "Computer" folder with all of your other drives. Hope this helps.

You cannot take a hard drive out of your faulty HP laptop and insert it into any laptop and expect it to run/boot up. When Windows is installed on a laptop, it is configured with device drivers for that particular laptop and it wont work in another laptop with different devices.
Replace the Dell's hard drive back into its laptop and the Dell should function normally.
To recover data off the SATA Hitachi hard drive, connect this hard drive into an USB hard drive adapter and then plug this adapter with the Hitachi hard drive into the USB port of your Dell. The Dell will detect the Hitachi as an external Mass storage device. You can then open the various folders and files to back up your data onto the Dell laptop or USB memory stick.
If you want to, you can use the Hitachi hard disk as an USB external hard drive by installing it into an USB SATA hard drive enclosure.

if it is clicking or not whirring it is broken if not go to control panel,system,disk management the see if you see it there and format it to NTFS hope this helps =]!

First make sure usb cable connected to harddrive is working fine. try it in different usb ports. Press windows key +R key so you can see run then type in run "devmgmt.msc" then press ok so you can see device manager uninstall all usb drivers then it automatic install usb drivers. then check. Also you need to change registry for that type in run "regedit" then press ok then you can see registry editor then locate below key. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11 CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} And remove upper filter and lower filter.Then restart computer then check. Also locate the below key and make sure it's value is 3 not 4. HKLM\system\currentcontrolset\services\usbstor make sure start value is 3 not 4. Let me know if you need further assistance. Thanks for using FixYa

i have a Hitachi external USB hard disk 320 GB it was working fine at may laptop but when i tried using it with the computer ; the windows cannot detect the USB Drive . i tried it with 2 computer . but its still the same .pleas help i badly need my files

just go this link and you will get all what you want

http://www.pcworld.in/product/review/hitachi-x500-mobile-drive-500gb-19272010

Hi there
I dont know if this will work for you but looking on the web I came accross someone who had a similar problem they fixed it as follows.
They installed Tweak UI and then
She was able to get the drive recognized using "Tweak UI", clicking on My Computer, Drives,and check marking Drive F. It did the trick.
Hope this helps software link for you


http://www.annoyances.org/exec/show/tweakui

I'm not that expert with external hard drives , but you maybe find some usefull infos here : http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4853023&csid=ITD&body=QA#tabs
Please rate if you found it usefull !

the external hard drive casing may need a driver for some operating systems

and then the unit must be in the on postion

XP install is not detecting any hard disk.
No jumpers are required for laptops, can only have one hard drive in a laptop.
Check the BIOS for the hard disk configuration, make sure that it is set on Auto (detect).
You may have a faulty hard disk, you can check it by booting up with a floppy DOS boot disk, run fdisk to see if it detects the hard disk, OR connect this hard drive to a USB hard disk adapter and connect it to a working computer's USB port and if it detects it as an external drive the it is OK.