Cant get it to work

Hi Dan,

Perhaps you should start with reading this Problems with SimpleTech eHow It may not be of much help.

In what way doesn't it 'respond to your computer' ? Presumably you are using an MS Windows O/S, not an Apple ? You don't say. Presumably it is not showing up in Windows File Explorer/File Manager ? Again you don't say. Try using another (different) USB port(socket) on your computer. Try using the disk on another computer to tell you whether it's the disk or your PC.

Assuming it's your PC, and that hasn't worked, enter the DiskManagement utility. You should see your system disk (boot disk) and possibly the external disk as well. Right click on the SimpleDrive disk, and select 'Delete Partition' if appropriate, else go straight to 'new Partition'. I am going to tell you to reformat your disk. You will lose any data that it contains (now is a good time to remind you to ALWAYS keep BACK-UPs of your data). DO NOT REFORMAT YOUR SYSTEM DISK. Select ' New Partition' if you want to proceed with this operation, and follow the instructions, selecting the appropriate letter to assign to the disk. After about 1hr assuming USB 2, it will finish. The disk should now be visible in File Explorer.
You might also try, ensuring you have only this disk connected to your PC on the USB system (I'm assuming that is how you're connecting the disk to your computer, you don't say), entering DeviceManager, and going to USB Devices, expanding that entry. Now double click on the entry which says 'Mass Storage', and click the button which says 'Uninstall Drivers' (you may have to click the drivers tab to see this button). It will ask you if you are sure, click yes. After it has done this, disconnect the drive and reboot your computer. Now plug your drive into your PC by the USB port again; hopefully it say towards the bottom right ;new hardware found', 'installing drivers for your new hardware', and finally 'your new hardware is installed and ready to use'.
10.April.2014

You can find manuals and drivers at the Asus site >> www.asus.com But in the position you are now and your computer wont start try do this
Start it at safe mode pressing and holding the F8 key while booting. Use your original Windows XP pro CD to repair/restore your windows installation
Just follow the onscreen instructions.
If that wont work you may need a technician to remove your had disk, take copies of any usefull data you may have on it, reformat your hard disk and make a new windows installation.
Try to upgrade to windows Vista.

If the disk-drive has "failed", then it must be replaced:
* turn the computer off
* disconnect the AC power
* remove the side-panel(s)
* remove the cables (data & power) that connect to the disk-drive
* remove the screws that hold the disk-drive in the frame
* remove the disk-drive
* take it to a computer-store
* show it to them, and they will sell you a compatible disk-drive
* reverse all the above "remove" steps to connect the new disk-drive
* turn the computer on
* insert the "System Restore" CD/DVD disk that came with your computer
* Windows will be installed onto the new disk-drive
* run Windows Update, several times, to get all the latest security-updates for Windows
* install free anti-virus software: http://www.Microsoft.com/security_essentials

However, it's possible that your disk-drive is still working, and all your "data" files on the disk-drive can be "rescued", even through Windows is not starting-up completely & properly.
Take your computer to a qualified technician, for trouble-shooting & repair.

Assuming you mean the product key for Windows, the product key should be on a sticker, usually on the bottom of the laptop. It is probably 25 digits mixed numbers and letters. You should have the disk it came with to install it - sometimes the product key will work with a disk from a different computer, but if the setup disk and your key are different versions it will not work. An example: If you do not have the original setup disk your computer came with, and your computer has XP home and you borrow a disk from someone but it is XP Pro, your number will not work. If your original disk was for XP home and it was with SP-2, (SP = Service Pack) a disk without SP-2 will not work. Plus, the original disk(s) usually came with the drivers you will need to reinstall Windows. You would be pretty lucky to install Windows and not need to download drivers to finish installation. Original setup disks from the manufacturer are not that expensive, and save a lot of time and frustration.

It sounds like you *might* be trying to upgrade your OS from an earlier version of Windows. If this is the case, you should first consult the chart below to determine if you can do so. Pay particular attention to 32 bit and 64 bit versions of both the original and new software versions.



If you're not in a valid upgrade path, you'll have to back up your disk and determine the best way to proceed. If there' nothing you need on the disk - or it is already backed up, and / or you'd like to start with a "fresh" Windows 7 installation, you could simply boot from the DVD and install as new. Do the a quick format of the hard disk, when prompted to completely remove the contents of the disk and install as new. If you do this, all the old data will be lost. This is probably ideal, but if you need the applications & data on the disk already, an upgrade is the way to go. Unfortunately, the upgrade path will be "custom" which can be a bit time consuming and challenging if you're not very computer savvy.

If you are indeed in a valid upgrade path, you might be having a problem with the Windows 7 media itself. You might want to see if the disk is readable on another machine & take corrective action.

Good luck!

Yes. The disks return it to new unused state.

How are (were) you trying to repair? And why? The answers to these questions would have helped, but if you selected "repair" from the menu on the XP disk you will probably have little luck. I suggest (assuming you are using an original setup disk) putting the setup disk in the drive, and reboot. Select new installation, and format drive, and it should work. All this also assumes you have a backup of your data! If you do not have a backup, you just learned an expensive lesson. It can usually be copied from the drive, but it takes time, special adapters and software to do this. I hope this helps.

Unplug the hard disk and put it into an external USB disk case.

Now just plug the disk into any other computer.

If you have Windows encrypted data on the hard disk, it's more difficult: the new computer will not be able to read the data.

Start by doing an exact copy on another disk, just in case. Then you can try swapping the COPIED disk with that of a working computer, the more like a 310XL the better, and do a "OS repair install". This will safekeep user data, identity and crypto keys, and allow access to the data. If it goes wrong, you only screwed a copied disk, not the original, and can retry regenerating the copy and maybe virtualizing it with QEMU or VMware.

I will assume that you have not stolen the computer.

Remove the disk-drive, and connect it to another computer.

Copy all your data-files to the other computer, and burn CD/DVD disks,
to make a backup of your files.

Reconnect the disk-drive into the HP.

Take the original "system restore" CD-ROMs, and reinstall Windows, to return it to "factory-fresh" condition.

Reload your data files from the CDs/DVDs.

Set up your old drive as a slave and copy the data. Good luck.