My DEll PC runnig XP SP3 cannot

You should try mounting the hard disk internally since any external HDD is actually a normal HDD in a SATA to USB enclosure. If that doesn't work , you should try finding recovery experts in your area but that might be expensive!

BUFFALO TOOLS Buffalo Tools is a feature-rich suite of optional software included on many Buffalo Drive-Station and Mini Station storage products. Any or all of the following components of Buffalo Tools may be installed on Windows PCs.
Buffalo's Backup Utility is an easy-to-use and fully featured backup software for Windows PCs and can be used to back up one or multiple computers with a single Buffalo external hard drive.ECO Manager is an energy efficiency tool used to conserve energy and reduce battery consumption by regulating the power usage of the hard drive, cutting power to the drive during extended periods of inactivity.RAMDISK is a simple utility that allows you to create a RAM disk on your Windows PC which creates a small, but extremely fast environment to work on files in.SecureLock software for Windows provides complete control of the data encryption on your Buffalo external hard drive, providing password protection and software data encryption.

Only basic external hard drive functionality is supported with this operating system; some included utilities may not work. The HDD default format is NTFS; to work with Mac, reformat the HDD using Mac Disk Utility.

I would plug it into a windows 7 or Vista and the computer's USB. The computer should recognize it. Click start then computer and find the icon for your drive and right click your Icon. In the drop-down window look for 'format' and that should help you format your drive. is a feature-rich suite of optional software included on many Buffalo Drive-Station and Mini Station storage products. Any or all of the following components of Buffalo Tools may be installed on Windows PCs.Buffalo's Backup Utility is an easy-to-use and fully featured backup software for Windows PCs and can be used to back up one or multiple computers with a single Buffalo external hard drive.ECO Manager is an energy efficiency tool used to conserve energy and reduce battery consumption by regulating the power usage of the hard drive, cutting power to the drive during extended periods of inactivity.RAMDISK is a simple utility that allows you to create a RAM disk on your Windows PC which creates a small, but extremely fast environment to work on files in.SecureLock software for Windows provides complete control of the data encryption on your Buffalo external hard drive, providing password protection and software data encryption.

Only basic external hard drive functionality is supported with this operating system; some included utilities may not work. The HDD default format is NTFS; to work with Mac, reformat the HDD using Mac Disk Utility.

I would plug it into a windows 7 or Vista and the computer's USB. The computer should recognize it. Click start then computer and find the icon for your drive and right click your Icon. In the drop-down window look for 'format' and that should help you format your drive.

click start control panel administrate tools computer management disk management right click on your drive select properties click tools you should see click check now click start two boxes

automatically fix files and scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors place then a tick in one box then select check now start then after its finished return and tick the other box you should not

do anything while the chkdsk utility is in progress any input may damage this drive
i have found the best results ticking in one box the returning after it has finished then ticking the other box

it might take some time depending on the size of your disk but be patient

hope it helps

If the Buffalo had been formatted on a MAC their file format is HPFS and is not compatible with Windows. To be able to exchange data between the Mac and Windows the Buffalo external drive needs to be formatted on Windows XP in FAT 32 (not NTFS). Then the Mac can read and write data on this external drive as well as Windows XP.

it is a PNP (PlugNplay) device. Try using a different cable to connect to your pc. Should the problem remain, hook it up to a different computer and if it doesn't see the drive, it will be an electronic circuit failure inside the box. The data is still on the hhd but you will have to obtain a new circuit to bring the hhd back online for use.

Hi ,
Try this : http://www.geckoandfly.com/3163/crashed-hard-drive-hard-disk-data-recovery-software-tools-and-service/
Regards .

Hello,

If your external HD works with other notebooks then the XP SP3 operating system may cause that problem. There may be a driver conflict.

To solve that you should change the drive letter name of your external hard disk. To be able to change the drive letter of it, you can install and run the "Tweak UI" software which is downloadable from the windows website. To download Tweak UI software for windows XP, please click here.

1. After installing and running the Tweak UI you will see the screen below.




You can access your system settings using this tool such as disk drives, and you will be able to change the current settings.
Be careful not to change the other settings.

2. Click on "My Computer > Drive" as shown in the picture below.

And assign another drive letter to your external hard disk (for example checking drive letter F:) and click button "Apply".


3. Then restart your computer to see if it works.


This is one of the solutions that I did before. Your problem may need different solution. This is possible then you can ask again. Fixya experts solve every problem.

But I hope this helps.
If you would like to vote for the answer, this will help the others to see the similar problems solved and also will be a satisfaction factor for me to continue helping you.
All the best.

If you're using windows XP then go to start > control panel > administrative tools > computer management > disk management. See if the disk is showing up there but hasn't been allocated a drive letter, if it hasn't then right click on that drive and press "assign drive letter". Be sure to do it to the right one, you could quite easily change another drive's letter by accident otherwise.

When the drive is not recognized, try going to start->control panel->administrative tools->computer management->disk management and see if the drive is recognized by it, if so try assigning a drive letter then exploring it

uninstall sp3,
take hdd to another machine,
recover the files and programes you want to save,
back them up on disk,ie,external drive or dvd data stores 4.7b gb per disk,
format start again and only load xp sp2.
Xp sp3 has bug fixes apparantly,lol
why fix some thing if its not broken I say.