# External USB hard drive not working **URL:** \ **Category:** Uncategorized\ **Created:** [April 18, 2006, 11:29am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/external-usb-hard-drive-not-working/186002 "2006-04-18T11:29:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ya3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e95f7d/32.png) [@ya3](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/ya3)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2006, 11:29am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/external-usb-hard-drive-not-working/186002/1 "2006-04-18T11:29:32Z")
I’ve got a USB 2.0 external HD enclosure with a 250gb WD drive in it. I plug it into my laptop, and it works fine. Windows XP detects a USB Mass Storage Device and mounts the drive. I formatted it from the Disk Management console and assigned a drive letter to it. Works perfectly. I plug it into my desktop, though, and it refuses to work. Sometimes it detects a “USB Mass Storage Device”, and other times it detects an “Other Device”, but it always says “An error occurred during install and it may be unusable”. The device has a yellow exclamation mark in the Device Manager, and it shows a “Code 10 - This device cannot start”. I’ve tried plugging it into every available USB port, but the same thing happens. I even tried deleting all my USB devices (USB Root Hub, Controller, etc, etc) and reinstalling the drivers, but the same thing still happens. After Googling, the only answer that could be offered was that the USB port wasn’t providing enough power for the device, and therefore it cannot start. This **can’t** be the case with mine, since it uses a separate 240V power adaptor. I’m lost… Can anyone help? ---
**Author:** ![Maxtr0sity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maxtr0sity](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/Maxtr0sity)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2006, 12:10pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/external-usb-hard-drive-not-working/186002/2 "2006-04-18T12:10:15Z")
Double check that your desktop is USB2 compatible, if it’s only 1 or 1.1, it may give you problems. Also try reinstalling USB drivers for the desktop. ---
**Author:** ![ya3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e95f7d/32.png) [@ya3](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/ya3)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2006, 12:26pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/external-usb-hard-drive-not-working/186002/3 "2006-04-18T12:26:35Z")
It’s actually the other way around. My laptop doesn’t have USB 2.0, but my desktop does. My mobo doesn’t come with drivers. On the CD, it’s just got a Word document which says “upgrade to XP SP1 or newer and USB will be automatically installed by Windows”. I’ve got SP2. The mobo’s an Abit AN8-V. ---
**Author:** ![Maxtr0sity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maxtr0sity](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/Maxtr0sity)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2006, 6:07pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/external-usb-hard-drive-not-working/186002/4 "2006-04-18T18:07:32Z")
So what I’m understanding is your laptop has USB1, desktop USB2. Your external works on on the laptop but not on desktop. My first instinct would be to say something with the formatting w/ USB1, but that doesn’t make sense because USB is just a transfer protocool. If anything, I’d say contact the makers of the external case, if that comes up dead, check to see if it works on other USB2 desktop/laptops.