Problems with Brand-new
External Drives
A brief note on certain words used in these pages:
When I say "External Drive" or "Drive" - I am referring to the entire device - that is,
(a) a metal or plastic enclosure, which will have some sockets for connecting USB and/or Ethernet cables, and possibly a socket for a mains electrical power supply (or adapter)
(b) inside the enclosure is a circuit board (which amongst other things will contain a computer "chip" or similar, which holds the "firmware" for the device)
(c) also inside the enclosure is a Hard Disk Drive.
When I refer to the Hard Disk Drive contained inside the enclosure, I shall either use "HDD" or "HArd Disk Drive" - so as not to confuse it with "Drive" (see above).
When I mention "Operating System", I am refering to the operating system which makes your computer work - this will most probably be Microsoft Windows, of which there are numerous versions, ranging from Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME (or Millenium Edition), Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Vista. (Windows NT is not dealt with in these pages but some of the content may be relevant to that system). Apple MAC systems are not covered - sorry - I have no knowledge of that system whatsoever. Linux is only fleetingly referred to - not, of course, because Linux is in any way less important than Windows systems but rather because, although I am an enthusiastic user of Linux systems, I am very much a novice in that area and slef-help for Linux users is very widely available on the Web from others much more knowldgeable than I. Other operating systems are not covered at all.
Now that we've got those basics out of the way:
Where the drive is absolutely brand-new, yet fails to work on first connection to your PC, there are a number of possible causes:
1) Your drive may not be obtaining any, or sufficient power
2) The physical connection to your PC may not be securely or correctly made
3) Your operating system may be preventing a satisfactory connection
4) Your drive may be incompatible with your PCs hardware or software
5) You may not have correctly performed the installation procedures
6) The installation CD (if one was supplied with your drive) may contain out-dated software, drivers or installation procedures
7) The drive may be faulty.
A word of caution - quality control in most electronic equipment suppliers is now so good that it is very rare for a drive to be faulty on arrival. So don't jump immediately to the conclsuion that the drive is indeed faulty - chances are the problem lies elsewhere in the above list.
Work through each of the possible causes as follows:
1) Power - many drives are intended to operate on USB power - but don't! In theory, the USB cable which connects your drive to your computer should be capable of drawing sufficient power from your PC to run the drive. For a number of reasons, that often does not happen: - your PCs USB ports may not be "powered" ports (often the case with PCs older than, say , 3 years); your PC may be configured to not supply power to all, or certain, USB ports; you may have too many USB devices connected to your PC, already drawing too much power; you may be using an older type of USB cable, not capable of carrying sufficient power - there can be many reasons why a drive is unable to obtain any, or sufficient, power via the USB cable. Also, if you are using the drive via an ethernet connection, an adapter is essential. Solution - connect the drive to an appropriate electrical mains power supply adapter. These are not generally issued by Freecom with USB-only drives but, if you email Freecom (at Supportuk@freecom.com for UK users) they may provide you, free of charge, with a suitable adapter for your model of drive.
2) Connection to PC - double check that the connection between your drive and your PC is properly made. Loose connections are easily possible, even with modern USB and Ethernet connectors. USB connectors can be accidentally inserted upside-down, although it is pretty difficult to do this accidentally without noticing! Check also that the cable you are using is operational - if possible, try a different cable. With ethernet connection, be sure to use the correct type of cable - cross wired cables generally won't work on direct- to- PC connections, while straight-through cables won't egnerally work when connected to routers and hubs.
3) Operating System - this can very often be the cause of drive connection difficulties. Problem is that modern operating systems are so complex it can be extremely difficult to identify where the problem lies. My best advice is, try the drive on another PC and, if that fails, check all the other points on this list, before tunring to hunting through the operating system! Note that Windows Vista presently offers particular challenges when connecting any hardware which has not yet been authorised by Microsoft as compatible with Vista!
4) Compatibility - very much one of the most frequent causes! First - does the specification of your drive actually state that it definitely works with your version of operating system? You'd be amazed at how many folk buy a drive which says it is "compatible with Windows XP", yet expect it to work with other versions of Windows (whether newer or older versions!). If it does not specifically say in the specification of your drive that it works with your current version of Windows, don't expect to be able to connect it! You might be lucky - but you more probably will not be! If possible, send the drive back and ask to exchange it for a drive which IS compatible with your operating system! Be nice when you ask for an exchange - after all - you chose the wrong device! Then there's incompatibility with either software or hardware already installed in your PC. That one is much harder to detect and can take hours of uninstalling/reinstalling software/hardware until you find the culprit. Regrettably, there are few shortcuts, although it's always best to start with the more obscure, or older, bits of software/hardware you've got - that approach can sometimes be a bit quicker. But, again, a better solution is often to just accept that the drive can't be easily made to co-exist with something on your PC and you should swop it, if possible, for a drive which can happily co-exist.. One final comment - if you have installed Freecom's Personal Media Suite, read the comments I offer at para (6) below!
5) Installation procedures - still a very common cause of malfunctioning devices - surprising 'cos you'd have thought by now that everyone would have got the idea of how important it is to READ THE MANUAL before starting installation! But it still happens frequently - happy computer user dashes home with their new purchase and, rather than do the boring bit of reading the manual, decide it's straightforward - just plug it in and all will be well........When that approach fails, they THEN decide to read the manual and follow the installation procedure but - by that stage - the damage is already done, and following the procedures religiously at that point is unlikely to undo the damage already created - with the result that the damn thing still doesn't work - cue lots of swearing, frustration - in extreme cases, hurling of device against walls, etc. Ok - we've all done it - myself included. And there's no point preaching about it here 'cos, by the time you are reading this, you already know you shouldn't have and really want to know how to sort it! Starting point is to try to get your PC back to the stage it was at before you tried the installation. So, you need to disconnect the drive. Then turn your PC completely off, then turn it back on again. Log in (with administrator rights if using Windows 2000 or newer) and set a System restore point (check Windows Help function for details of how to do that). then go to Start button/Control Panel/System/Hardware Manager and check for ether any entries with a yellow exclamation mark, or any entries which, judging by the name, can only belong to the drive you tried to install. Right click on these and remove them. Then go to Control Panel/Add Remove software and remove any software which was installed when you ran the installation CD (you can skip this step if you did not use an installation CD or did not previously load any software relating to the drive). (Note you may not find any software under Add Remove, nor any relevant or "exclamation marked" entries in the Hardware Manager). Then turn the whole PC off again, then log back on. Note that the System Restore point you earlier made was in case you accidentally deleted something in Hardware Manager or Add remove Software and need to recover it. If all was well with those deletions, make another System Restore point now, in case your next attempt at installation creates problems. Now, after having carefully read the installation procedures, try following them to the letter (usually best done by printing the instructions out and ticking them off as you go).
6) Out of Date Installation CD - In my experience, it's a very rare occurrence that a supplied Installation CD is faulty but it has happened! At this point I should mention that, with most (but not all) Freecom's external drives, there is no need for any installation CD - in the case of most models of Freecom's external drives, the necessary drivers are already built-in to your operating system and, thanks to "Plug and Play", installation should be automatic and trouble-free. But, if your drive came with an installation CD and the installation procedures required you to use that CD during the install process, and the drive is still not working, there is a remote possibility that the contents of the CD could be faulty or outdated. For example, I understand that a number of Freecom drives may still be shipping with an outdated version of Personal Media Suite which apparently has some bug which sometimes prevents drives being connected/accessed. Strange though it may seem, Personal Media Suite is NOT required to be installed to make the drive operate - the drive will operate entirely satisfactorily without installing the Suite. Even more oddly is the fact that older versions of the Suite have been known to prevent drives from connecting.....So, make sure you have the latest Suite version (currently Version 2.5 is known to work with Windows XP and is downloadable from the Freecom website). It can be difficult to check your CD has the correct drivers, software, etc - if you suspect it has not, contact supportuk@freecom.com (for UK users) and explain the problem.
7) Still not working? - If after checking all the foregoing things you still can't get the drive to work, it looks like it could indeed be faulty. There's one final check worth making - try the drive on another PC - if you get the same result, definitely time to quit - get in touch with Freecom or the shop where you bought the drive and get a replacement. In the unlikely event you get an argument from tehm about replacement, you can at least impress them with the list of steps you took to check whetehr the drive was faulty!
A last word on Data Recovery
On the other external drive pages you'll find links to infoirmation on this site about how to recover data from a malfunctioning drive. Given that this page has focussed solely on brand-new, first-time connected, drives I have not commented on data recovery here. If you're interested, rummage through the external drives to find the links there.
The Techie from Sneckie
1 August 2007.