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Having trouble getting a USB External Hard Disk to work

Discussion in 'Techno-Magic' started by Beren, Jul 10, 2011.

  1. Beren

    Beren Lovesick and Lonely Wanderer Staff Member Member of the Week Distinguished Member ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    Ok, I bought a Verbatim 2tb USB 3.0 hard disk for my Acer M7720, which has USB 2.0, but 3.0 is supposed to be backwards compatible.

    But:

    1) Anytime I power on the external HDD and plug it into any USB slot, I get the Blue Screen of Death and then Windows reboots.

    2) A Flash Drive or anything else with USB will work fine.

    3) The Blue Screen of Death indicates that there's a problem with partmgr.sys.

    4) The OS is Windows Vista 64 bit, Premium Home Edition.

    Any idea what's causing this and what I can do about it?
     
  2. Blackthorne TA

    Blackthorne TA Master in his Own Mind Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    Normally, backwards compatibility means you can run an older version device on a newer driver, not a newer version device on an older driver. E.g. I would expect a USB 3.0 hub/driver to be able to have USB 2.0 peripherals hooked up to it, but not be able to hook up USB 3.0 peripherals to a USB 2.0 hub/driver.

    Did the documentation that came with the hard disk say you could hook it up to a USB 2.0 hub?
     
  3. Beren

    Beren Lovesick and Lonely Wanderer Staff Member Member of the Week Distinguished Member ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    Well, I'm formatting it from FAT32 to NTFS with my office computer right now, which has USB 2 ports and Windows, so I don't think that's the problem. Also, my home computer does recognize that its there, but that's when the Blue Screen crash occurs, right thereafter.
     
  4. Blackthorne TA

    Blackthorne TA Master in his Own Mind Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    Well, I don't see any definitive answer, but it appears some people had problems with Vista SP1 Is that what you're currently running?

    I've seen some claim that it's due to registry problems, but they're typically followed by adverts for registry cleaners...
     
  5. Beren

    Beren Lovesick and Lonely Wanderer Staff Member Member of the Week Distinguished Member ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    Maybe this is my queue to upgrade to Windows 7 then? :heh:

    Well, I can get it for $100 at the University bookstore since I'm a professor.
     
  6. Gaear

    Gaear ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful

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    Isn't the conventional wisdom to never buy OS upgrades and always get the full versions and start clean?
     
  7. Blackthorne TA

    Blackthorne TA Master in his Own Mind Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    You can start clean even if you buy the upgrade version.
     
  8. Beren

    Beren Lovesick and Lonely Wanderer Staff Member Member of the Week Distinguished Member ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    Vista SP 1 it was. Works like a charm with Win 7. Thanks BTA.
     
  9. Blackthorne TA

    Blackthorne TA Master in his Own Mind Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    Ah, good! Glad to be of help.
     
  10. Taza

    Taza Weird Modmaker Veteran

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    More likely it was just a damaged install of Vista.

    Still, fresh install fixes.
     
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