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I have a problem with an external hard drive that has some movies on it. My PVR can access it and play movies from it, however my Windows XP computer does not see it when I plug it into a USB port, and is continually trying to recognize the drive without avail.

Would anyone have any suggestion please? I want to transfer the movies off it and send it back fir a warranty replacement.

Thanks

asked Oct 23 '12 at 17:04

sharpei's gravatar image

sharpei
1111

edited Oct 23 '12 at 22:12

TheTechDude's gravatar image

TheTechDude
16.8k4094298


What make is your PVR? Probably down to the file format on the External drive...

answered Oct 23 '12 at 17:07

cmacrae's gravatar image

cmacrae
26126

It is definitely a file format which Windows XP can read? FAT, FAT 32 or NTFS?

I've had this issue with Windows XP before, but that hard drive has worked perfectly when I've plugged it into a Mac or Linux computer. It's to do with the way XP tries to initialise hard drives, like a happy puppy excited to have something plugged in, but it's still probably something wrong with the hard drive.

I've used an admin tool XP has called "Disk Management" this to help me before, this will at least tell you if the hard drive is broken, corrupted or XP just can't read it. I could list all the steps but quicker to read them here:

http://www.hgst.com/support/external-drives-faq/my-external-hard-drive-is-not-recognized-by-my-computer

If this doesn't work, then try using a friends Mac, and then if that doesn't work I'm afriad there's little hope.

Hope this helps! Let me know if I can help further.

answered Oct 23 '12 at 17:10

Thomas%20Crabtree's gravatar image

Thomas Crabtree
162

edited Oct 23 '12 at 17:15

Thanks for you quick response guys. Perhaps I should have given a little history in my question - until recently the HD was able to be read and written to on both XP and mac, which is how we were loading the movies onto it. Then it went through a phase where it mostly worked, but sometimes didn't, then to mostly not until now it doesn't. How come the PVR can read it still and not XP? I will try the disk management tool when I get back from work tonight. My PVR is a Beyonwiz. Thanks again and I'll let you know the outcome.

answered Oct 23 '12 at 18:05

sharpei's gravatar image

sharpei
1111

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Asked: Oct 23 '12 at 17:04

Seen: 432 times

Last updated: Oct 23 '12 at 22:12