Geeky Computer Question
Published October 16th, 2006 in Misc StuffOk, answer this for me….
I’ve got an external 200Gb hard drive to back up my cartoon work and other important stuff on the inernal hard drive of my computer. First time I plugged the external drive in, it worked like a charm. Ever since then, when I turn it on it doesn’t so much ‘freeze’ my computer but just leaves it hanging. I’ve managed to get it to work one other time, but didn’t really do anything differently.
It’s a firewire connection. Windows XP. Anything else you need to know?
Hey Matt, nice, one that Alison & I can tackle! Hmmmm, well, I’ve never really done much with firewire, but it should be fairly straightforward, some other useful things could be CPU speed, and RAM, and how you did it the first time. Also, if it also has a USB cable, try that, and see if it works with that, if it doesn’t, then hmmm…. not to sure at this point. Let me know how you go!
The question you must answer, Matt, which is the key to the solution, is:
What have you changed since it worked the first time?
And now, I quote the best questions ever in IT support:
Have you tried turning it off and on again?
Are you sure it’s plugged in?
The hanging sounds like Windows networking not getting the answers that it wants.
I’m no expert but I’ve dabbled with firewire drives before. They actually use a network connection. If you go into the Properties of “My Network Places”, you’ll see a “1394 Connection”. I don’t know if it makes any difference but you don’t need the Windows firewall running on it, so you can go to the “Properties” of that 1394 connection and switch it off on the “Advanced” tab.
If you can’t see the firewire drive appearing with a drive letter in Windows explorer, check that you don’t have any network drives mapped on higher letters of the alphabet such as E:, F:, G: or H: as Windows might try to assign your firewire drive to one of these. You can rectify this by right-mouse clicking My Computer, selecting Manage and changing the drive letter of your firewire drive under Disk Management. If you have CD/DVD drives on one of those letters that shouldn’t be a problem though.
Good luck!
-Paul.
Alison, I agree!! Those are the best questions in IT, and 90% of the time, it fixes the problem!! And of course what has changed, can’t believe I overlooked that one! And if the firewall is turned off, then, go to Computer Management > Drive Management, and if you still can’t see it there, then I’d have to see it in person! Things are always much easier to fix if it’s right in front of you.. funnily enough!
Hmmm, what I have I changed since the first time. Apart from my undies a few times, nothing.
Have tried the restart thing and checked all the plugs. It does have a USB plug too, but it takes for ever to back up via USB.
I’ll try those other suggestions when I get home tonight.
Thanks for the suggestions!