External Hard Drive Help Please

I just purchased an external hard drive, and have had a terrible time trying to install it. I don't know anything about the internal workings of a computer and did not imagine installation would be this difficult.

After plugging in the hard drive, the wizard pops up. However the wizard can't find the necessary software (and I did not get any software with it).

The directions say to right click on My Computer --> Manage --> disk management. Then it says to select the new hard drive. Right now I can only see the "basic" Hard Drive 0 (which I am assuming is the normal internal hard drive) and a CD ROM 0 drive. There is no new hard drive.

Can anyone help me? And I really don't know much about computers so I would really appreciate a dumbed-down version. Thanks a bunch!

 

try re-scanning the disks after you are in the disk management console (its under the Action drop down menu)

from there, you should be able to format it (if its not already) and mark it as an active drive

 

I tried that and the new hard drive still doesn't appear in the list. Thanks anyway though.

 

got another computer you can plug it in to? try doing that and then reformatting the drive to NTFS, and then plugging it back into your laptop.

Edit: what hard drive is this?

 

Let me guess: it's a Maxtor one touch....?

Some drives need he CD that came with them in order to install.

 

I tried putting it into another computer, and that one wouldn't recognize it either.

And it is a SATA hard drive. That is all I really know. I got it off eBay and I have no idea what company originally made it or anything. On the case it also says Serial ATA, but that might just be the casing?

And thanks again for your help. I guess I might bring it in to a comp place tomorrow and see if they can do anything for me.

 

hey i just rma's my maxtor portable hdd and i cant get it my lenovo laptop to install the drivers. but my dell vostro can install the driver...

so im assuming some files in vista (lenovo) has some issues. what can it be?

 

Maybe it's a motherboard problem, try checking the device manager if all your components are properly setup.

 

i've checked already. now from what i researched online, it seems like it is a vista issue...funny bcoz on my dell i used the same installation disc and i can read and install all usb storage correctly. even my desktop xp can read them. but with the lenovo, im nt able to. not even one usb device. im contemplating reformatting but i read that some did that to no avail.

im puzzled. coz it cant really be a hardware issue as ive read that pple with dell also encountered the same issue.

so much for a freebie eh? (my lenovo is given free by my ISP for signing up a deluxe plan)