I/O device error -external USB hard drive

Originally Posted by jephree

Is this a USB device? Did it ever work on this computer? Have you tried it on another computer?

When you right click it do you get the option to Format?

1) yes -USB external hard drive-
2) Yes- for about 6 months
3) In the past but not currently
4) NO- it locks up; now jsut pluggin in the connection puts the my computer window into a long spin- an locks up.

Thanks for responding

Hello,

Problems accessing an USB external hard drive- Maxtor 160 gig.

I am running xp home.

The drive has worked in the past- It hass about 50 gigs on it

The drive is shown in the “my computer screen”- all drives, optical devices etc.

If I right or left click on the drive I can not access.

Device not accessible I/O device error - is the feedback. I have tried updating the drivers. Also uninstalled and reinstalled the driver.

I can’t right click on the icon- locks up.

Chkdsk -can't access. I want to format as a last resort.

Computer management shows the drive

Volume: F
layout: Partition
Type: Basic
File system: ???? it is blank- does not show as either FAT or NTFS
Status: healthy,
Capacity: 152.66
Free Space: 152.66 ??? it has about 40 gigs on it? or did
% free: 100% --should not be the case
Fault tolerance: No
Overhead: 0%


Thanks for the help