I'm back again with another problem still caused by my xp. Thanks everyone who sent me such great advice on the last problem. Well here goes...
After microsoft helped me do what I believe was a cold boot, we completely reformatted my 4 gb dell dimension xps r400 computer. Reloaded the xp and the sp2. Everything seemed great until I connected my maxtor 5000le 80 gb
external drive.
The error message would tell me the I/O device was missing. I went to maxtor and downloaded the drivers that they said I needed. It didn't help. I finally reaced a maxtor tech support who told me I would have to reformat the whole drive. Which with some pain I did, that was my main storage and I had many things loaded on there that can't be replaced. Well I did this and it worked long enough for me to start putting files and programs onto this drive, it was working great but...logged out of it one nite and went to go into it the next morning and the old I/O device is missing message is back. I know how to reformat this drive but to lose the stuff stored on it again and to wonder if it will do any good if its only going to keep doing this. When I reformatted it I changed it from fats to ntf's like my main drive thinking that would be better. Where am I screwing up? I'm open to any and all suggestions. I just don't want to wipe it out again if I don't have to. But I have learned that from now on i'm saving everything I can to a floppy first.

That's alot of floppies

But seriously; if you unplug the external drive is your system ok?

What is the interface? USB? or? Is their a card inbetween?

I use Maxtor drives & have had about a 50/50 rating for their tech support.

How does the drive show up when you rt. click My Computer then click Manage then Disc Management?

Have you tried to run Power max on your errant drive?

POWERMAX

When I go into computer management, under system management, and click on my drives, my external drive is not there. But when I go into disk managment my external is listed as my f: drive and is listed as healthy and active. You lost me on the usb, how do I check for that? I've gotten more experience on how to screw up my computer since I got this last March, than just user time. I'm learning the hard way. While i'm not crawling any more i'm still taking baby steps. I've downloaded and made a copy of the maxtor power max and will run that. You helped me so much the last time japhree, I am very greatful and thankful that you put it in plain enough english that a beginner like me can follow your directions and understand. Thank you.
I'll let you know what I find out.
Susafurr

japhree or to anyone else reading this,
I put in the powermax as recommended and never made it past the part where it scanned my disk drives. Hope this isn't to much info. It listed:
PIIX4 Primary master: FUJITSU MPC 3043AT
PIIX4 Primary Slave: no device found
PIIx4 Secondary master: NEC-cd rom drive: 28D
PIIX4 Secondary slave : IOMEGA ZIP 100 ATAPI
and after that I got lost. Haven't a clue what to type in or how to proceed.
I'm not sure how to find the interface or even what it is,
(told you I was new at this) but i know where to find usb info. Under universal serial bus controllers I have listed: 5000le usb drive
Intel (r) 82371 AB/EBPCI to usb universal host controller
usb root hub
And when I unplug the external my system runs great. In fact with it hooked up and acting like it does it slows down almost all my programs and gives me program not responding messages.
I am using spybot and AVG plus my sp2 firewall for protection. I've scanned and have found no pests or virus on my system. Hope this info helps.

Most of your problem (if not the whole problem) is the Maxtor drive is USB 2.1 & your computer USB is 1.1
2.1 is listed as 40 times as fast as 1.1
Tho one would expect an error message that you have a high speed device in a low speed port.

If this is the case you will need to get a USB 2.1 PCI card. Here is a general search:

usb2 pci card

But just to make sure this is the problem please run D-A-L's hardware scan and post your log here.

D-A-L's Hardware Scan

I've run the scan, found the clipboard viewer on my computer and saved it to that. It doesn't allow me to cut or paste, so how do I get the info to you?
After the scan I clicked on the save to clipboard but nothing happened. I assumed that it ment my clipboard. So sorry that not only are you being kind enough to help me but your being asked to show me how to let you help me.
Baby steps....wish i'd quit falling.

just select all in the log window Ctrl A
then copy Ctrl C
that will put it on your clipboard
then in the reply window here paste Ctrl V
that should do it

1. Check your drive jumper is set to Cable Select.

If that don't solve it

2. Download the Microsoft USB Update for Windows XP SP1:
http://www.usbman.com/winxpusbguide.htm

If that fails you may have to re-install XP SP1.

Here's what you asked for, japhree. Hope it helps, and thanks for the info.
-------------------------------------------------------

OS Information:
PropertyValue
OS Name Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition|C:\WINDOWS|\Device\Harddisk0\Partition1
Service Pack 2.0
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
Windows Directory C:\WINDOWS


Processor:
PropertyValue
Current Clock Speed 398
Description x86 Family 6 Model 5 Stepping 2
Manufacturer GenuineIntel
Name Intel Pentium II processor


Memory (RAM):
PropertyValue
Bank Label BANK 1
Capacity 134217728

Bank Label BANK 2
Capacity 33554432

Total Memory Deteced in Hardware: ~160 MB
Memory Reported to Operating System: 160MB

Disk Drives:
PropertyValue
Description Disk drive
Manufacturer (Standard disk drives)
Model FUJITSU MPC3043AT
Media Type Fixed hard disk media
Size 4310046720 (~4 GB)
Number of Partitions 1

Description Disk drive
Manufacturer (Standard disk drives)
Model IOMEGA ZIP 100
Media Type
Number of Partitions

Description Disk drive
Manufacturer (Standard disk drives)
Model
Media Type Fixed hard disk media
Size 81956689920 (~76 GB)
Number of Partitions 1


Installed Printers:
PropertyValue
Name hp psc 700 series
Port Name DOT4_001
Default True
Driver Name hp psc 700 series


Motherboard:
PropertyValue
Manufacturer Intel Corporation
Model
Name Base Board
Part Number
Product SE440BX
Serial Number 00025319124648930105
Version AA696071-406


BIOS:
PropertyValue
Manufacturer Intel Corp.
Name PhoenixBIOS 4.0 Release 6.0
Release Date 19980814000000.000000+000
Version PTLTD - 0


Monitor:
PropertyValue
Description Plug and Play Monitor
Name Plug and Play Monitor
Screen Height 600
Screen Width 800


Keyboard:
PropertyValue
Description PC/AT Enhanced PS/2 Keyboard (101/102-Key)


Pointing Device:
PropertyValue
Manufacturer Microsoft
Name Microsoft PS/2 Mouse


Sound Card:
PropertyValue
Manufacturer Crystal Semiconductor
Description Crystal WDM Audio Codec
Device ID ISAPNP\CSC0B35_DEV0000\FFFFFFFF

Manufacturer Microsoft
Description Unimodem Full-Duplex Audio Device
Device ID MODEMWAVE\0\{6157D458-6851-4AA7-9D27-DB3F2EC395F6}


Video Card:
PropertyValue
Adapter Compatibility ATI Technologies, Inc.
Adapter RAM 8388608
Description ATI Technologies, Inc. 3D RAGE PRO AGP 2X
Installed Display Drivers atidrae.dll
Driver Version 5.1.2493.0
Driver Date 8/17/2001 12:49:00 PM
Video Mode Description 800 x 600 x 4294967296 colors


DirectX Installation:
PropertyValue
Version 6.03.01.0146


Modem:
PropertyValue
Model Broadxent V.92 PCI DI3631-1
Name Broadxent V.92 PCI DI3631-1


Network Adapters:
PropertyValue
Description Realtek RTL8139 Family PCI Fast Ethernet NIC - Packet Scheduler Miniport
Description RAS Async Adapter
Description Packet Scheduler Miniport
Description WAN Miniport (L2TP)
Description WAN Miniport (PPTP)
Description WAN Miniport (PPPOE)
Description Direct Parallel
Description WAN Miniport (IP)
Description WAN (PPP/SLIP) Interface
Description Packet Scheduler Miniport

External Ports:
PropertyValue
External Reference Designator COM A
External Reference Designator COM B
External Reference Designator LPT1
External Reference Designator Keyboard
External Reference Designator MOUSE
External Reference Designator FLOPPY
External Reference Designator PRI IDE
External Reference Designator SEC IDE
External Reference Designator GAME
External Reference Designator MIC
External Reference Designator LINE IN
External Reference Designator LINE OUT
External Reference Designator CD
External Reference Designator TELEPHONY

Expansion Slots:
PropertyValue
Slot Designation ISA-1, J4B2
Slot Designation ISA-2, J4A1
Slot Designation PCI-1, J4D2
Slot Designation PCI-2, J4D1
Slot Designation PCI-3, J4C1
Slot Designation PCI-4, J4B1
-------------------------------------------------------

Looking at your BIOS it seems a bit old, I'm wondering if (failing everything else) a BIOS flash would be the cure?

PS Don't do this unless you know what you're doing!!