help with external hard drive

[wataMG42]

Hi,
If got a seagate 80gb external hard drive that wont show up on my comp running vista,yet another computer(family one) recognizes it and it running the same os. Whats weider is that the lights come on with a clicking sound if i plug it into any of the usb ports except for 2 in my fan controller, in this it comes up but says device unknown and theres no drivers available. Im really please please help?

 

[Exavier]

if you've got old drivers on your machine get them cleaned then re-install with any discs it came with; mine does this occasionally but I hard-reset it and it fixes..

 

[wataMG42]

I dont have the disk and their website says no driver needed for vista

 

[mlee49]

Check your disk management tools. Do you have a multi-card reader? I've noticed that my compy with a multi card reader doesn't recognize many external drives/USB devices. I've had to reassign a drive letter to allow the external drive be recognized by the compy.

 

[wataMG42]

Well there it shows up as an unknown device if its pluged into the fan controller if not it dosent come up at all.No theres no card reader. I reinstalled vista and still get same problem?

 

[kenkickr]

Have you tried just removing the fan controller from the equation? I mean unplugging the USB plugins from the motherboard.

 

[wataMG42]

no ill try that thxs

 

[Wetbehindtheears]

Try using a diff USB socket.
Does you're external drive have it's own power or does it draw it thru' USB?

 

[wataMG42]

Well i unplugged the fan conroller didnt work.Ive tryed every slot none work but vary in the loudness of the click/bleep that comes from it.The external hard drive can draw power through usb but has an ac power supply but dont have a charger