LaCie Hard Drive not recognized by Windows 7

Anonymous

I have a LaCie external USB hard drive (formatted FAT32) that shows up as a device in the control panel but does not appear as a drive or other device in the Windows Explorer.

The drive contains my music library. Any advice on how to find/access this drive?

Thanks.

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Anonymous

Hi,

Do you see any yellow\red exclamation mark in device manager?

I would suggest you to open Disc management and check if the drive is detected there, here are the steps:

1. 1. Open Computer Management by clicking the Start button, clicking Control Panel, clicking System and Security, clicking Administrative Tools, and then double-clicking Computer Management. If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

2. 2. In the left pane, click Disk Management.

If it the hard drive recognizes in the disc management and if there is no drive letter assigned, I would suggest you right click on the drive and assign a drive letter and check if it helps:

1. 1. Right-click the drive to change, and then click Change Drive Letter and Paths.

2. 2. Do one of the following:

· To assign a drive letter if one has not already been assigned, click Add, click the letter that you want to use, and then click OK.

· To change a drive letter, click Change, click Assign the following drive letter, click the letter that you want to use, and then click OK.

· To remove a drive letter, click Remove, and then click Yes to confirm that you want to remove it.

Refer this link for more information:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Change-add-or-remove-a-drive-letter

Please respond back with the status of the issue and let us know if you have any issues.

Azam – Microsoft Support.

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52 additional answers

Anonymous

2010-10-07T22:33:01+00:00

I had the same problem, but I have solve it!

For me, I was gone in "Computer Management" or if you want you can do it in "Device Manager" Window

this is the way that I had use:

1- Control Panel --> Administrative Tool --> Computer Management

2- In left Pane you have to click on "Systeme Tools" after click on "Device Manager"

3- plug your external hard disk (for me it's 1T Lacie) in computer and start it

4- in the "Computer management" Window one device appear when the computer detect the new device who plug.

5-in the Device Panel , click on "Other devices"

6- "LaCie Hard Drive USB" appear, Right-click on icon

7- select "Update Driver Software" and choose "Search automatically for updated driver software"

Finally the "Other devices" icon will disappear and your External Hard Disk go in "Disk Drives"

and you can open your Hard Disk!:)
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Anonymous

2010-09-29T05:43:20+00:00

The article mentioned above does not help me resolve the issue. I have a Lacie Hard Disk 1TB Design By Neil Poulton. I tried installing in a Windows 7 32bit ACER Aspire 5732z notebook computer. Windows seems to load the drivers automatically; but the hard drive is not displayed when browsing the drivers through MY COMPUTER. On the other hand, if you click on the GREEN ARROW to safely remove the hardware, the option to EJECT the drive is shown. So Windows 7 sees it. If you click on OPEN DEVICES & PRINTERS, then the drive is displayed. But you can only access the device's PROPERTIES through this option. I followed the article mentioned above, but when you get to the DISK MANAGEMENT section, I can see DISK 0 (showing 2 partitions, one is the C:\ and the other is unassigned / no drive letter - i think is a back up partition). Then, I also see DISK 1, ONLINE, which by the size of the drive (UNALLOCATED), I can guess it is the Lacie Hard Disk. If you right click on the DISK 1, there is no option to assign a letter or volume assingment. I am still learning Windows 7 so I am not sure if there is a different way to get this letter assignment accomplished. Some of the options that are available is to create NEW SPANNED VOLUME, or NEW STRIPPED VOLUME, or NEW MIRRORED VOLUME, or CONVERT TO DYNAMIC DISK, or CONVERT TO GPT DISK, or OFFLINE, or PROPERTIES, or HELP. I have to read more about these options and get familiar with them. Hope that someone can help with this information. Any feedback will be appriciated. Thanks.
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Anonymous

2010-09-19T15:16:44+00:00

I have a similar problem: My LaCie Rugged External Hard Disk (500MB) is not recognized as a USB device on a brand new Dell Latitude D6510 laptop running Win7. The same drive with same USB cable is immediately recognized by an older Dell Latitude D630 laptop running Win7 and a Dell Precision desktop running WinXP.

Normally when a USB device is plugged into the D6510, I get a few audible beaps acknowledging the device. With the LaCie, it is dead quite, not a sound and no sign of device recognition anywhere I've looked on the D6510.

Any suggestions greatly appreciated.
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Anonymous

2010-09-14T16:32:53+00:00

I've similar problems with my Lacie 1TB Biggest Quadra RAID drive. Some times the Windows 7 recognizes the drive and assign a letter to it but says it is 0 bytes. And sometimes it gives an error saying it does not recognize the USB device.

THe same drive works in other computers with Windows XP and Suse Linux, but I can not make it work with my new Dell Inspiron with Windows 7.

The sugestions above does not work for me.

Any sugestion is greatly appreciated.
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