Vista won't recognise external HDD sometimes

I use a USB external HDD for backing up data from my Vista Desktop PC.
Sometimes I'll connect it and it will either won't recognise the drive, or
won't recognise the file system and wants to format the drive. If I hook it
up to a XP machine it reads it fine. If I reconnect it to Vista sometimes it
will be ok other times I will have to reformat the external HDD on the Vista
PC. The drive is only ever used on the Vista PC except when I've tested it on
XP. Anyone got any suggestions as to what may be going on, this is really
starting to bug me?

"Charles" <> wrote in message
news:B7361991-8AF9-4EAA-8607-...
>I use a USB external HDD for backing up data from my Vista Desktop PC.
> Sometimes I'll connect it and it will either won't recognise the drive, or
> won't recognise the file system and wants to format the drive. If I hook
> it
> up to a XP machine it reads it fine. If I reconnect it to Vista sometimes
> it
> will be ok other times I will have to reformat the external HDD on the
> Vista
> PC. The drive is only ever used on the Vista PC except when I've tested it
> on
> XP. Anyone got any suggestions as to what may be going on, this is really
> starting to bug me?

Possibility is that you need a power USB hub to run this on your Vista
machine. Any problems with any other USB devices?

you might try uninstalling the USB drivers from device manager and letting
them reinstall on reboot (but check each one first to make sure you aren't
killing your mouse and keyboard.)

"its_my_dime" wrote:

>
> "Charles" <> wrote in message
> news:B7361991-8AF9-4EAA-8607-...
> >I use a USB external HDD for backing up data from my Vista Desktop PC.
> > Sometimes I'll connect it and it will either won't recognise the drive, or
> > won't recognise the file system and wants to format the drive. If I hook
> > it
> > up to a XP machine it reads it fine. If I reconnect it to Vista sometimes
> > it
> > will be ok other times I will have to reformat the external HDD on the
> > Vista
> > PC. The drive is only ever used on the Vista PC except when I've tested it
> > on
> > XP. Anyone got any suggestions as to what may be going on, this is really
> > starting to bug me?
>
> Possibility is that you need a power USB hub to run this on your Vista
> machine. Any problems with any other USB devices?
>
> you might try uninstalling the USB drivers from device manager and letting
> them reinstall on reboot (but check each one first to make sure you aren't
> killing your mouse and keyboard.)
>
>
Thanks for your reply, I don't have problems with any other USB devices and
the problem with the external HDD is intermittent also so it makes it
difficult to fault find. I'll try reinstalling drivers and see how that goes.