Weird External HDD Problem

[Mencius]

Hey guys,

I have a weird problem with an external 400GB WD SATA drive connected by USB 2.0 that I'm trying to get a few files off. I plug it in, it gets detected as a 400GB WD sata/usb, then it gets mounted as G: on my system. However, it has no volumes listed and generally appears unformatted BUT if I plug it into my housemates laptop it works JUST fine. I've checked my USB drivers, I've uninstalled and reinstalled the USB Host from device manager, I've uninstalled the hidden previous instances and records of the HDD's existence in device manager but nothing seems to help.

The enclosure is a silverstone MS03 my MB is an albatron K8X800 Pro II v2.

The chipset info (just lifted straight out of CPU-Z) is VIA K8T800 (VT8383) Rev 1 Southbridge VT8237

Any ideas?

 

[BadBlock]

Hard drive enclosures have their own sata/ide controllers and they are often much worse quality than the controller on your average motherboard, easy to get weird behavior especially with large drives.

Though that doesn't explain why the laptop can see it.

Are both machines running the same os?
Are you plugging this into usb2 ports both times, or does one machine have a very old motherboard?
Do other external usb drives (like flash drives) work normally on your computer?