# General > Technical Support >  Vista wont read Media hard drive

## JWM

I have recently got a HDD Media player which contains a Hitachi 3.5" IDE 500GB Hard Drive.

It will play through the TV ok but when i connect it to the PC it wont show up in My Computer.  

If i go into the device manager however it does show up.

Is there any way i can re-format the drive and will it work?

Thanks in Advance

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## blueivy

> I have recently got a HDD Media player which contains a Hitachi 3.5" IDE 500GB Hard Drive.
> 
> It will play through the TV ok but when i connect it to the PC it wont show up in My Computer.  
> 
> If i go into the device manager however it does show up.
> 
> Is there any way i can re-format the drive and will it work?
> 
> Thanks in Advance


What is the make and model of the HDD player and what does it show up in Device Manager as?

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## JWM

Hi 
It comes up under the disk drive folder and is named ST3160815AS ATA Device.
Sorry dont know the make as its one of those off Ebay.
It just seems strange how the player works on the tv and will play the stuff that was already on the hard drive but i cant get it on my computer so i can transfer files onto it.

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## blueivy

> Hi 
> It comes up under the disk drive folder and is named ST3160815AS ATA Device.
> Sorry dont know the make as its one of those off Ebay.
> It just seems strange how the player works on the tv and will play the stuff that was already on the hard drive but i cant get it on my computer so i can transfer files onto it.


How are you connecting it? Is it USB? Do you have a link to the item on eBay (either the one purchased or others the seller is selling)?

If the item shows up as a hard drive then it should be assigned a drive letter - do you have drive letters spare (ie. what is the highest drive letter assigned on your PC)?

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## JWM

Yeah it is connected using USB.  There is available drive letters as i switched off another external drive so i could use that USB port.
Here is the link fir the item.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=270336141804

Thanks again

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## blueivy

> Yeah it is connected using USB.  There is available drive letters as i switched off another external drive so i could use that USB port.
> Here is the link fir the item.
> 
> http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=270336141804
> 
> Thanks again


When you go into Device Manager and click on the drive you get the pop up window with tabs - what is on the Volumes window?

If you click the Safely Remove Hardware icon in the System Tray, does this new drive show up and if so is there a drive letter next to it (probably not but worth checking)?

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## JWM

In Device manager the volume tab doesnt show anything at all.

However when i go to safely remove hardware it shows up as J: Drive.

I tried removing it and inserting it again and it still wont recognise it in my computer.

Strange one isnt it??

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## JWM

Ive just tried it in my dads PC which is still on XP and everything works fine!!!

Guess i need a vista driver for it but cant seem to find one.

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## blueivy

> Hi 
> It comes up under the disk drive folder and is named ST3160815AS ATA Device.


Just to come back to this, this is unlikely to be the external drive as the ST part is a Seagate drive. As yours is a Hitachi hard drive it will show up as something else. As it's also an external drive. is will likely show up as a *USB drive* in the list.

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## blueivy

> Ive just tried it in my dads PC which is still on XP and everything works fine!!!
> 
> Guess i need a vista driver for it but cant seem to find one.


If it shows up as drive J: under the Safely Remove Hardware icon then it has been allocated a drive letter. I've seen this happen before but not between reboots. Usually the drive eventually appears under My Computer (although it can take a while). You shouldn't need a drive for it under Vista.

If the drive is showing up as J: under Safely Remove Hardware, go to Start->Run and type *j:* and press Enter. Do you get to see the drive contents?

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## JWM

Hi
Sorry you are right it is a USB drive.  It comes up saying Hitachi HDP725050GLA360 USB Device.

I cant check the contents of the drive as there is no 'Run' Function in the start menu.

Can i re-format it using DOS?
Would that help or would windows still not see it?

Thanks a lot for your help in this

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## blueivy

> Hi
> Sorry you are right it is a USB drive.  It comes up saying Hitachi HDP725050GLA360 USB Device.
> 
> I cant check the contents of the drive as there is no 'Run' Function in the start menu.
> 
> Can i re-format it using DOS?
> Would that help or would windows still not see it?
> 
> Thanks a lot for your help in this


If you go to Start->My Computer and in the address bar just type *J:* and press Enter can you see it then?

If it works on an XP PC then there is nothing wrong with the drive so if you reformat you'll obviously lose everything and no doubt gain nothing (as it's probably Vista that is the problem here).

Stupid question but have you rebooted between trying it and seeing nothing?

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## JWM

Tried entering J: into address bar and an error came up saying 'Windows cannot find 'J:' Check the spelling and try again'

Have just tried re-booting again but just the same thing is happening again.

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## blueivy

> Tried entering J: into address bar and an error came up saying 'Windows cannot find 'J:' Check the spelling and try again'
> 
> Have just tried re-booting again but just the same thing is happening again.


If you go to Start->Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Computer Management and click on Disk Management, can you see the external disk on the the left hand side (all of your attached storage devices will show up here including your CD / DVD, internal hard drive and any SD card drives (etc.) that you have and the partitions on them)? If you disk shows up on the left hand side, what does it say about the partitions on it?

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## JWM

I tried what you said and for some reason it wont let me open up 'Administrative Tools'.

It says that it refers to a location that is unavailable.

I think some gremlins have got in and are starting to rip stuff apart!!! ::

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## RIR

Hallo

Have you anything in "Device Manager" showing an exclamation mark at the side of it?


Ian.

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## JWM

No exclamation marks or anything like that.
It says in device manager that the device is working properly.
I have now tried another hard drive in the player and it is working fine so it is something to do with the Hitachi hard drive.
This is beyond me so is anyone willing to have a look at it?

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## RIR

Hallo

You COULD try this:

Highlight the device in Device Manager. Click Properties>Update Driver>Manually Select Driver from List.

Navigate to C:\windows\winsxs and press OK. Let it install the drivers if it finds any.

See if it works now.


Ian.

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## blueivy

> I tried what you said and for some reason it wont let me open up 'Administrative Tools'.
> 
> It says that it refers to a location that is unavailable.
> 
> I think some gremlins have got in and are starting to rip stuff apart!!!


You have a problem if Administrative Tools won't open.

Start a command prompt (Start->All Programs->Accessories->Command Prompt) and type *%SystemRoot%\system32\compmgmt.msc /s* and press Enter. That should open up Computer Management.

Vista will open let you open the drive IF it can read the volumes on it. If it can't (and it should as the volume reads on XP and it's 500GB so is likely to be NTFS) then it won't - looking in Computer Management will tell you if Vista can see the volumes.

Having said that, I'm starting to wonder if it's your computer that is the problem as XP will read it fine and you can't get into Administrative Tools.

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## blueivy

> No exclamation marks or anything like that.
> It says in device manager that the device is working properly.
> I have now tried another hard drive in the player and it is working fine so it is something to do with the Hitachi hard drive.
> This is beyond me so is anyone willing to have a look at it?


Is the new hard drive you've tried working in Vista?

If you take the Hitachi hard drive out. can you connect it to the Vista machine (inside) and see it working then?

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## babajane32

if you format drive DO NOT format as ntfs multimedia players have to be formatad as fat for some reson.

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## dx100uk

The thread is 2yrs dead!

Dx

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