external hard drive not working

I have an external hard drive by Smart Drive. It turned out to be the entire root of all my problems while installing Vista. Whenever I turn it on, everything locks up in Vista. When it's off, everything is fine.
The only conflict in the device manage is a "PCI Modem". I do not have a 56k modem on this computer, so I'm not sure what that is.
Help would be appreciated, thank you.

same here, whenever I put in an external usb drive it hangs or slows down. it is a western digital 80GB drive...

I'm havn't found a solution yet, let me know if you do.
"Aaron C" wrote:

same here, whenever I put in an external usb drive it hangs or slows down. it is a western digital 80GB drive...

Having same problem with an external USB hard drive enclosure. It is very strange, Vista won't boot if it is turned on, however it was on when I installed Vista. If I turn it on while in Vista, I get the clunk/clunk device detected sound but it never shows up.
"ironj221" wrote:

I'm havn't found a solution yet, let me know if you do.
"Aaron C" wrote:
same here, whenever I put in an external usb drive it hangs or slows down. it is a western digital 80GB drive...

Whenever my hard drive is connected via USB, windows Vista either hangs or runs very slowly. The hard drive is also not visible as a drive. I have seen a few other people report this as a problem and wondering if anyone has found a solution yet?
The only conflict in the device manage is a "PCI Modem". I do not have a 56k modem on this computer, so I'm not sure what that is.
Help would be appreciated, thank you.

Try going to the drive's manufastureer site and get the latest driver you can find. Also try doing an firmware update (if applicable).
"ironj221" wrote:

Whenever my hard drive is connected via USB, windows Vista either hangs or runs very slowly. The hard drive is also not visible as a drive. I have seen a few other people report this as a problem and wondering if anyone has found a solution yet?
The only conflict in the device manage is a "PCI Modem". I do not have a 56k modem on this computer, so I'm not sure what that is.
Help would be appreciated, thank you.

USB is a bit flaky in this release. I would go to device manager, uninstall all usb devices and get Windows to reinstall to see if it fixes the problem.
"tonyb" wrote:

Try going to the drive's manufastureer site and get the latest driver you can find. Also try doing an firmware update (if applicable).
"ironj221" wrote:
Whenever my hard drive is connected via USB, windows Vista either hangs or runs very slowly. The hard drive is also not visible as a drive. I have seen a few other people report this as a problem and wondering if anyone has found a solution yet?
The only conflict in the device manage is a "PCI Modem". I do not have a 56k modem on this computer, so I'm not sure what that is.
Help would be appreciated, thank you.