Added 2 external HDDS but only one working at a time

[puternut]

I bought 2 identical external Western Digital Hard drives and installed them separately on my HP PC.

Now when I try to plug them both in, the system only sees one of them???

If I disconeect USB1 and connect USB2 it keeps the same drive letter and drive name. I tried to change the drive letter/name via 'disk management' but that didn't work.

I had a look at the device driver at it appears only one device has installed. Tried to uninstall that but I don't think it fully uninstalled as the next time I connected it went straight to it without saying it had found new hardware

Any ideas on what I can do. Any help appreciated

[ninja]

If they are identical drives, they possibly have the same name. Have you tried naming one Drive 1, the other Drive 2 for example? Perhaps there is a naming conflict, so your PC can only detect one drive?

[ninja]

Sorry, didn't read the full question & missed the bit where you said you had tried renaming!

[ChuckFickens]

check what the serial numbers are showing for the drives.
http://www.nirsoft.ne...usb_devices_view.html

The difference between them should be down to the serial number, not the name so if they have the same number you will get problems with them.

[AlBags]

I think you're screwed. Send one back and explain. Buy another brand for 2nd drive.

[puternut]

Thanx for all your replies peeps. And to Albabags RASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSPPPPP - I aint screwed.

With Chucks program I found they were different serials. However something about them was too similar for poor old windows such that when one HD came in the other went offline. Or maybe the new one didnt go online.

However by going into Disk manager and changing the drive to 'Online' all is now well.

Having said that I haven't rebooted yet as my machine tends to be on 24/7 so .........

Thanx again guys