Each time my WD My Book USB Drive is connected to or disconnected from my WinXP Pro SP3 PC, it causes WinXP to require re-activation with Microsoft. This occurs when I connect/disconnect while the PC is turned off and then boot up --or-- on the next boot up after I have used the WinXP Safely Remove Hardware feature to disconnect the drive. I enquired about this at Microsoft’s Activation forum and was told the drive is poorly designed or defective and I should go away.
I’ve searched quite a lot in WD KnowledgeBase, FAQ and this forum but can’t find anything related.
I’ve searched the web quite a lot also and there seems to be many conflicting opinions as to whether a WD USB drive should be seen by Windows as a Local Disk or as a Removable Disk. Does anyone know which is correct? Could this be the cause of the problem?
When you hook up the drive does it give a popup for A SES driver if so install that it is not the Smartware. Also with drive connected go into the device manager delete the driver disconnect drive reboot then plug drive back in.
They should be grouped as hard disk drives the drive with the OS should be the local drive. Other external drives should be grouped in hard disks too. It should not apper as a revovable disk.
The MS forum said this is what is causing the problem. They say USB hard drives should be listed as Removable Disks. I did not think that was correct but was not sure.
This My Book drive does appear as a disk drive in the ‘Hard Disk Drives’ group. It is listed as a ‘Local Disk’. All disks are listed as ‘Local Disks’ not just the one with the OS. I have a 2nd internal hard drive used for backup. It has no OS. But it is listed as a ‘Local Disk’ also.
The system has never asked for A SES driver
Also with drive connected go into the device manager delete the driver disconnect drive reboot then plug drive back in.>>>
This will cause yet another WinXP re-activation request. I’ve had so many from experimenting with the My Book previously that I’m afraid MS will refuse another one. I need WinXP and do not want to lose my license.
Yes. I was thinking I could hold off doing anything for now and perhaps run across instances of someone else having the same trouble. Thanks for the help.
