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1. In some cases, connecting and reconnecting the drive twice (!) solves the problem instantly. This might be a bit unnerving after a while but it could mean your only solution.
2. Reinstall the devices completely: On boot-up press F8 (right before the boot logo appears) and select Safe Mode.
Right-click on My Computer and select Properties. Go to Hardware and open the Device Manager. Select your external devices (usually found under DVD/CD-ROM drives or IDE ATA/ATAPI devices), right-click on the defective drive and select Uninstall. Restart your computer normally afterwards. You will notice that your device integrate themselves automatically.
3. Go to the manufacturers homepage and download the most recent drivers for your problem case. Google.com might help you if the manufacturer decided to abandon your device or doesnt exist anymore.Try finding a driver newer than August 2004 (Service Pack 2 release date).
4. XP Service Pack 2 has also some issues with power management and some external drives. To solve this, open the Device Manager again and look for Universal Serial Bus Controller. This tree contains one or more entries called USB-Root-Hub. Double-click on each entry, go to Power Management and uncheck Allow the computer to turn off this device to safe power. Click OK and restart your computer.
5. With Service Pack 2 Microsoft integrated a write protection for external devices (USB-Sticks, hard disks etc.). For instance, companies can use this protection to prevent data thefts. Unfortunately, exactly this feature sometimes prevents ext. drives to be recognized correctly by Windows or other applications. To solve this issue, open up Registry Editor by clicking Start/Run and entering regedit.
Expand the path HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies and double-click on WriteProtect. Enter 0 to deactivate the write protection. Restart your computer for the changes to take effect!
Note: In case the key StorageDevicePolicies does not exist, right-click on the Control key and select New/Key. Name it StorageDevicePolicies. Open this key and right-click on an empty spot in the right-hand side of the window. Select New/DWORD Value and name it WriteProtect. Enter 0 to deactivate the write protection.
6. Furthermore, It is possible that the drive letter for your external drive or USB-Stick might already be taken. Click Start/Run... and enter diskmgmt.msc. Right-click on your the device and select Change Drive Letter and Paths.... Hit Change and choose M (for instance) to be the new drive letter. After a restart the issue is probably resolved!
7. Perhaps your drives are only hidden? Open the Registry path HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ policies\Explorer and make sure that no NoDrives value exists (erase it, in case). TweakUI is also capable of making hidden drives visible again: Download TweakUI and start this fine Microsoft tool. Open My Computer/Drives and make sure that all drive letters are checked.
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