Question : Problem: OWC Mercury Firewire Ext. drive not recognized by XP home

Recently bought an OWC Mercury Elite Pro FireWire 800/400 + USB 2.0/1.1 external drive. Setup was easy. I am currently using the USB 1.1 connection until I get a new computer. I copied some test files to ensure it was working, it was, and that night I transferred some files, which took several hours. The computer is set to shut down automatically after 1 hr of inactivity, which it did. Next day the drive was nowhere to be seen, as if it never existed. Tech support at OWC was absolutely no help. We assumed the drive defective & I sent it back.

New drive arrived, easy installation. This time the drive never showed up in my directory. I had to access it through Disk Management. That night I copied some files and the next morning the drive disappeared, just like before. For several days I tried everything I could think of with no success. I was about to send it back and buy another brand when, on a whim, I turned the thing on and my computer recognized it! I listened to a song that I'd copied to the drive last week, no problem. When I tried to copy a music file to the drive it worked for 20 seconds and then gave me an error saying the drive was not ready. It had disappeared again, no trace. When I tried a System Restore I got a message saying the g: drive (the OWC) was not available. Unfortunately I am also having a problem with my SR and was unable to restore to a point prior to the installation.  

I've searched through this site and haven't found anything that worked. Any ideas?

Answer : Problem: OWC Mercury Firewire Ext. drive not recognized by XP home

   Sorry for the << YOU DON'T NEED TO UNINSTALL >>, I wanted to say but probably forgot but it was in the context all the time... accept my appologise anyway, my fault.
   <> here "another mobo" was ment as a new one with USB2.0 onboard. As you can see, no difference.        Your HDD is copatible with USB 1 and was no need for USB 2. Anyway.....the last option would be a reinstall of Window$,  maybe some corrupted files are generating this probl.
Good luck