I purchased a Vantec NexStar 3 SATA to eSATA & USB enclosure (NST-360SU-BK) and it operates correctly when connected via eSATA, however, it is not recognized when I plug it in via USB. Vantec indicates that it should be a simple plug-and-play device that will install automatically when connected via USB.
However, this is the error I receive: USB device not recognized. One of the USB devices attached to this computer has malfunctioned, and Windows does not recognize it. It shows up in bold as Unknown Device.
When the Vantec NexStar MX (NST-400MX-S2) first came out I was quite excited. A dual drive housing, “how great will that not be for backups?” Then I discovered.
This occurs with both Windows XP and Windows Vista. I am currently trying to get it to work via USB with Vista. The hard drive I am using with it is a Western Digital Caviar RE2 500GB (WD5000YS). There is no jumper on it because it clearly states on the drive that “Master/Slave jumper not required for SATA.” I have plugged it into each front USB and rear USB port, including those on the motherboard and it still produces the same problem. I have plugged it in internally, formatted and partitioned it properly. Again, it is recognized when connected via eSATA, but not USB. I have downloaded and installed the driver from the website, and installed USB Storage Toolbox.
I have tried to manually update the driver to USB Mass Storage Device, and I have tried to search the computer (C: Windows and all subfolders) for the best driver but still an error occurs. All hardware and connections are plugged in properly. I have even tried a different USB cable, but to no avail. Other USB Mass Storage devices work on my computer, such as my iPod, USB thumb drive, and external IDE hard drive. I've searched many forums and either nobody has any issues with this enclosure or they have resolved them by trying one of or a combination of the things I have done.
Does anyone know what the problem might be and what I can do to fix it? Nextar devices are cheap and notorious for not being recognized. I myself have a 4 gb PMP which only gets recognized about one in 12 times that i plug it in. I noticed that sometimes if I restart the PC and then plug it in and out a few times it finally recognizes it. Good thing it's got an SD slot - at least I can put stuff on that much faster without plugging the device in. This issue occurs on both vista and xp on my end too.
I also contacted Nextar tech support and they told me this was not compatible with Vista, which is obviously bs. The guy said his name was John. That's funny though, I dont know any Johns that speak with a middle eastern accent lol D. I too just purchased the Vantec Nexstar enclosure and came across problems. I had the same exact issue as you and after troubleshooting for several hours now, including physically taking it apart a couple times. For me, Vista would find the drive and give it a drive letter but when I clicked on it it would give me the error 'access denied.'
Was really weird because the actual drive properties would even come up under device manager which in my case is also a western digital caviar 500GB which came out of the old My Book external drive. Well anyway I finally figured it out. It was a permissions issue on the drive itself. In Vista, just right click on the drive letter of the drive, go to properties, security, and select/add the user under 'Group or user names'.
Make sure you set to full control. That should work from there.
If not go under advanced security settings and work your way through there. I hope this helps you cause I know how frustrated you must be with it.
I almost tossed mine out the window. PJ vhigh32@aol.com. I also just bought the blue Vantec Nexstar Enclosure IDE to USB and I am having issues with it too. It works great on my thinkpad (XP SP2) when I am accessing an old WD 250 GB data drive of mine. When I try using it for the C: drive of my previous computer it recognizes the drive as being attached via USB and it even shows up on disk management as a healthy NTFS partition, but it doesn't have a drive letter, I cannot assign a drive letter and it also wont show up on MY Computer. Its quite frustrating as it seems the enclosure is working fine but for some reason XP is having issues assigning a drive letter to it.
Anyone have a solution to this??? I meant to post this a lot earlier, but for people who still have this problem, it turned out to be a dead NexStar enclosure. It has absolutely nothing to do with the drivers, Vista, the file system, or an incompatible hard drive. Vantec offers a decent warranty, so if you fill out an RMA form and provide proof of purchase, you can send them your dud and they should quickly ship out a new one to you. I got my replacement pretty quick, and it worked immediately as a plug-n-play device. Aside from the defective one, the NexStar enclosure is really nice and works well.
And just in case anybody is wondering, I installed a Seagate 1.5TB hard drive in this enclosure and it works perfectly, although Vantec claims that the enclosure will only work with hard drives up to 500GB. I also just bought the blue Vantec Nexstar Enclosure IDE to USB and I am having issues with it too. It works great on my thinkpad (XP SP2) when I am accessing an old WD 250 GB data drive of mine. When I try using it for the C: drive of my previous computer it recognizes the drive as being attached via USB and it even shows up on disk management as a healthy NTFS partition, but it doesn't have a drive letter, I cannot assign a drive letter and it also wont show up on MY Computer.
Its quite frustrating as it seems the enclosure is working fine but for some reason XP is having issues assigning a drive letter to it. Anyone have a solution to this??? I have exactly the same problem, but only with my WD drive and not others like Seagate or Quantum.
Very frustrating. Did you ever find a solution?
If you’re like me, you’ve purchased to use for data storage and redundancy with it’s RAID 1 function, and it’s super fast eSATA connection. A few problems first present itself when first working with the NexStar MX. The must have been written as a grade 9 Korean-English computer project because the instructions on how to do the most simple procedure (reset) is incorrect, and has been since they first published the manual and still show it online. Triple A Map Creator Program Nintendo. There are no clear instructions on what the status light indicators mean. There are no clear instructions on how to go about rebuilding the RAID 1 drives when one drive fails. There are no clear instructions on how to format or initialize the drives before use.
So, after many hours of working on this device and working back and forth with the technical support staff at Vantec, I’ve been able to come up with a few solid answers to those dilemmas. Here we go: 1. To Reset the NexStar MX follow these directions: • Make sure your computer is OFF and that none of the blue lights on the NexStar MX are blinking, then turn off the NexStar MX enclosure from the power switch on the back. Wait at least 20 seconds after the lights stop blinking to ensure the drives stop before shutting off the power.
• Once your power is off. Install the hard drives as per your required configuration (as shown in the manual on Pg.6 – 8).
Note, the bay on the RIGHT (closest to the jumper switch) is always the SOURCE DRIVE. This is important when rebuilding a failed RAID drive! DO NOT PUT THE ENCLOSURE BACK ON! YOU NEED TO RESET THE DEVICE FIRST!!!
(This is the source for 99% of people pulling their hair out when installing their drives for the first timeso I’ve read) • Time to reset the device using the settings you need. Refer to the manual regarding the jumper switches and toggle them to the appropriate settings for your application. Once you have done this it’s time to reset the device. With the device still powered off and the computer still off – Push and hold the reset button while you turn on the power – Continue to hold the reset button for 20-30 seconds (or until the lights stop blinking on the front), then let go. You should see a quick blink of lights and then hear the drives spinning. To make sure that you did this correctly, go through the reset process again. But wait at least 10 seconds with no light blinking activity before shutting off the power switch.
By resetting the device twice, you will ensure that it’s properly done. Now you can move forward.
• Once the drive lights stop blinking, you can turn off the device and continue the enclosure installation. Ensure all screws are put in place.
You can skip this step (as I did to make sure that the setup was done correctly) • Power on your computer and check out the result. Peripheral 3. How to rebuild your RAID set: • Identify which drive has failed. The top blue light is for the right drive and the bottom light is for the left drive. If you’re using a Mac, your computer will tell you that your drive has failed and that you should backup your files and reformat your hard drive.
This is an indication from MAC that your drive is not perfect and does not mean that you have lost all of your data. It just recognizes that something is wrong with the drive.
According to Vantec, the failed drive will have a consistent blinking light. • If your computer is telling you that the drive has failed, but the light is not blinking consistently for either drive, then you need to test which drive has failed. This is where it can get tricky and dangerous (because your data is not duplicated anymore). This is how you would test your drives using the NexStar MX: • Shut down your computer.
• Wait 30 seconds, then power off the NexStar MX. • Remove the drive on the left and set it aside in a safe and low electrostatic location (anti-static spray is always useful) • Set the jumper on the NexStar MX to individual mode (Jumper 1 in ON position only) • Push and continue to hold the reset button for 20 seconds after you turn on the power switch, then let go. • Make sure that the reset worked by turning off the power (after waiting 20 seconds to make sure the blue lights don’t turn on) and then follow step 5 again.
• Now that you’ve reset the device to individual mode, you can start the computer. • Once booted up, the drive should show up on your computer. If it doesn’t show up at all or there is an error message, or it tells you that the disk needs to be formatted or initializedDON’T DO ANYTHING!!! You must test the other drive first to make sure that the jumper reset was done correctly or you could be formatting the working drive. • If it recognizes the drive and you see all of your data and no error messages came upthis is your working drive. If not, continue to step 10. • Shut down the computer.
Turn off the NexStar MX as instructed above. • Remove the drive from the right bay and put it in a safe place. • Install the other drive into the Right bay. No need for a reset at this time. • Start up the computer. • If the drive does not show up or you get an error message with this drive as well, then it means that you did not reset the jumper settings properly to individual mode. Restart this procedure from the beginning.
• If the drive shows up and you can see your data, then this is the working drive (source drive). • Now that you know which drive is the source drive, you need to change the jumper setting back to RAID 1 (Switch 1&2 ON) • Shut down the computer. Then turn off the NexStar MX. Then change the jumper to RAID 1 with only the source drive in the device on the right side. Then press and hold the reset button while turning on the power and hold it for 20 seconds and let go. You will see a blink and then the bottom light should blink consistently. Time to install the new drive to replace the failed one.
• Now that you know which drive has failed and your device should be in RAID 1 jumper setting, you need to turn off the NexStar Power and remove the failed drive (if you haven’t already done sowith the computer OFF!) • Install the new target drive into the left bay and the source drive to the right bay (closest to the jumper switches). The new drive DOES NOT NEED TO BE FORMATTED beforehand to rebuild the RAID set. • Hold the reset button and turn on the NexStar MX and continue to hold the reset button for 20 seconds after. Let go of the reset.
• You should see both lights blink a bit and then turn off. Once they turn off, you can start your computer. • Once the computer has started, both blue lights on the NexStar MX should remain solid (or blink frequently, but not flash consistently as in a failed hard drive would). • If the lights are solid, then you have successfully started the rebuild process. I’m told by Vantec that the computer needs to remain on during the rebuild process for it to work properly, but I found that it works much better when the computer is off or the drive is completely disconnected from the computer; this is because when the drive is connected to the computer and the computer is running, it will read from the source drive and this will slow down the rebuild process. They say that it takes 6-7 hours to rebuild 1TB of data.
I found that it took just about 20 hours to rebuild a 2TB drive. How to format or initialize the drives before use with the NexStar MX You will notice that upon installation of a new drive, the computer will not recognize the drive if you want to RAID the drives. You need to initialize or format the drives first (except for when you are rebuilding a target RAID drive). To initialize the drive, you must put the device in individual mode with one hard drive in the right bay. Start up the computer. It will recognize the drive and you are able to format it.
Shut down the computer. Turn off the NexStar MX. Remove the drive. Install the other drive in the right bay. Start up the computer and format this drive. Shut down the computer.
Turn off the NexStar MX. Install the other formatted drive into the left bay. Change the jumper setting to RAID 1. Reset the device (as described above). Start the computer. If you are using a PC or a Pre-Lion Mac and are trying to rebuild your RAID set and want to know it’s progress, you can use the software found at Silicon Image.
Silicon Image • Select SiI5723 Storage Processor • Then Configuration Manager • Then your desired OS (Doesn’t work on LION because it’s a Power PC application) I sincerely hope that this helps anyone having issues with and that the company wakes up in the future when writing their instruction manuals and giving information on their website. A technology company should not have to rely on it’s customers to supply its other customers with support. But I’m glad I could help, if I’ve done so.
Jonathon, I was wondering if you can answer this. I did not see it in your blog: While you are in the rebuilding process in RAID 1, can you access your drive. I have not been able to, but their manual indicates you can. It would seem to be a potential problem to be able to access a drive that is being rebuilt since it could be possibly changing continuously while it is being rebuilt. So far, I do not even see the drive in my Windows explorer while it is rebuilding.
Hopefully it will appear after the rebuild. Hi Jonathon, Your instructions on the NexStar MX are very useful. What are the recommended steps for change the from RAID 1 to individual mode. Michael Brecker Licks Pdf Download. The enclosure is currently set in RAID 1 mode wuth two HDD installed and is working ok. I would like to change from RAID 1 to individual mode with the two HDDs installed, but wish to not lose the data on the primary HDD and format the secondary drive to make it available. Can you please provide the procedure for changing from RAID 1 to individual mode, without lose the data on the primary drive.
Please confirm the jumper setting, when to press the reset button, when to remove each drive, when to power off the unit, etc. Also indicate which jumper is jumper 1, is jumper 1 closer to the reset button or the one furthest away from the reset button? Is the on position when the jumper is moved towards the back the front of the enclosure. Reading your blog the primary drive is the one on the right side when looking at the enclosure from the front, is this correct. Hi Jova, as far as I know, you can’t keep the data on 1 part of the raid and format the 2nd drive to use as an individual drive. You need to dump the data to a 3rd hard drive and then format both drives and initiate the NexStar in individual drive mode, as per the instructions. Then dump all the info on drive 3 onto drive 1 or 2 as you wish.
You will have 2 separate drives. You must do the additional step of dumping all of the data onto a 3rd drive. There is no other way as far as I know. There aren’t enough words to thank you and tell you how much time you saved me! I purchased one of these to store my photographs and wanted the RAID 1 for security. I was actually really excited that there was a RAID device that would allow this without a costly PC upgrade.
Anyway, I got the whole thing together and wondered why only one drive light would blink. I tried switching the drive positions and was bummed when the second drive contained no data. I thought that the Nextstar was bad and was getting ready to return it and thought that I’d look on the Internet once more. I found your Blog and was up and running in about 15 minutes.