windows 7 doesn't recognise external drive

[dbp1312]

My ACER aspire 5750 has stopped recognising several of my plug in devices,a usb stick & an external drive.
The drives were used regularly, but the laptop stopped recogonising them so they don't get used.
The stick is a Kingston 32gb & the external is a Buffalo 1.5 Terraytes.
The units work when I plugged them into in my desktop pc, but I only use it occasionally, preferring the laptop.
The laptop is 3 years old.
Any ideas, is it an age thing?

 

[COLGeek]

Do any USB devices work on your Acer? In Control Panel/Device Manager, do any devices indicate a problem?

 

[dbp1312]

Do any USB devices work on your Acer? In Control Panel/Device Manager, do any devices indicate a problem?

Yes I use another couple of sticks & they're recognised thankfully.
In Control Panel/Device Manager the external & flash drives aren't recognised either.
The content in the flash drive is annoying but not critical, whereas the external holds a lot of photographs.
The reason I put everything on the external was in case the laptop crashed.
Ironic

 

[dbp1312]

Yes I use another couple of sticks & they're recognised thankfully.
In Control Panel/Device Manager the external & flash drives aren't recognised either.
The content in the flash drive is annoying but not critical, whereas the external holds a lot of photographs.
The reason I put everything on the external was in case the laptop crashed.
Ironic

 

[COLGeek]

Some devices work and others don't? That is odd, yet those some devices work on other systems. Correct?

Are you using a 32-bit or 64-bit version of Windows 7?

 

[dbp1312]

Some devices work and others don't? That is odd, yet those some devices work on other systems. Correct?

Are you using a 32-bit or 64-bit version of Windows 7?

 

[dbp1312]

Yes the usb drive I am using at the moment is recognised by both thankfully & so are the others which I use.
64 bit on both pc & laptop