[Darthtanion]

Anytime USB is an issue, a note regarding what OS you use would be helpful.

If Win9x, you will need drivers for the external drive device. This can sometimes be a challenge but most manufacturers have gotten this area cleaned up. If under WinXP, the OS should automatically pick up the external component as a mass storage device. Depending on other hardware configurations and updates to the OS will determine whether you need to create smaller partitions to handle the size drive you have attached.

From the looks of things, you may be having problems with the drivers for the PCMCIA card instead of the external drive unit, but the first thing you should do is to install that hard drive into a desktop system to make sure it isn't defective. If you can access it normally on a desktop system, then you'll need to find out which driver is giving you fits and go from there.