I have a samsung g2 500gb hard drive.. just bought it but it does not show when i plug it to my dell laptop using windows seven yet it lights showing there is power to the hard drive.....

Hardware problem....
try to use another cable,
or your harddrive is dead... :(
find a tech who can look at it.

If you use Microsoft Windows it does not need installation software. Just plug it in and it should show up in "My Computer"
If you still have a problem go to Samsung's website and look up your hard drive. They will have manuals, drivers and any software you might need to make it work.

If this helps please vote for my solution.

The cd drive itself is defective, replace it.

go to my computer, plug the drive in, right click the flash drive icon on my computer and click format.

Vista and XP are a pain in the **** to make work as a network. as for the driver. Vista may have drivers built in to see it. and XP may not. see if there are any drivers for the external drive on the samsung website.

Try Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Computer Management, Storage, Disk Management.

Check there to see if the drive is listed, "online" and has a "Healthy" Partition.

I had the same exact problem with a WD2500xms passport. The problem was the USB cable. I went to the store and bought a 6' USB cable ( $26 at Radio Shack) with the same specs and now, no more problems. Also I called WD technical support (800.275.4932) and asked for a new cable. The WD customer serverice was very helpful and said it would sending me a new cable for free. When it arrives I'll return the 6'er.

it should still detect even though your using vista does your bios setting have usb2 enabled?? otherwise try a different usb port

you to first put everthing back into your computer then make sure the hard drive is still working by checking your hard drive light see if it is light up or not go into the bios and make sure the computer is set to boot up for your cd rom first and second the hard drive now if you have windows xp home full you will be able to put windows xp full back on the computer if you have upgrade you will need windows 98 se to use for some of the files that the upgrade doesn't have once you do this it should be able to reinstall windows xp and if that doesn't work put windows 98se in the computer and then use the windows xp upgarde to put windows xp back on the computer if none if this work get back to me with more info and I will try to help you get back on track

thank you and good luck

Some of its space is use for table allocation or indexing .