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External HDs not mounting on Windows XP SP2 after reinstall

Hi. I've searched this community and elsewhere on the net and no one else seems to have this particular set of circumstances so I'm trying my own question.

Yes I know this is ancient hardware and software. It has worked fine and will work fine again. I have clearly just somehow missed a step in reinstallation, so I need help.


Vital Statistics:


MacBook Pro 4,1 (Black, 2008)

Intel Core Duo / 2.4 GHz / 5GB RAM / 1TB SSD

OS 10.6.8 / All possible Software Updates done (other than iTunes)

Bootcamp 3.0.4


  1. Redid partition to all Mac, then back to 969 GB Windows / 30 GB Mac OS
  2. Did Quick NTFS Format (Full Format also had same end results)
  3. Installed legal Windows XP SP2 Home Retail Edition from DVD
  4. Accepted all standard choices
  5. Restarted and Installed Windows Drivers from Snow Leopard DVD


Everything works EXCEPT:

My external Drive is only recognized as Local Disk (E:) and Windows asks to format it.


  • The drive is formatted as exFAT with MBR and has worked perfectly before this reinstall.


  • Updating to SP3 (supposedly necessary to read exFAT) from the same installers I have used before is not possible, since that is on my external drive. Also, doing that is what made me have to reinstall, because I got stuck in a Boot Loop.


  • Tried changing Drive Letter to G.


  • I don't believe Internet Explorer can connect to the internet to download SP3 from anywhere because both it and XP are so old (and I have never needed to do that before—nor do I want to connect for safety reasons).


What am I missing to just allow these drives to be recognized? Is it really SP3? I feel like it's some really simple extra step that I missed and is not mentioned in the Bootcamp Installation Guide.


Posted on Oct 16, 2024 11:19 AM

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External HDs not mounting on Windows XP SP2 after reinstall

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