hi peter
this is a extremely common problem and i,m suprised that microsoft havent patched this usb problems before now
i have a freecom classic 80gb hard drive and its refused to load for the last 6 months,even after a windows reinstallation and a replacment drive in the case and it still refuses to load,drivers are not needed when using windows xp/vista so this isnt a option
another solution i tried was to uninstall the device entry from "device manager" and then restart the p.c,then turn on the device and see if windows loads the correct drivers/software,in my case this again was unsuccesfull
the error message that is displayed states "code 10" which means "the device cannot start" and the reasons for this can be varied
however the solutions are as follows
1. If you are using a USB cable with your device, check the cable to make sure it matches the speed of the device. Use USB 2.0 cables with USB 2.0 devices and USB 1.1 cables with USB 1.1 devices. Swap cables and check the device, if this does not work, proceed to Step 2.
2.Next, open Device Manager and look under the heading for USB Serial Bus Controllers. If there is a device with a yellow exclamation mark next to it such as USB Mass Storage Device. Double-click on the entry and check the Device Status. If the status shows something like
3.The easiest way to solve a USB error code 10 in Windows XP is to follow the steps below to remove and reinstall all USB controllers.
A. Click on Start
B. Right Click on My Computer, click on Properties
C.Click on the Hardware tab
D. Click the Device Manager button.
E. Expand Universal Serial Bus controllers section.
F. Right-click every device under the Universal Serial Bus controllers node, and then click Uninstall to remove them one at a time.
G. Restart the computer, and allow the computer to reinstall the USB controllers.
H. Plug in the removable USB storage device, and then test to make sure that the issue is resolved.
i hope this is of some help
good luck and happy new year peter !