Cannot get USB 2.0 PCI card to recognize external HD

Hello-
I recently re-imaged my laptop (WIN XP home) and am now having problems getting my Maxtor external drive to be recognized. I am using a USB 2.0 adapter PCI card (made by ST Labs / NEC). The card is recognized in the "hardware wizard", however, when I plug the hard drive into the card, and turn it on, nothing happens. I have downloaded and installed whatever drivers I THINK I need for BOTH the drive and the card. I DO have XP service Pack 2 installed, but I'm not sure if this is the issue.

Can someone please offer some suggestions?

Thanks
Dr Rosenrosen

What happens if you plug in other USB devices into that card? Do they work?

Also what happens if you plug your drive into another USB port on the same card? Does the drive HAVE to run on USB 2.0, or can it work (at slower speed of course) on USB 1.0/1.1? If it can, do the USB 1 ports recognize it?

Good points! I tried plugging the drive into a USb port on the machine, and nothing happened. I used to get a notice "HIgh speed device...". Here's another thing that happens. I went into Device Manager and it shows 3 USB 2.0 Hub Root Devices (there are only 2 ports on the card!) along with a USB Host Controller. What's wierd is that when I connected my external CD burner to the card, that "Ding dong" noise comes on (sometimes it doesn't do anything) and it recognizes the CD drive...THEN recognizes "USB Mass Storage Device". It then says "Hardware is ready to use". But in Device Manager, it shows under the {+} that the CD & USB Mass storage devices are on the same USB port...does that makes sense? Almost like the card is connected to the cd drive which is connected to the external hard drive. Shuod I just uninstall SP2? Roll back the drivers? Argh! All my files!

maybe it the HDD (hard drive disk) itself, does ot work on anoter pc?

yes it works on other computers