MassiveNoob,

Wow...you really are ;) Just a few things to clarify and then someone else will come behind me and tell you what it is you may need to do, if anything.

Two hard drives, so one of them is external and it connects via USB?

Are you using a USB hub? Often these things never perform as expected with specific hardware.

Maybe it isn't a hub and you have a few USB slots to work with? This could be an issue as well as USB is more designed for computer peripherals and shouldn't be given the task of handling audio/video or anything that creates large data streams.

I realize they make a usb audio interface so it should be alright to use it, I'm just saying that USB, by and large, is not dependable enough as a stable "always on" type connection. Especially when you start adding more demanding pieces of hard ware like another hard drive, a usb mouse add to this the audio interface and it is a crap shot as to who gets what part of the processor and when it might even transpire.

If I were in your place, from a cold boot up of the laptop:

Unplug whatever usb hard ware is plugged in before starting the computer.
After the laptop is booted, plug in the audio interface.
Start the recording software and see if you can get recognition of the usb audio interface from within the software.

Then plug in the other hard drive.

Hey

No I don't have an external USB. They're both inside.

I don't know what a USB hub is but I don't think I have one.

Normally, a hub connects to a single port on your PC and allows plenty more to be connected.
The trouble is that they starve connections of bandwidth when they really need it. For audio or any data that has to be transmitted there and then, this is bad.