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USB IDE Connection

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by johnws

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I have read hundreds of posts realting to my problem but NO positive answer.
I have a 40 Gig hard drive from my old computer and have it connected vie USB IDE cable device the hard drive spins and it is accepted as a plug and play device, you can hear a sound when you plug the USB cable in and also when you remove it,but it hasn't allocated a drive for me to open and get my files.
Could I get a simple answer to remedy this problem please.

6 replies

by oh smeg

Get a simple answer but without it there is no possibility of a [b]Simple Answer.[/b]

You need to tell us what the OS is on the computer you are currently using and what was on the Old Computer. If it is Windows you may have an issue if you have Vista with a Old FAT8 or 32 Partition as Vista can not read these and is unlikely to read a FAT32 Partition as well. Also if there is a NTFS Partition involved and you are attempting to read it with Vista the new security built into Vista may prevent you reading the Drive as well..

If the Drive came from a IBM Think Pad the Security Chip on the M'Board no longer being present will also prevent the ability to read the HDD unless you are using the same model Think Pad.

But you first need to look at the actual HDD it needs to be set to Master or Cable Select if it is a 3.5 inch IDE Drive and you need to remove the jumper all together if it is a 2.5 Inch IDE Drive.

Supposing that you are using Some Form of Windows have you had a look in the Drive Manager for the USB Drive? Open the Control Panel in Classic View then left click on Administrative Tools then left click again on Computer Management and when that window opens left click on management and post back with what is shown about the USB Drive.

Of course you need to have the USB Drive inserted before doing any of this.

Col

by nepenthe0

If you simply wish to retrieve your personal files from the old hard drive, connect it to the Coolmax adapter:

http://tinyurl.com/4vpu2o

Connect the adapter USB cable to the functioning computer. The old hard drive will be assigned a drive letter in [i]Explorer[/i]. Transfer your files.

Rick/Portland, OR

by shhite

Why don't you check to see if your computer is just naming the drive a letter that is already in use?

Assuming you have Windows XP OS this is how you do it.

Click on Start Menu then Control Panel
In classic view go to administrative tools
Then click on Computer Management and then Disk Management

In here it should name all the drives that the computer sees attached to the computer? it should give you size as well so you should easily be able to find your 40G drive.

If it is there your computer can see it... right click on the big white box by that drive and click on change drive letter... make sure to change it to something not normally used such as z...

Then go back to Windows explorer and look for that letter.

Let me know if this helps

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