Hard Drive Enclosure Not Seeing Drive Letter

[Ron Chusid]

I purchased a USB hard drive enclosure hoping to make a copy of a hard
drive from a damaged notebook. (I lose the video display on the
notebook, but when it does work the hard drive itself seems fine.) I
attached the drive to the enclosure (and used additional cable to use
the PS-2 port for additional power).

I tried attaching this to two different Win XP computers. In each case,
there is no drive letter assigned to the new drive after connection.
Device Manage shows the proper devices per the documentation, including
a new hard drive, but there is no drive letter. I can feel the drive
spinning, and the power light on the enclosure do go on.

I next tried an old spare drive I had from an older Win 98 notebook. It
works fine, including a drive letter. This drive does differ from the
one I need to back up in two ways--it is 40 GB while the one I'm
trying to back up is 60 GB. The one which works is from a Win 98
notebook while the one I'm trying to back up is from a Win XP which has
a different drive format.

Any ideas as to how to be able to access this drive? I have a tech
person coming tomorrow to repair the notebook, and would feel safer if
I had a new backup before anyone touches it. (I do have all the data
backed up, but I would still have to reinstall several programs added
since my last full back up.)

 

[Impmon]

Any ideas as to how to be able to access this drive? I have a tech
person coming tomorrow to repair the notebook, and would feel safer if
I had a new backup before anyone touches it. (I do have all the data
backed up, but I would still have to reinstall several programs added
since my last full back up.)

Sounds like you may need to format the new hard drive. Unformatted
hard drive would often show up but with no letter assigned. If that
doesn't work, you may need to use WinXP's compmgmt.msc (inside
System32 directory) From there, click on and expand Storage and then
click on Disk Management. Check and see what it shows up. You can
try to manually assign a drive letter and/or try reformatting.

 

[Ron Chusid]

It's not a unformatted hard drive. It's the hard drive taken out of my
notebook which has programs/data.

 

[Graeme]

I am interested in this problem - I will be doing the same thing once my USB
enclosure is delivered.

Have you tried using Partition Magic or some other such program? I have not
use the more recent versions, but would think that they would see the drive.

I read somewhere " Under Windows XP the largest FAT32 partition that can be
created is 32GB. Larger ones must be NTFS. Third party partitioning programs
can be used to create FAT32 partitions larger than 32GB. " So perhaps, it
is an XP thing - I would try using Partition magic.

Graham

 

[Ron Chusid]

The problem is that it would defeat the purpose if I did anything to
change this drive. I want to make a copy in case things get messed up
while they are working on my notebook, but I also want the drive
exactly as it is now to place back into the notebook. The drive is just
one partition, so it is possible that a 60 GB partition might somehow
exceed what this can handle.

I believe the drive I'm trying to read is in NTFS--it is from an XP
machine. I can read a 40 GB drive from an older Win 98 notebook without
difficulty.

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

I purchased a USB hard drive enclosure hoping to make a copy of a
hard drive from a damaged notebook. (I lose the video display on the
notebook, but when it does work the hard drive itself seems fine).
I attached the drive to the enclosure (and used additional cable to
use the PS-2 port for additional power).

I tried attaching this to two different Win XP computers. In each case,
there is no drive letter assigned to the new drive after connection.
Device Manage shows the proper devices per the documentation, inclu-
ding a new hard drive, but there is no drive letter. I can feel the drive
spinning, and the power light on the enclosure do go on.

I next tried an old spare drive I had from an older Win 98 notebook.
It works fine, including a drive letter. This drive does differ from
the one I need to back up in two ways--it is 40 GB while the one I'm
trying to back up is 60 GB. The one which works is from a Win 98
notebook while the one I'm trying to back up is from a Win XP which
has a different drive format.

XP running from the drive itself may be less critical of a less than per-
fect drive format than when it must include such a drive as an additional
drive. Run Findpart on it and check for oddities.

 

[Irwin]

Have you set up the drive as removable in properties?

Irwin

 

[Ron Chusid]

The drive doesn't show up, so I can't get to properties. (It doesn't
show up with this particular drive in the case. With the other drive
inserted, it shows up as a drive without any problems).

I wonder if there could be some limit on size of drive this particular
brand of case can handle. I'm tempted to try another, but also wonder
if I'll just have a second device which isn't doing me any good.

 

[Irwin]

Your initial message says you see it in device manager. Try going there
and setting it to removable. Reboot and see if you get a drive letter.
Irwin

 

[Ron Chusid]

I was thinking of the listing of drives under My Computer where I
can't see the drive to change its properties. I can pull it up under
device manager.

My notebook has been repaired (with no harm to the hard drive) but I
might still give this a try. It would still be helpful to be prepared
to be able to read the hard drive in case of a future notebook failure.
While I have next day on sight repair, it still dragged out to a week
by the time the parts were shipped. I still wonder why one drive works
fine, but the one which matters doesn't.

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

I was thinking of the listing of drives under My Computer where I
can't see the drive to change its properties. I can pull it up under
device manager.

My notebook has been repaired (with no harm to the hard drive) but I
might still give this a try. It would still be helpful to be prepared
to be able to read the hard drive in case of a future notebook failure.
While I have next day on sight repair, it still dragged out to a week
by the time the parts were shipped.

I still wonder why one drive works fine, but the one which matters doesn't.

Oh, why is that? Didn't I present you with a possible cause?
Any reason why you shouldn't pursue that?
Or do you often ask for advice and then neglect it when it is given to you?