How to convert external/USB hard drive to internal/IDE

[Swaroop]

Hi:

I have a Western Digital USB hard drive, which had served me well for
2+ years. Recently, when I returned from a short trip out of town, I
found that my PC was not recognizing the hard drive and the hard drive
kept making a strange loud clicking sound, like the head was somehow
attempting to read the hard drive but failing. After several attempts,
I decided to try some alternative approaches to fixing the problem.
First, I tried connecting it to my Linux box, but I didn't know how to
access the device (/dev/usb??). Next, I took the bold step of opening
up the enclosure and found a plain ol' IDE hard drive inside. I
stripped the hard drive out of the enclosure. For this, I had to loosen
some screws and detach the drive from a circuit board. I'm guessing
that the circuit board provided the necessary power to the drive and
also acted as a convertor from USB to IDE. Then, I tried connecting the
IDE drive to my Linux machine and found, to my surprise, that Linux
recognized the drive without any configuration. I was able to mount it
and access the data on it without any problems. Next, I disconnected it
from the Linux PC and connected it back to my Windows PC (running
Windows 2000). In both cases, I connected the drive to the secondary
IDE controller with a master/only drive setting on the hard drive. But,
although my Windows PC recognizes the drive and assigns a drive letter
to it, it thinks that the drive is unformatted and prompts me to format
it whenever I access the drive. Why is this happening? What would be
the best way to recover the data on the disk?

Thanks in advance,
Swaroop

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I have a Western Digital USB hard drive, which had served me well
for 2+ years. Recently, when I returned from a short trip out of
town, I found that my PC was not recognizing the hard drive and the
hard drive kept making a strange loud clicking sound, like the head
was somehow attempting to read the hard drive but failing. After
several attempts, I decided to try some alternative approaches to
fixing the problem. First, I tried connecting it to my Linux box,
but I didn't know how to access the device (/dev/usb??). Next, I
took the bold step of opening up the enclosure and found a plain
ol' IDE hard drive inside. I stripped the hard drive out of the
enclosure. For this, I had to loosen some screws and detach the
drive from a circuit board. I'm guessing that the circuit board
provided the necessary power to the drive and also acted as a
convertor from USB to IDE. Then, I tried connecting the IDE drive
to my Linux machine and found, to my surprise, that Linux
recognized the drive without any configuration. I was able to mount
it and access the data on it without any problems. Next, I
disconnected it from the Linux PC and connected it back to my
Windows PC (running Windows 2000). In both cases, I connected the
drive to the secondary IDE controller with a master/only drive
setting on the hard drive. But, although my Windows PC recognizes
the drive and assigns a drive letter to it, it thinks that the
drive is unformatted and prompts me to format it whenever I access
the drive. Why is this happening? What would be the best way to
recover the data on the disk?

Clicking = drive probablygoing bad.
You saw the data in Linux.. Get it off on that machine.
Once the data is off, download the drive diagnostics from the manufacturer's
web site and see if the drive is bad.

 

[David Webb]

There is no need, nor is it recommended, to set the drive as master unless there
is a slave unit on the same IDE cable in a master/slave configuration.

Try setting it as a single drive configuration if there is no other device on
that channel.

| Hi:
|
| I have a Western Digital USB hard drive, which had served me well for
| 2+ years. Recently, when I returned from a short trip out of town, I
| found that my PC was not recognizing the hard drive and the hard drive
| kept making a strange loud clicking sound, like the head was somehow
| attempting to read the hard drive but failing. After several attempts,
| I decided to try some alternative approaches to fixing the problem.
| First, I tried connecting it to my Linux box, but I didn't know how to
| access the device (/dev/usb??). Next, I took the bold step of opening
| up the enclosure and found a plain ol' IDE hard drive inside. I
| stripped the hard drive out of the enclosure. For this, I had to loosen
| some screws and detach the drive from a circuit board. I'm guessing
| that the circuit board provided the necessary power to the drive and
| also acted as a convertor from USB to IDE. Then, I tried connecting the
| IDE drive to my Linux machine and found, to my surprise, that Linux
| recognized the drive without any configuration. I was able to mount it
| and access the data on it without any problems. Next, I disconnected it
| from the Linux PC and connected it back to my Windows PC (running
| Windows 2000). In both cases, I connected the drive to the secondary
| IDE controller with a master/only drive setting on the hard drive. But,
| although my Windows PC recognizes the drive and assigns a drive letter
| to it, it thinks that the drive is unformatted and prompts me to format
| it whenever I access the drive. Why is this happening? What would be
| the best way to recover the data on the disk?
|
| Thanks in advance,
| Swaroop
|

 

[Swaroop]

David/Shenan, thanks for the quick response.

The diagram on the hard disk that illustrates the jumper settings shows
that, if I remove the jumper completely, it behaves in 'Single or
Master' mode. The other three options are 'Master w/Slave Present',
'Slave' and 'Cable Select'.

Thanks,
Swaroop

 

[RB]

USB drives often make "Clicking" noises if the usb port is not providing
sufficient power for them. If the enclosure has a method of using external
power you can check this out.

 

[Jonny]

The external enclosure's bios may have a different layout interpretation of
the hard drive. Thus, filesystem seen by Linux, but not windows 2K. The
filesystem is probably FAT32. Or, if you have a slave on the secondary,
wrong jumper setting for the hard drive you're mentioning. The default
setting for any external enclosure is master alone for Western Digital
drives. Not appropriate if a slave is present.

Copy the data while you can in the Linux box. Afterwards, use boot media
from the Western Digital website to determine the health of the hard drive
mentioned.

The external enclosure has its own power supply, a bios, ide bus and
controlling chipset, and an input/output circuit for USB bus
interpretation/translation.