USB External Hard Drive Enclosure and

[byrocat]

I picked up one of those USB enxlosures for 3.5-inch hard drives so
that I could recover the image and music files from my daughter's
computer that had totally crashed so they could be transferred to the
new system.

That hard drive was an IBM/Fujitsu 14GB drive that worked perfectly.

I also had picked up a Western Digital WD800 80GB drive from the local
Factory Direct off-loader.

This drive definitely was not giving a response and the USB was not
showing up on the drive list so doing formats was not possible.

Quick questions:
should I run fdisk on the WD drive? (I'd obtained a 2.5-inch drive
for another computer from the same source and there were no problems
using that one (of course, first thing done was to boot from the
vendor CD and restore the OS, which did a partition and format....)
Is there such a thing as a drive cable with four drive plugs or is a 2-
drive cable the only one? If so, then I'm going to ahve to swap the
connector for the CD/DVD drive and use that one on the HD.
What cable setting should I use with the USB enclosure or is master by
itself OK?

Yes, pretty well a total newbie on hardware installation and set up if
it doesn't work right out of the box.

Go ahead and laugh, my family does it to me all the time.

 

[mscotgrove]

I picked up one of those USB enxlosures for 3.5-inch hard drives so
that I could recover the image and music files from my daughter's
computer that had totally crashed so they could be transferred to the
new system.

That hard drive was an IBM/Fujitsu 14GB drive that worked perfectly.

I also had picked up a Western Digital WD800 80GB drive from the local
Factory Direct off-loader.

This drive definitely was not giving a response and the USB was not
showing up on the drive list so doing formats was not possible.

Quick questions:
should I run fdisk on the WD drive?  (I'd obtained a 2.5-inch drive
for another computer from the same source and there were no problems
using that one (of course, first thing done was to boot from the
vendor CD and restore the OS, which did a partition and format....)
Is there such a thing as a drive cable with four drive plugs or is a 2-
drive cable the only one?  If so, then I'm going to ahve to swap the
connector for the CD/DVD drive and use that one on the HD.
What cable setting should I use with the USB enclosure or is master by
itself OK?

Yes, pretty well a total newbie on hardware installation and set up if
it doesn't work right out of the box.

Go ahead and laugh, my family does it to me all the time.

When you plug a USB drive in, the computer should go 'Ding Dong', and
if it is a new drive messages are shown on the screen along the lines
of , "New Drive detected ... Drive ready for use"

It sounds like you are not getting these messages and you cannot see
the drive in Explorer.

The final test is with Computer mangment application (Control panel /
Administration Tools / Computer Management). This will indicate the
drives visible to the computer, including ones that are not formatted,
or different operating system (eg a MAc, or Linux). If none of these
tests show you the WD drive, but do show you the Fujitsu drive when
used in the same USB case, then I would suggest the drive is dead.

If the computer cannot see the drive, then fdisk will not see it
either. Get a new drive.

Michael
www.cnwrecovery.com

 

[Arno Wagner]

I picked up one of those USB enxlosures for 3.5-inch hard drives so
that I could recover the image and music files from my daughter's
computer that had totally crashed so they could be transferred to the
new system.

That hard drive was an IBM/Fujitsu 14GB drive that worked perfectly.

I also had picked up a Western Digital WD800 80GB drive from the local
Factory Direct off-loader.

This drive definitely was not giving a response and the USB was not
showing up on the drive list so doing formats was not possible.

So either it is incompatible with the USB enclosure (unlikely)
or the enclosure or the drive is broken. BTW, 80GB gives you
a very bad price/performance ratio today, even more so with
an external enclosure to be paif for in addition.

Quick questions:
should I run fdisk on the WD drive? (I'd obtained a 2.5-inch drive

Will not help, if it does not show up. Fdisk only deals with
errors in the fulesystem structure, so the drive has to be
accessible for it do have any effect.

for another computer from the same source and there were no problems
using that one (of course, first thing done was to boot from the
vendor CD and restore the OS, which did a partition and format....)
Is there such a thing as a drive cable with four drive plugs or is a 2-
drive cable the only one?

Since there are only signal lines for 2 drives, a 4 connector
cable would not help.

If so, then I'm going to ahve to swap the
connector for the CD/DVD drive and use that one on the HD.
What cable setting should I use with the USB enclosure or is master by
itself OK?

That is fine.

Yes, pretty well a total newbie on hardware installation and set up if
it doesn't work right out of the box.

Go ahead and laugh, my family does it to me all the time.

Well, you got the first step right, namely to ask for help.
I would say your family is being unfair.

Arno

 

[byrocat]

Well, you got the first step right, namely to ask for help.
I would say your family is being unfair.

Arno, we laugh at each other all the time. Essentially, with them, I
have no chance to develop a swelled head. Case in point: I'm a power-
reader (always with book in hand) and I've gotten hooked on romantic
comedies and Regency period novels when I mistook a romance for a
fantasy novel. (Julie Kenner's Guardian series).

Thanks for you comments and suggestions. I'm going to try to see if I
can get the thing working one more time.

I wouldn't be surprised if the drive is "drek" as I'd bought it as a
refurbished unit.

The external enclosre didn't cost much ($20) and I'm probably going to
get a 2.5-inch enclosure for use at work (beats the heck out of USB
dongles)

The one that I have and the working drive will become an addition to
the g'daughter's system (more music!)

 

[byrocat]

The USB does show up as being there and with the right information on
the name/type of the drive, but not the "ding-dong Drive ready for
use" message.

I'll take Michael's advise and drill down from the computer management
section.

Alternative would be to take the drive in to the local computer shop
and ask them to format it.