Unformatted Hard IDE Disk attached to USB converter not showing up in Disk Manager?

[buildingit]

Hi,

I bought a USB 2.0 to IDE/Sata Converter cable. My 16 GB hard disk was in my old computer 2 weeks ago and working at that time. I dbanned it and am now trying to see it through my USB connection but it is not showing up in Disk Management where my other drives and partitions are showing up so I am unable to format and partition it. I rebooted since hooking it up.


The converter instructions say that the device must be set to being a master. There is a diagram on the disk showing the jumper placement and it is set to master, so that is right.

There is a red light in the converter that lights up when I connect it to my USB, so I would guess the USB/IDE connection is working. I am not 100% sure which direction to plug the IDE parts together- they fit either way and either way it lights up- but doesn't show in Disk Management.

The converter came with a driver but the instructions say I don't need it if on XP, which I am on.

When I plug it in I hear the drive start up. The converter came with a power adaptor with a male 3-prong plug. It didn't come with a cord to plug into the wall but I had one- a female 3 prong and then the regular 3 prong wall cord at the other end. I used this. I hope it's the right type of plug? It could have nbeen for a kitchen appliance, but the hard drive is making its typical sound.

My USB2.0 connection is on a PCI extension card- my motherbaord came with only USB 1.1. But this coverter is hooked up to where I normally hook up my IPod, which also needs USB2.0. I guess I am mentioning this because I have never been 100% sure if my USB pci card is really operating under usb2.0.

In Disk Management, I tried pressing Actions-->Refresh but nothing seems to happen. I also pressed Actions-->Rescan Disks and it seemed to get hung up- I ended up having to turn off my computer.

I can't think of anything else. I don't know what I am doing wrong?

Thank You

[peekaboo]

could it be a jumper issue?
maybe the jumper on your hard drive should be set to mater or cable select.

[buildingit]

thanx for replying. The converter instructions say that the device must be set to being a master. There is a diagram on the disk showing the jumper placement and it is set to master, so I think that is right.

[Panama Red]

I've used externals that have said use Master jumpering too but when that didn't work, I changed to CS and bingo, problem solved. Give CS a try and see what happens. You can't hurt anything by trying.

[buildingit]

Thank you for replying. Well, I move the jumper thing to the CS position and rebooted- still no luck. I also moved it to position #1 (not master, slave or cs), rebooted, no luck.

At one point I looked at USB devices in Device Manager and it said Mass Storge Device was not working- it said "this device cannot start, code 10" I unplugged and/or rebooted but cannot reproduce the error. Now there are no errors listed but it just doesn't work.

A couple of times when I have tried to go into Disk Manager it freezes, down at the bottom saying "connecting to Logical Disk Management Service" or "Still connecting please wait" but it seems humg up saying this for minutes at a time. At these times I cannot even reboot- I must turn off my computer. This has happened twice. Other times it connects right away but doesn't show the drive.


edit- oh ha, the Device Manager is saying again that the Mass Storge Device cannot be started code 10. I wonder if this is just because it isn't formatted or if the USB is somehow the problem? I tried updating the drive but it says I have the most recent version. Also this works for both my IPOD and my other sandisk mp3 player so I don't want to ruin the driver either.

[Panama Red]

Do you have an internal connection in your computer you can connect this drive to? If so, maybe you can format it from there and then reconnect it to the external device. At least that way you can rule out whether it's the drive or the device that may be causing the problem.

[buildingit]

well, yes, I have more internal power outlets but all the ide cable outlets are taken up. I do have the old IDE cable from the old computer- I was going to post a separate question on that- I don't know if I can just extend these internal ide cables?.... thanx!

[Panama Red]

Just swap it with a current drive temporarily until you can put it back in the external. Or pull one of the other drives and try them on the external to see if they are recognized.

[buildingit]

well, I swapped it with both my disks (I have 2- my 40GB OS disk and the 250 GB one). I am not sure which is which in there but the first one I swapped out, on startup, my bios said "system disk failure". So I figured I had accidentally swapped the disk with my 40 GB disk. So I switched and hooked it to the other 250 GB disk. BUT, it ALSO said "system disk failure" on bootup, and it is not my OS disk. So I figure it is due to the way I have my 2 disks chained together with the IDE cables?

Anyway, the good news is I accidentally unhooked my mouse doing all of this and while troubleshooting what the heck was wrong with my mouse, I have discovered that I can indeed have 2 mice on the same computer!!! Yay- I have one cordless hooked to my serial mouse port and another USB mouse. Now I can have a separate mouse for my second moniter. Which makes all the trouble with this disk worth it

But back to the disk problem. I need to shutdown my computer to see how the disks are hooked together. If that is even the problem? I llooked at my other IDE cable and it just has female ends so I cannot use it to extend my current IDE cables.

thanx!!

[buildingit]

oh wait, I just thought, the 16GB disk, it was still set to master when I swapped it with my other 2 disks. Maybe that was why my system was trying to start up from it??- if I had 2 Masters, which I did. I will try one more time with this 16GB disk set to slave.....

[buildingit]

Wow, 2 out of 3 of the disks are now working through that converter. I hooked them up to my internal IDE cable and formatted them. Also, when hooking up to the converter, I think it is important to power the drive up before plugging it into the USB. Also, the direction of the IDE hookup is in fact important.

I have one disk that is not working but almost. I did not format it via internal IDE because I Really want to see what's on it. Also, it is in a cage and it is very hard to hook up inside my computer. It is a very old 32 MB hard disk. When hooking up via the adapter I get a Windows message:

"New Hardware Detected'
"A-A-A-A-AAA-AAA-A- USB Device"

On "add new hardware" it is also showing up as the same A-.... name.

But it is now showing up in Windows Explorer nor in Disk Management. I am absolutely positive this disk is formatted, partioned and has stuff on it.

I would imagine the file system on this disk is FAT. It probably had Windows 95 on it, maybe even Windows 3.1

I think I will take a break on this for a bit.

Thanx!!