External HardDrive Not Showing up! Help Please!

[m0narch]

I need to back up about 20G of files, because my computer is so virus ridden that I can't use it properly anymore. SO...
My friend told me to buy an external harddrive, and when I went to the store, the guys tell me that they only sell internal harddrives (and a casing that connects it to your usb port to make it an external.) I ended up buying the internal harddrive only without the casing, with the guy in the store telling me that I put the harddrive into my computer, and it will work.

WRONG. I tried everything - that I could possibly try, because I am NOT computer literate at all, so I didn't want to screw anything up.
The harddrive was NOT showing up anywhere - including the device manager.

I went back to the store tonight, and bought the casing that transforms the harddrive into an external, and plugged it in and set it up, and turned it on, and AGAIN - it is not showing up anywhere - including the device manager.

I even tried to plug it into my mom's computer to see if it was my computer screwing up, but again, the harddrive is not showing up anywhere on my mom's computer either.

What is wrong?? I have read a lot of stuff on the net tonight, but there just doesn't seem to be an answer to my specific question.

THANK YOU for reading this, and thank you for any help that you can offer.
I am NOT computer literate at all, and I am completely having a nervous breakdown. I cannot afford to buy any more parts, as I have now spent 100$ this weekend to "fix" my computer, and it just isn't working

Please help!
Mandy
figur09@yahoo.com

 

[k.jacko]

Is the hard drive in the casing an ATA one? If so, check the jumper settings.
See whether its M (master) SL (slave) or CS (cable select)
Best to set it to CS.
Your pc should make a sound when you connect the drive, often even if its doesnt' mount the drive.

 

[m0narch]

Hey!
I have no idea what SATA and IDE and all that mean.. so I'm sorry I can't answer that hehe.

But I researched jumper settings and all that lastnight, and my hard drive came in CS already. I tried switching to slave, but that didn't work so I changed it back.

Also, my computer (and my mom's) does not make a sound at all when I connect the HDD. The light on the USB case goes on, but that's it. No sound, no whirring.. no nothing

Thank you for your suggestions though, I appreciate them!
M

 

[nickc]

does u're computer have USB2?

 

[mikescorpio81]

Right-click "My Computer" and select "Manage". Scroll down to "Disk Management" and you should be able to see the drive there. Right-click the drive (probably says something like Unknown Drive) and select "Initialize". You can then format the disk and begin using it.

Let us know how you go :grinthumb