Old notebook's HDD in enclosure (USB to IDE) doesn't show up in computer

[Martyvee]

Wondering if anyone can help me?

My old notebook's (XP) screen died, so I bought a new ASUS one running Windows 7.

I put the old notebook's hdd into a USB to IDE enclosure hoping to get bookmarks, music etc off it.

When it's plugged in, "USB to IDE" shows up in devices, and it is also an option when disconnecting USB devices, but I can't see the drive in order to access it in "Computer" and see what's on it.

Anyone know how to get the stuff off the old drive?

Cheers,

Martin

 

[JMMD]

Look in Disk Management to see if the old drive is visible there. It may just need to have a drive letter assigned to it.

 

[Martyvee]

It's not there, any other ideas?

 

[Zilpha]

This may be a silly question, but can you hear the drive actually spinning? Sometimes those enclosures require additional power to run the HDD. Are you in a USB 2.0 slot, or an older revision? If there is a USB 2.0 slot I'd try that.

 

[hughva]

Zilpha is probably on to something.
Does this enclosure have a separate power supply, or two USB inputs?
Laptops frequently lack sufficient power external drives.

 

[Martyvee]

It's powered by the usb port alone. I have used the enclosure in the past with another hdd (IDE) inserted, and my xp notebook didn't have a problem reading it. It seems just to cause problems on the new notebook (running Windows7).

Could it have something to do with the incompatibility with ide? even though it goes thru the usb port?

Thanks guys

 

[Martyvee]

Breakthru!

Zilpha and hughva thanks, you helped indirectly! When you asked if the drive was spinning, I thought it was because the led was lit up. Turns out when I picked it up, listened and felt for vibration there was nothing. Tried reinserting drive a few times to see if it was a bad connection, but nothing, then as a last resort, found a different usb cable and Voila!

All is sweet now, and am right now copying files across!

Thank you all for your input!

Regards,

Martin

 

[Zilpha]

OH, excellent. So glad you were able to get your files, and thanks for posting back to let us know how it turned out!