External / PC HDD

[g4m3rof1337]

My External Harddrive wasnt being recognized after Windows had a problem with it running, so I tried a different cable, different USB cable, and another computer. So I opened the Enclosure, the Harddrive is IDE, while my PC is SATA. So I attached the Harddrive to my CD/DVD cable, and kept the Slave pin in the drive, nothing happened when I booted up, it didnt show up in the My Computer list, so I turned off the computer, unplugged the pin, and booted back up, and it recognized the drive, installed it, and still didnt show up, so I turned off, put the pin back in, and booted up, still doesnt show up.


Any ideas on how to get access to the Harddrive?



Thanks.

 

[PC eye]

Was the original factory partition left alone? That would be a Fat32 partition with the software needed for Windows and even Mac. When you first have an oops! in Windows and the drive isn't there suddenly when booting up try unplugging the usb cable and then back in. The installation screen for reinstalling the software usually needs a little prompting when something knocks the drivers out.

One method to see that remedied fast when going to use an external drive is to first download the software from the support site often in a zip file to have onhand. Once you have that before piling a new drive full of files you go into the Disk Management tool and reformat the Fat32 to NTFS folowed by unpacking the zip onto the new logical drive then seen in MyComputer.

From there on if Windows has a goober and you can't find the drive all you do is unplug and then replug the usb cable back in while Windows is running. The autoplay popup will appear when first redetecting the drive.

Without seeing something coming up while plugged inside the case would be normal since Windows(2K/XP/Vista won't even see a Fat32 partition without a little help. XP has to be installed on a Fat volume while 2K and Vista are out. You should still see the drive listed in the DM as well as on the post screen.

What is one option? Now that the drive is inside the case booting up with a live Linux distro can provide full access to Fat as well as NTFS partitions. Take for instance ubuntu 7.10 live copying files off of an external usb model here.



Before reformatting the drive to NTFS you would copy everything you could into a temp folder or two on the main drive depending on available space. Once the software is unpacked onto the reformatted/NTFS converted drive you may find it will still work in the external housing provided that is still intact.

 

[g4m3rof1337]

Can I still get a driver to work if the drive is plugged inside my computer via IDE? I cant really transfer the stuff over, since I've had the drive for a while so all my music and pictures are on it from my other computers.


Could the Slave pin have anything to do with this? Can SATA and IDE drives boot together?



Thanks.

 

[PC eye]

Both types of drives can be in a case together at any time. You simply set which one will be the default boot device. If Windows is installed on a sata model and needs to be reinstalled for some reason you would likely need to see any ide models unplugged to avoid seeing the boot information as well as boot files placed on the ide drive in at the time however if you want a sata to remain as a stand alone if later removing the ide drive.

Once the drive is working and seen inside the case it would be a simple matter of seeing the replacement download, usually a zip file, unpacked onto the ide drive. From there you would return it to the external casing if everything is still found in working shape and try getting the installer working again with a fresh detection of the drive.

With the drive working on the inside of the case you can also simply abandon the external housing for seeing it used as an extra internal storage device there. These are pretty standard drives simply placed in an external casing with the needed connections seen there.

Once you removed the jumper pin that set the drive in cable select mode for use on either the end or middle connector on the ide cable. The jumper helps when a second drive is present on the same cable. Sometimes when having a second ide cable in that had to be set to cable select with the jumper still on in order to be seen when booting Windows on the first set as master.

 

[tyttebøvs]

I am confused.

Was the original factory partition left alone? That would be a Fat32 partition with the software needed for Windows and even Mac.

When does a new drive contain software needed for the drive to work?

Without seeing something coming up while plugged inside the case would be normal since Windows(2K/XP/Vista won't even see a Fat32 partition without a little help. XP has to be installed on a Fat volume while 2K and Vista are out. You should still see the drive listed in the DM as well as on the post screen.

I'm not sure what you mean. Unless Windows is installed on a FAT32 partition, it will not be able to read a data partition elsewhere formatted in FAT32?

 

[Cromewell]

Without seeing something coming up while plugged inside the case would be normal since Windows(2K/XP/Vista won't even see a Fat32 partition without a little help.

Why not?

MORE INFORMATION
Windows XP includes an updated version of the FAT file system. This updated version is called FAT32. The FAT32 file system allows for a default cluster size as small as 4 KB, and includes support for EIDE hard disk sizes larger than 2 gigabytes (GB).

Note the following:
• Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows 98, and Windows 95 OSR2 also support the FAT32 file system.
• Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 does not support the FAT32 file system.

 

[PC eye]

I am confused.

When does a new drive contain software needed for the drive to work?

I'm not sure what you mean. Unless Windows is installed on a FAT32 partition, it will not be able to read a data partition elsewhere formatted in FAT32?

Fat32 is not simply seen as a logical drive when plugging in an external drive through a usb port. It took XP's SP1 to see usb 2.0 support there. Since the external models are meant to be Mac as well as MS compatible the factory partition seen is Fat32 not NTFS where an installer allows Windows to see it as a logical drive and ready for use.

For that it's the same for XP as with Vista not being backward compatible to Fat. You then select Windows or Mac when the drive's installer first comes up for the OS it will be used on.

Why not?

With the exception of the eSata type that plugs by way of an extension cable by way of a port on the front or top of a case or an addon expansion card connecting direct to a sata port on the board drivers still have to be loaded for either usb or firewire depending on the type of connection. You are still adding an external device like you would a printer needing device drivers in order to work.

Once you have a drive installed internally you are then using the onboard controllers through Windows where drivers are already installed and loaded. Once reformatted to NTFS and seeing the replacement software on the autoplay popup will appear when plugging an external drive in while Windows is already running. That comes up even while you are still able to browse the drive through Windows Explorer.