Recognition of USB peripheral 2

[boondockbob]

I purchased an external USB 2.0 housing/case for a 20 MB harddrive that I stripped out of a PC I wasn't using. I installed it in the case, plugged in the electric cord and the USB cable (I can hear it running), and the power light comes on, but my laptop refuses to recognize it. How do I access this harddrive? Thanks.

 

[rvnguy]

Do you have it jumpered as a master?

Was this formatted? Using fat32 or NTFS?

What OS is on your laptop?

rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all

 

[G0AOZ]

USB's enabled in the BIOS? Depending upon your OS you may need to install drivers if you've not already done so...

ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[boondockbob]

I did not change any jumpers when I removed the HD from the PC. How do I change the jumpers to master?
I did not format the HD since I wanted to keep the data that was already on there (BTW the HD worked fine as a separate drvie in the PC).
My OS on the laptop is XP Pro.
Thanks for your help.

 

[boondockbob]

I have used the USB ports for other uses with no problem, so assume the problem is not with the BIOS. Since my OS is XP Pro I asume I do not need to install a driver. Thanks for your help.

 

[G0AOZ]

Usually there is info written on the outside of the drive indicating which headers need jumpering for it to be a Master. How was it connected previously? Was it the only hard disk in the previous PC? If so, it's probably likely to already be jumpered as a Master...

Have you looked in Disk Management? Maybe you just need to allocate a drive letter for this disk to be "seen" in Explorer...

ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[boondockbob]

The disk was mastered as a slave (drive D) in the PC. I just checked for markings on the drive and found what I assume is what you mentioned. I found two pins jumpered under the "SL" marking on the disk. Next to it is the marking "MA" that I assume that if I moved the jumper over there it would change to a master. However, I am using this as a secondary drive to my drive "C" on my laptop. Would I still want to change it to a master?

 

[rvnguy]

USB IDE drive enclosures normally require the drive to be 'master'.

As this is not located on the IDE Bus this is not an issue being jumpered as master. This drive will interface through the USB bus.

rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all

 

[boondockbob]

You guys are great! I moved the jumper to the "MA" pins but it didn't work. So...I figured, why not try the other pins. One to the left of "SL" was labeled "CS" and, IT WORKED!! The laptop immediately recognized the harddrive and I was able to access everything on it. Thanks for your help.

 

[rvnguy]

Thanks for posting back with your success and your solution.
Glad you got it working and now have access to your data, Time to insure that you adopt a back up scheme.

rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all