External Hard Drive Issue

Nahualli · 02-12-2009, 03:00 PM

Hello everyone, and thank you in advance for reading this.

I had an AccomData external hard drive I bought when CompUSA was liquidating. I've had it for a year or so, maybe more. The point is, it has a particular type of power adapter, that resembles a PS-2 connector rather than the typical headphone jack-type power connectors that tend to be more common with these devices.

This cord was precisely what got lost in a recent move. Not being able to find the cord for months, I at last despaired (my music library is on it) and I bought a rocketfish IDE hard drive enclosure, because this drive was old enough to still not be SATA. Both my current machines use SATA drives, so I can't piggyback this drive as a slave at this moment.

The problem is the Rocketfish enclosure is only recognized by any system I connect it to only momentarily. The Add Hardware Wizard will flash, install USB IDE Bridge drivers, then do nothing. In the event the enclosure was faulty, I even got it exchanged, and it didn't work the second time.

I'm a little leery about what to do. I have been in computers for about 10 years. While not a die-hard, I know my way around a motherboard. I'm fairly positive the reason this isn't working is because there's maybe insufficient power from the enclosure, or some other wiring problem. The drive was working fine up until the day I moved, it was only because of a missing power cord that I decided to replace it.

Please don't ask me why I didn't just try buying an extra power cord or even another identical drive online. I'm still kicking myself over how much this will eventually cost me. :)

I just need to know what I should try now. I am basically holding a drive with no enclosure. It's a Seagate 7200 160Gb IDE drive. Stuff I've tried

-- Jumper in Master setting
-- Jumper in Slave setting
-- No Jumper
-- XP machine
-- Vista machine

Some ideas? I am not a fan of Geek Squad.

-M-

reaver84 · 02-12-2009, 05:17 PM

You said that both of your systems currently use SATA drives now (internally). You should be able to just install a spare IDE drive with either a Master or Cable Select setting.

I'm a little confused on your problem. What are you trying to do specifically? or what CAN'T you do?

02-12-2009, 03:00 PM	#1 (permalink)
Nahualli Registered User Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 1 OS: Win XP SP 2	External Hard Drive Issue Hello everyone, and thank you in advance for reading this. I had an AccomData external hard drive I bought when CompUSA was liquidating. I've had it for a year or so, maybe more. The point is, it has a particular type of power adapter, that resembles a PS-2 connector rather than the typical headphone jack-type power connectors that tend to be more common with these devices. This cord was precisely what got lost in a recent move. Not being able to find the cord for months, I at last despaired (my music library is on it) and I bought a rocketfish IDE hard drive enclosure, because this drive was old enough to still not be SATA. Both my current machines use SATA drives, so I can't piggyback this drive as a slave at this moment. The problem is the Rocketfish enclosure is only recognized by any system I connect it to only momentarily. The Add Hardware Wizard will flash, install USB IDE Bridge drivers, then do nothing. In the event the enclosure was faulty, I even got it exchanged, and it didn't work the second time. I'm a little leery about what to do. I have been in computers for about 10 years. While not a die-hard, I know my way around a motherboard. I'm fairly positive the reason this isn't working is because there's maybe insufficient power from the enclosure, or some other wiring problem. The drive was working fine up until the day I moved, it was only because of a missing power cord that I decided to replace it. Please don't ask me why I didn't just try buying an extra power cord or even another identical drive online. I'm still kicking myself over how much this will eventually cost me. :) I just need to know what I should try now. I am basically holding a drive with no enclosure. It's a Seagate 7200 160Gb IDE drive. Stuff I've tried -- Jumper in Master setting -- Jumper in Slave setting -- No Jumper -- XP machine -- Vista machine Some ideas? I am not a fan of Geek Squad. -M-

02-12-2009, 05:17 PM	#2 (permalink)
reaver84 Registered User Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 11 OS: XP x64 and Vista x64	Re: External Hard Drive Issue You said that both of your systems currently use SATA drives now (internally). You should be able to just install a spare IDE drive with either a Master or Cable Select setting. I'm a little confused on your problem. What are you trying to do specifically? or what CAN'T you do?