IDE adaptors

Elmer_Dudd

Here's a tough one..............I have bought one of those Easy IDE adaptors from Maplins.....says you can read any old IDE drives via usb plug and play.

Got the connections all sorted (jumpers set to master as per Maplin advice)and the device is seen (as drive D) in my computer but it is saying disk not formatted.

Now I know that the old disk was from a computer running Win 98 and that there is data on it so I don't want to format it as all the data would be erased.

How can I view the data on the old connected drive so I can transfer some accross to my new Vista system.

Any ideas greatly appreciated.

Elmer:cool:

bluboy

Did it come with a separate power supply?

Browntoa

my ebay one reads the data on a win98se hdd , have to set it to slave though

Elmer_Dudd

Yes....its connected and seems to be powering the drive OK (red light on and drive making noises!!)

Elmer

Belnahua

Check you haven't inadvertently put the jumper on the Cable Select pins on the HDD?

Elmer_Dudd

Browntoa wrote: »

my ebay one reads the data on a win98se hdd , have to set it to slave though

I will try setting it to slave................

Elmer

Elmer_Dudd

Its not reading the device on slave or CS jumper options options......only when on master..............i have also tried connecting it to a desktop running windows XP and the same thing happens..asks for drive to be formatted

5bellies_2

Suggests to me the drive isn't right, as in faulty or wrongly configured.

There is a possibility - depending on how old/small the drive is - that it was configured to a non-standard configuration in the original PC, and that the dongle is seeing the drive as a standard config.

Was the drive definitely working before?

Belnahua

What happens if you go into Disk Management, can you bring the drive on line in there? Does it show any partitions?

chunter

I had one of the earlier type a couple of years ago. Again from Ebay. Plugged into the usb port. Eventually threw it in the bin because it was so unreliable and I was worried it would actually corrupt the drive.
I now have a battered old 500mhz which is open on one side, which I can plug IDE drives in directly as a slave drive. (when switched off of course.)
It's an ebay thing. some of these Chinese widgets work, some don't.

Elmer_Dudd

Ok....I remember that that drive i am having problems with was a 80gb second drive I fitted to run alongside the old Win 98 desktops original one........maybe something in the way it was formatted as a slave drive makes it difficult to read.
I am taking out the old Win 98 original drive and seeing if i can read anything on that..........

Elmer