[XCskater]

My conversion of IDE internal hard drive to USB shows zero space and zero content, and asks to reformat. Had hoped to have a look at contents to see if I wanted anything. Any chance I can still get files from the HD, or must I reformat?

[Triple6]

You shouldn't need to reformat. Are you sure you have the drive jumpered correctly? With some enclosures you need to use Master or Single rather then Cable Select or Slave or Master with Slave present; double check the jumper setting.

What is the capacity listed in Disk Management?

Was the drive compressed or encrypted?

[XCskater]

Thanks. The 4 jumper pins are open, which is Device0 Master. No jumper clip is present or provided with the enclosure, and I assume Master is the correct setting?

It is an 80 GB Fujitsu MHT2080AT. Disk Management lists the same capacity and free space of 73.5 GB (100% free).

Drive was normal notebook use, not compressed or encrypted to my knowledge.

Does this collectively indicate the drive is actually empty?

[DaveBurnett]

It hasn't recognised that is has any partitions on there.
HOWEVER that may not mean that there aren't as sometimes the disk geometry is mapped differently

You could try TESTDISK which is you are running it under Windows, does need Administrator rights.

[Triple6]

If the data is important, I'd try connecting the drive to another USB adapter/enclosure or system via an internal adapter such as this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16812203012

I've seen some drives just not work correctly with some USB adapters. But then again maybe the drive is empty or partitioned in a non-standard way.