[Darkicon]

I'm making my own external HDD with one that doesn't work anymore (HDD is ruined).

It's from a Western Digital WD2500 MyBook Essentials, with a Western Digital WD2500JB Caviar SE 250GB IDE HDD in it. The drive I replaced it with is a Seagate Barracuda 160GB IDE.

My computer (Using Windows Vista Home Basic) detects it as an external HDD, but it looks for drivers for it, and as far as I know, there are none, so it doesn't show up in My Computer as a HDD.

I don't have it hooked up right now, so I cannot verify this right now, but I believe it is listed under Other Devices in the Device Manager.

Is there any way to make the HDD work? Are the drivers for the HDD itself or the IDE to USB adapter?

[alwrmc]

You're trying to make an external drive from a HDD that you say doesn't work anymore"? Is the HD itself "ruined" or is the enclosure "ruined"? Do you have a way to test the HD (both of them) outside of the enclosure? The reason I ask is that just yesterday I took an old HD out of an enclosure and placed it in a computer where it is working. It would not work in the enclosure as an external and reported that it would not format or accept files to be written. Yet when I placed it in the computer as a second HD it indeed did have all the files that I had tried to write to it.!

[Darkicon]

Well, both the enclosure and HDD are ruined (I snapped a few peices of the enclosure to get it open, hehe), but the adapter is working fine as far as I know.

I tested the WD HDD in my computer and it's detected, but it gives me I/O errors when I copy stuff (Same with when it was in the enclosure), in a few minutes I'm gonna test the other drive in my computer, but I'm fairly sure it still works.

[brushmaster1]

I had a similar problem with a new enclosure. I tried it with three different drives, and Windows would detect none of them. I then disconnected my DVDROM drive (my only IDE connection being used by my DVDROM and DVD RW drives), and two of the three drives were detected (the third drive I already knew was bad). Then, upon installing the drives in the enclosure, they were detected by Windows.
The only remaining problem is that one drive was partitioned; A 6 GB partition for Windows, and 30 GB partition for programs and data. Only the 6 GB partition was recognized; the 30 GB partition is apparently lost.

[Darkicon]

Well, I tested the new drive in my computer, and it's detected and works fine, and I did get it to detect it as an external twice. But to get it to detect it and get it all working, I had to disconnect the power wire, reconnect it, then scan for hardware changes in the Device Manager.

Why won't it detect it right when I turn on my computer?

[Rich-M]

In most cases the chipset in the case dies and the original drive is ok so I would never try to reuse a case on an external drive not working. If the original drive works as an internal, toss the external case out.

[iframe]

If you buy a case fine but dont try to open any of the premade boxes they are not made for it
Some of the first maxtor moxes are just inposible to open without Breaking them..
So thats a NO GO

[Darkicon]

Originally Posted by Rich-M

In most cases the chipset in the case dies and the original drive is ok so I would never try to reuse a case on an external drive not working. If the original drive works as an internal, toss the external case out.

Would a dying chipset hurt the HDD?

I need an external, and don't feel like shelling out $100+ for a new one, and my computer is filled to the limit with internals.

[Rich-M]

Originally Posted by Darkicon

Would a dying chipset hurt the HDD?

I need an external, and don't feel like shelling out $100+ for a new one, and my computer is filled to the limit with internals.

No a dying chipset would not necessarily hurt a hard drive. Cases to create an external drive are about $25-39.

[Darkicon]

Thanks. I'm gonna test my homemade external for a couple days, and if it doesn't get detected again, I'm gonna pick up an external case.