sata drive help from super nerds ?

[Docktor]

Okey, my mrs uses like 50 gazillion usb sticky things for her work, me bein cool as went to swap yesterday and buyed her a sata 2.5 inch WD drive and a usb case for it thinkin it would be easy to use...

I tried it on her pooter and on mine but the pooter just says usb not recognised. I can see it in my pooter, but cant format it or nothing, my pooter dont have sata thing on it (its old). but china girl who sold it said just plug it in and it will work coz its in a usb case thing... did she lie or are i doin somethin wrong ??
Its a wd 2.5" 1600BEVS 160 gig drive. cost me a hunny bucks with the usb case but its not worth shit if i cant make it goo vroooom. ..

Any ideas ?

[evilkarl]

First thing that comes to mind is it might be a faulty drive, easiest way would be to test it on another computer to confirm.
Second thing that comes to mind is the external Hard drive supports USB2 only and your old computer does not, Maybe updating your motherboard drivers will help, don't forgt to reboot afterwards
Also what type is USB cable came with the drive? Ofter they will give you a cable with mini usb on one end (Plugs into the external drive) and on the other end is dual USB heads, in this case both need to be plugged in as they both provide power and data transfer. It might be a case that the PC is not providing enough power to USB hence why testing it an another computer might shed some light.

[Docktor]

it got a cable with 2 heads on 1 end and one on the other. I got a usb plugged into my pooter that turns 1 into 4..... i plugged both from the lead supplied into the 4 port thingo, maybe i need to use 2 usb ports on my pooter instead of the 1 into 4 thing i got ?

I try

[Ross_247]

in some cases as it is bran new it will not recognize the drive or show up anywhere, you should just need to format it through Disk managment and Im sure it will be ok .. have seen this happen many times.. even with flash drives...

[evilkarl]

quote:Originally posted by Docktor

it got a cable with 2 heads on 1 end and one on the other. I got a usb plugged into my pooter that turns 1 into 4..... i plugged both from the lead supplied into the 4 port thingo, maybe i need to use 2 usb ports on my pooter instead of the 1 into 4 thing i got ?

I try


Thats the answer mate, you are plugging the device into a non-powered USB hub, it doesn't provide enough power to the hard drive. Plub the dual head USB cable straight into your computer without the 4 into 1 thingy (USB Hub).

As Ross mentioned also, you may need to partition and format it, so if the drive doesn't automatically open once plugged in properly, then go to the Control Panel, then Administrative Tools, then Computer Manager. Click on Disk Manager then right click on the drive in question. Select New Partition.

[Docktor]

you nerds are ok in my book. !. i put it on a lappy with 2 free usbs, it wasnt formatted and it wasnt active,,,,,, whatever that means, but all good now . thanks ya all.

[Large]

Yay for the turbo geeks!!