Iii Hdd
Posted on Thursday, March 6th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
I’m using an USB to IDE (HDD) adapter. How does that work exactly?
Can I take the hard drive out of my old computer(internal drive) and hooked it up to a USB to IDE adapter(R-drive III)? How do I install a hard drive using that device? The R-drive III USB to IDE adapter didn’t come with instructions. When I installed the USB my computer recognized it but nothing happened. It only recognized it because I plugged in a USB. It did not recognize the hard drive.
Do I need to change the BIOS? How do I change the BIOS(give details)? I have no idea how that works. I need to find a good article or website on it. I don’t think I can set the drive jumper using an USB to IDE adapter, though I’m not clear on what a drive jumper is exactly.
I thought it would be more like an external drive. you can just plug those into a USB and it works. Internal drives don’t work like that I guess.
A USB to IDE adapter works exactly like a USB drive enclosure. The only difference is, you don’t have the box protecting the hard drive.
In order for a hard drive to be recognized it has to be formatted and partitioned. If it isn’t, it will be recognized as being attached, but won’t have any drive letters or usable storage space. This matches the description you gave (USB plugin sound, but not drives showing).
If using Windows XP, right click My Computer, Manage, then Disk Management. You will see your drive listed there as unallocated storage. Right click it to partition it how you like. NTFS format is best, unless you want to use the drive in other operating systems (eg earlier Windows versions, Linux, Mac OS) in which case you should use FAT32.
If the drive is already partitioned/formatted, and doesn’t show in Disk Management, the USB/IDE adapter is probably faulty. Many of these devices are cheap and often just won’t work.
You don’t need to change the BIOS for anything. The BIOS only needs to be changed to alter the boot order (eg. if you wanted to boot from this new drive). Whether you use the drive internally (via IDE) or externally (via USB) has nothing to do with the BIOS setup.
It may be the case that you need to change the jumper on the drive since it is IDE. Usually for them to work with external adapters/enclosures, they should be set as either Master or Cable Select (CS). Try both. If neither work, try Slave as well, just in case. The drive jumper is a little plastic thing sitting on the pins on the drive where the connections are. The jumper will sit so that it’s covering a top and bottom row pin. There will usually be either 4 or 5 pairs of pins (in columns), each one representing a Master/Slave/CS setting (the other settings not being used). The white label on the top of the drive will have a drawing showing what pins mean what setting.
And FYI, external drives are the same as internal ones. They are literally the same thing. An “external drive” just has the enclosure, and a USB (or Firewire, or eSATA) adapter. Sometimes the enclosure will have a “quick backup” button, which invokes backup software. But physically, the drives themselves are no different from any internal drive.
Maxtor One Touch III 200GB External Hard Drive