I just bought a samsung 3.5 250GB hard drive. I assembled in the Kingwin case, switched it to slave (as opposed to master) and attached it to my Dell XP via USB. When I goto my computer it does not recognize the drive. All I see is my hard disc drive which is my C drive...and my removeable storage which is ny DVD stuff. When I right click on "my computer" then select "manage" , then goto "Device manager"..I do see the samsung USB device listed under disc drives. What should I do next to get it working. Im assuming this was never "formatted" or "partitioned". I apologize for being so clueless about this, I thoght this would be easier. All I want to use it for is to store music and pictures. Also, since I bought the hard drive seperate from the case, it doesnt have any type of disc or software that I can use to help me out (and certainly no instructions). Any help would me much appreciated

Why did you switch it from master to slave? The board in the case contains an IDE controller and so you basically have a IDE channel with only one drive. The only drive needs to be the master.

Sorry, i should have made mention that this drive was just going to be used as back up. Should I still switch it to master from slave??

also, i just switche from slave to master and there still is no change...still doesnt recognize the drive

Yes, it should be master.

It will not show up under "My Computer" until there is a filesystem on it. You can not create a filesystem until you partition it, so ...

Go to Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management. In there go
to Disk Management. Scroll through the devices and see if you can find it. You want to create a new partition and create a filesystem on it. I have seen that in some cases Windoze gets confused and does not know how big the disk is. If you connect the disk to the system (as a slave if there is a master device on the IDE channel) and create the partition, then put it back in the USB case.

It should show there and hopefully you should be able to partition the disk. You can also use the device manager under control panel, system, to see if it can see it.

ok, when i goto Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management. In there go to Disk Management...i only see my disk 0, which is my c drive...then i see disk 1 (removeable f:), disk 2 (removeable g:), disk 3 (removeable h:), disk 4 (removeable i:), cd rom 0 (d drive), and cd rom 1(e drive)......when i go up towards the "device manager" > disk drives..i DO see my Samsung USB device listed...Any thoughts???

What are the disks 1-4? Memory card reader?

I would try partitioning the disk by connecting it to the system, if you have an open IDE connection. Once you have done that, then install it in the USB case.

What does the device manager say about the device? Does it say that it is working?

yes, im sorry, disks 1-4 are memory card readers...i would prefer not to open up my computer as i am a finance person and not exactly tech savy...the device manager says that the samsung drive is working properly...

Nothing to be sorry about, just wanted to clear up what those disks are.

You did try scrolling down in the disk management tool, correct?

I am not sure of what else to suggest. I can understand your not wanting to open up the machine. Do you know of someone who could help you? It is also possible that you could try Knoppix and see if it can determine the size of the disk, but that might be more than you want to try (no opening of the case, but you would need to download the CD ISO file and burn a CD, then boot with it).

Have you check to see if there are any drivers for the Kingwin enclosure? That is what would be needed, not for the disk.

They list some drivers:

http://www.kingwin.com/support_dvr.asp

But I don't know if it is for XP or not as there is nothing saying what it is.

I have personally seen the system not know how big the disk in the usb enclosure was, which was solved by putting it in the system.