[Johanna]

I bought a Seagate 320GB hd with an Ultra external enclosure. It can be connected through SATA or USB2. I do not seem to have anywhere on my motherboard to plug in the SATA connector, but they did send the internal cord and the PCI slot thing. I have two USBports on my computer. One is hogged by my printer, the other has a USB hub. I can't get XP to recognize the external hd either through the hub or plugged in directly through the USB port. The hard drive is getting power, and it doesn't appear to be damaged, but it doesn't show in Device manager and I can't make it show up in "Add new hardware". What am I doing wrong? Does it need returned because it won't work with my computer, or am I overlooking something? I would even consider adding the Seagate hd as an internal hard drive, but I can't see a way to connect it without the SATA, and unless I'm missing something, I don't have a SATA connection. Mobo is a
Board: Biostar M7NCD nForce2
BIOS: Phoenix Technologies, LTD 6.00 PG
Thanks, guys!

Johanna

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The MOBO you have is an older Biostar product from about 2002-2003. According to the list of stuff it incorporates, it has 6 USB2 ports, but NO Sata ports. To use a SATA HD with this board, you would have to get an add-in controller card. (kinda cheap to buy).To use the
USB or the SATA your drive needs to be powered? I am assuming that the unit come with some kinda external power source? If it is powering up, and NOT being recognized by the system, is there perhaps software that came with the unit? USB generally comes with software that is installed BEFORE the device is hooked up. The software tells you when it's ok to plug the USB cable up, and then continues to install the device.
If the device (ie HD) isn't defective, it would definitely give you a better experience using SATA! The add-in board will have the drivers for XP included, or incorporated into the BIOS on the board. once the SATA is installed, the HD should load right up and allow the system to format and partition it just like a regular (internal) HD. Hope this helps. Barefoot

[barefoot]

The MOBO you have is an older Biostar product from about 2002-2003. According to the list of stuff it incorporates, it has 6 USB2 ports, but NO Sata ports. To use a SATA HD with this board, you would have to get an add-in controller card. (kinda cheap to buy).To use the
USB or the SATA your drive needs to be powered? I am assuming that the unit come with some kinda external power source? If it is powering up, and NOT being recognized by the system, is there perhaps software that came with the unit? USB generally comes with software that is installed BEFORE the device is hooked up. The software tells you when it's ok to plug the USB cable up, and then continues to install the device.
If the device (ie HD) isn't defective, it would definitely give you a better experience using SATA! The add-in board will have the drivers for XP included, or incorporated into the BIOS on the board. once the SATA is installed, the HD should load right up and allow the system to format and partition it just like a regular (internal) HD. Hope this helps. Barefoot

[Samm]

Hi Johanna

Can you tell me:

Does the drive show up in disk manager? (Run.. diskmgmt.msc)
When you plug the drive in to the USB port (not hub), does windows detect a new device has been added?
Does the enclosure have it's own power supply?

[barefoot]

Forgot to ask if the PCI card that came with the drive has software to load drivers for the SATA board. One way or another, drivers have got to be loaded to get the drive to work. I am assuming the you got the software with the HD. You say it is powering up, so I feel that the drive is ok-just the drivers aren't loaded.

[Johanna]

Thanks, Samm & Barefoot!
The case is a Tiger Direct barebones deal, and has two USB ports on the front that don't connect to a blessed thing on the inside. The only USBthis comp has are the two ports on the back. I guess this mobo does not have SATA connectors at all- can you tell me what I would need to buy and where to put it to use the drive with SATA?

The only drivers it came with are a cd labeled "for Win 98" and I tried it anyway. Setup.exe informed me it was for Win98, too. No other software was provided. Disk Manager and Device Manager do not "see" the drive at all. It does have its own power cord, and I can hear the fan and the lights come on, so it's getting power. I rebooted several times, but no "new hardware found" message, and I can't install it through the "I know what it is and will install the drivers myself" option because it's not listed, and I have no drivers. The one page of instructions tells me XP will recognize it, but it's not doing it through the USB, that's for sure.

I may have used term "PCI card" incorrectly. What I have is a cable that should plug into the mobo, but I see nowhere it could go, and there is a metal piece for the back of the case with the port for where the SATA cord would connect the ex drive to the computer. What is an "add-in controller card"? Would that allow communication between the mobo and the drive?

Thanks for all the advice and help guys. This is much better than banging my head on the wall.
Johanna

[Samm]

An add-on sata controller card might be your best option, especially if the USB on your machine is going to be flakey. This is a PCI card that provides internal & usually on external sata port. (see link below for a better idea)

http://www.tigerdire...e...&CatId=1455

The rear bracket you currently have is for connecting to an internal sata port. This would still be an option with the add-on sata card, or alternatively you should be able to connect the drive straight to the cards external sata port (assuming it has one)

[Johanna]

Yep, Samm, I think you're right. I don't have the card, but that's what I need to make this work. The card will have drivers, XP will find the drive, and then I can use the SATA port instead of messing with my USB, which would be slower anyway. My fault for never making sure my mobo could support SATA.

I have another ex hd that is USB, and never had any problems with it. So I wonder why I can't at least use the new one with USB? Is it because of the size of the hard drive? Can I plop the new hard drive in my old ex hd and use it? (I use an old 40 gig in my old one) Just curious, that's all.

If you guys haven't already guessed, this was one of those bundled specials from TD with rebates, and I knew just getting the Seagate 320Gb hd was worth the $79 this will end up costing me. I got another 3 user package of CA for free, too! If I could blast Norton off of here without a reinstall (I've tried, and it's been disastrous!) I would be installing CA now.
Thanks,
Johanna

[Samm]

Hi Johanna

Re. using your new drive in the old external caddy... You could try it I guess but wouldn't like to promise it will work.
It would be worth connecting the new external drive & caddy to another computer, just to see if it works ok on a different machine.

I wouldn't have thought the size of the drive would be an issue here, but I could be wrong. It's more llikely to be one of the following :

1. Lack of power to the drive. Try unplugging your printer & hub from the computer so that the ext.hdd is the only usb device connected. If the ext. hdd has it's own power supply, then make sure this is connected as well

2. Faulty USB cable.

3. Flakey USB controller (it is Nvidia after all!)

4. Faulty drive or caddy

Hope this helps!

[barefoot]

>If you guys haven't already guessed, this was one of those bundled specials from TD with rebates, and I knew just getting the Seagate 320Gb hd was worth the $79 this will end up costing me. I got another 3 user package of CA for free, too! If I could blast Norton off of here without a reinstall (I've tried, and it's been disastrous!) I would be installing CA now.
Thanks,
Johanna>

I take it that you're dissatisfied with a Symantec product? You said Norton, but you didn't specify which product(s). If you are trying to get Noton anti-virus, Systemworks, or firewall off your system, They have an uninstaller program that you can download from their support website. I can't remeber the file name at present, but it saftely removes their products. BTW they have a beta program called Norton 360 that I am a testor for. Has a killer antivirus; firewall; spam killer; pyshing filter and integrates with IE-7 to check for websites that are fraudulent, or has malware on it. It also removes the older Norton stuff, as well as other brands of security products. I've been testing the 360 on an XPpro SP2 machine now for months, and have NOT got one problem like I had with the older products. Not one virus, malware, pyshing scheme has gotten thru. Log on and try it for free and see how it works for you. We also get a discount on the final release when it comes outta beta. Works on Vista too. The only other security software that works with Vista (Other than Microsoft stuff) is PCCillin. Thought this might be helpful.

Barefoot!

[Johanna]

I bought a card, and I will install it tomorrow, which will effectively give me two SATA connections- one internal, one external. I might just use the new drive in the system and set the ex hd case aside for now. The problem was no SATA compatibility with my mobo. I don't know what I was thinking, either- the old ex hd case uses ribbon cables, too, just like the hd I have in the comp now. Most of what I know about hardware is a couple of years old, and I haven't kept up with all the advancements, obviously.

I use Norton Internet Security 2006, and to be honest I have no complaints with it. I've never had trouble configuring it, and Norton has never let me down by letting any bad guys through. Norton is a resource pig, but my hardware is good enough that Norton doesn't slow my computer down. I used to use Norton because all the OEMs that I supported came with it already installed, and I needed to know how to fix it. I use it now because if I try to uninstall it and replace it, bad things happen. I have tried the Symantec tool, and a few other tricks, but this is an old XP install with four versions of NIS overlaid on top of each other, and I'm sure the registry is a Symantec mess. To switch security clean, I would need to reinstall the OS, and I'd rather wait and do it fresh with Vista.

I need to upgrade my motherboard first, because it's maxxed out with a gig of ram. For XP and the way I use this computer, my cheap graphics card is adequate, but I'll need a new one for Vista. At that point I'll decide to bump this computer down to the kids and put together a new one with one of the new AMD processors and even USB ports I can depend on. By the way, for anyone reading through this drama that hasn't fallen asleep, or searching this next year, you get USB2 with the MS service packs, not hardware. If Windows does not have the service packs applied, you can use USB2 equipment and you will get USB 1 performance, period. Also, until you install SP1 on XP, Windows will not recognize a drive over I think 120 gigs. (Someone correct me if I'm wrong on the size.)

Thanks for the help, and I'll let you know how the card and new drive are working tomorrow. I never thought I'd use my first computer's 40 gig hd. Then I got this one and thought I'd never fill 80 gigs. I think this new 320gig Seagate will last about a year, then I'll need more. If this were paper, I'd be killing a forest.
Johanna

[Samm]

Also, until you install SP1 on XP, Windows will not recognize a drive over I think 120 gigs. (Someone correct me if I'm wrong on the size.)

You're right on the size. The limit 120GB or 137GB (depending on drive translation etc). The reason is that anything over this size requires support for 48-bit LBA translation, which XP SP1 does.
It also requires a 48-bit LBA compatible bios for native drives (i.e ones connected to the motherboard's IDE/SATA controllers) - I mention this so anyone reading it who has an older computer running XP doesn't assume that having SP1 installed guarantees their system will recognise drives over 120GB.

Let us know how you get Johanna