[bohonks]

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

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The big majority of External hard drives ( normal drives inside cases ) need to be put as MASTER.

I know mine doesn't work unless it's at master.

Switch your jumper again.

After that, the disk drive should be recognized. All you'll have to do then is go into Disk Management, and format the drive. It should be seen as unallocated space.

Put it as Primary.

[Vaillant]

The big majority of External hard drives ( normal drives inside cases ) need to be put as MASTER.

I know mine doesn't work unless it's at master.

Switch your jumper again.

After that, the disk drive should be recognized. All you'll have to do then is go into Disk Management, and format the drive. It should be seen as unallocated space.

Put it as Primary.

[bohonks]

sorry, i failed to mention that this is going to be kept as an external drive..so i just want to use it as back up purposes. Should I still switch it to master??

[Vaillant]

Yes, absolutely.

If you want it to work in that external case, it needs to be set to Master most times.

[bohonks]

ok, i just switched the jumper ffrom slave to master...XP still doesnt recognize the drive

[Vaillant]

Hmm that's odd.

Did the enclosure come with an auxiliary power cord?

3.5 inch disks need more power, and cant rely on only USB power, unlike the externals made with 2.5 disks

Also, can you try other USB ports?

[bohonks]

yes, it came with an adapter which i have plugged in..i have also tried a different USB post...still nothing...Im at the point where maybe i should go buy a prepackaged all inclusive external hard drive

[Vaillant]

Perhaps. Frankly I've exausted my knowledge on external drives. All I know is that mine works like this lol.

Try going through the manual for the external case one last time before you really consider returning it... You may have missed a detail.

Else than that, I suggest you wait for another tech guy to look into this thread, cause I'm defeated.

Don't give up

[Vaillant]

The Harddrive could be faulty too...

Try plugging it into your machine, through the internal IDE.

This time around, be sure you put it as slave, on the same IDE cable as the first Harddrive.

Can you do that for me? Tell me what happens, if the drive shows up in windows.

Be sure to have the computer turned off while you're plugging it in, and when you'll remove it!

[bohonks]

oh great...now yer talking a foreign language...I am a finance person, and not terribly literate with computers...what your suggesting is taht i open my desktop and install the hard drive? yikes, i dont feel so confident doing that....is this hopeless? should i be going to comp usa now??!!!
One thing i will add is that when i turn the external drive on and off, i do hear the familiar ding of that associated with a USB item

[Vaillant]

Ok lol I was assuming you knew stuff about computers.

No, if you're not familiar, stay out of the computer

Well, If it does give you the ding, its a good sign...

Here's what I need you to do.

Go into the computer management ( right click My Computer > manage ), and find Disk Management, under the left pane.

you should have Disk 0, as your C: drive

Is there a second disk, Disk 1 ?

[bohonks]

sorry for the delay, yes..there is a disk 1,2,3, and 4..they are all removeable, and i believe they are all my sd/mb camera card readers...they all have a lil blue sign over them...when i look at their properties, it says TEAC USB...so i know none of them are my samsung external hard drive