I'm dismantling an old Dell Dimension 4600 desktop. I have a good Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 Plus 200GB HD installed in the machine. I installed it a couple of years ago. So I removed the HD and bought an Antec MX-100 HD enclosure and placed the Seagate in the enclosure. The new external HD is not functioning correctly.

I can't get my new desktop or laptop to recognize the Seagate/enclosure HD. The drive is getting power (it has a power lite) but it is not recognized by either computer. The enclosure instructions are minimal.

Any idea how to trouble shoot this problem? I hate to just scrap the HD.

Thanks.

If you hot plug the USB is the USB recognizing new hardware?

If so is the drive recognized in Disk Management?

Originally Posted by jephree

If you hot plug the USB is the USB recognizing new hardware?

If so is the drive recognized in Disk Management?

No to both questions. I've plugged in the drive with the computer on and off. I've also looked for the drive in Explore and under Device Mgr without success.

Do other USB devices work on this computer?

Are you sure you are going into a USB 2.0 port?

Check your jumper configuration. Since you are installing it as an additional drive, it should be set up as a slave drive. Assuming that this was was you only drive in the Dell Dimension, it is probably set up as a master drive.

The jumper setting should be somewhere on the disc label. Some drives may be set as slave by removing all jumpers.

Good point except according to the enclosure it is SATA.

I did wonder if the SATA I / SATA II might be an issue.

Yet again if the USB is not detected the hard drive itself is not even in the equation yet.

The bare USB enclosure should be detected as new hardware.

Originally Posted by bkdc

Check your jumper configuration. Since you are installing it as an additional drive, it should be set up as a slave drive. Assuming that this was was you only drive in the Dell Dimension, it is probably set up as a master drive.

The jumper setting should be somewhere on the disc label. Some drives may be set as slave by removing all jumpers.

Checking the jumper settings is a good idea. The Seagate was a second drive with the Dell. Believe it or not the C: drive was only 60GB. So the 200GB was well used. I have all the Seagate info, so I will check it tonight.

Thanks.

Although that computer has both IDE and SATA drives the enclosure you mention is a SATA enclosure.

Technical Specifications: Dell Dimension 4600 Series Service Manual

Antec.com - Veris

The only jumper on SATA drives is either SATA II or SATA I.

SATA II is default. Setting it to SATA I might be worth a try.

Or vice versa.

Again assuming your USB connections are working properly.

Try the procedure outlined on this page

I've tried two different hard drives in the new enclosure and I tried to plug them into two different computers. I got power, but the various combinations were never recognized by the computers. So I just packed it up and sent it back to Amazon. I'm going to Fry's and buy an enclosure there. So if that one doesn't work I can just take it back.

Thanks for your help.