Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Common Interests Help with IDE to USB stuff

Okay you guru's I have another question.

Here's the story.

My motherboard on my main computer died. And in the interim before a new one is installed I bought an IDE to USB device. I'm trying to access the drive from the down computer. It's not tragic if I can't but I'd like to have this tool for future use.



With this inside


Now I followed the directions (they're very vague) and hooked up the cable to the drive I want to access, then plugged it in and then plugged it into the USB on the computer I'm currently using. Nothing.

Here's how I have the drive I'm accessing set

It's on CS. The computer recognizes it as a "usb mass storage device" and installs the software for it. But I can't access the drive. In my computer there is no path to it. In control panel it shows it under device manager and says it's working fine, but I can't get to it at all. There's no drive designation popping up for it

The instructions say "1. Comfirm (sic) device is under master mode" What does that mean? Does the drive I'm accessing have to be set to "master" or does the drive on the computer I'm using to access it have to be set to "master"????


Also, the drive I'm trying to access is XP formatted, while the computer I'm using is ME. Been told that doesn't matter.

Any ideas?

Thanks gang!
(I miss my Contour!)

Nate

I do not believe ME can read XP's tables. ME uses FAT32 and XP uses NTFS. XP can read everything before it but ME cannot read things that came after it. Read this and it explains more, also found this program that is freeware that will let you read NTFS in ME, 98, and 95. I am pretty sure this is what your problem is.

Move that jumper on the drive over 2 so it connects the 2 pins under where it says "MA"

No effect. I downloaded the NTFS reader and switched the drive to master.

When in master it doesn't even register. Control panel shows the yellow "!" and the device has "code 10" associated with it.
When in CS it shows up and says device is working normally. However control panel shows a green "?" next to it in device manager. Checked drivers and best one installed.

When either in CS or MA the NTFS reader shows no NTFS drive installed.


I'm lost.

Side note,
Took it to work and tried on my XP computer at work. It did the exact same thing.

Any thoughts?

Try setting the drive up on your work's XP machine as a slave on the IDE bus.
It's possible that the drive got toasted in someway from your motherboard going out. If the drive works in this manner it rules out the possibility of a dead drive.
As long as the drive is confirmed as functioning okay, you can then try contacting either the support number (if it's toll free) from the literature, or alternatively take it back to where you purchased it, explain your problems, and ask them to test the cable.

If both of these show that the hardware is working fine, then the drivers on the computer can be addressed next.

**edit**

In the pic of the stuff from the box, I don't see a power connector for the hard disk ... please confirm there is one! LOL
I see the black power converter, but not sure if that is the correct adaptor from this angle.

Does the drive show up at all in explorer? Can you format it there? See if there are any driver updates or any problems with this product.

Edit: Also is the USB port USB II? Tried checking the drivers on your USB controller? Does this device work with ME? It prolly does but somethings are strange.

If you say it "works" and is under control panel, then have you tried going to CP, and then administrative tools-->computer management->>then, under "storage" click "disk management".

in the colored set of graphs on the bottom, click the drive (should be "drive x", where x is a number) that correlates to your device. right click->change drive letter. change it to another drive.. see if that works?


Ray