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Message started by Kris01 on 01/13/15 at 06:56:37

Title: Old hard drive questions
Post by Kris01 on 01/13/15 at 06:56:37

I've got a few HDDs lying around that I want to get files off of. They are XP and Win98 drives. I can't get Vista to recognize them. I have an external cable that plugs into the HDD and then feeds into the PC with a USB cable. The HDD also has it's own power source. It's some kind of adapter setup that I bought a few years ago. I know it works - I've used it in the past. It's a simple plug and play operation.

The problem is Vista won't recognize the drives even if I set them to slave. Do you think setting them to master or cable select would help? In the past (using a different operating system) I could just plug them in and a window would pop up corresponding to the HDD. I get nothing now. HELP!

Title: Re: Old hard drive questions
Post by verslagen1 on 01/13/15 at 08:01:13

I think it's a vista issue. I have a similar USB drive adapter and my son had said it didn't connect to some computers. At the time, I didn't care as it connected to all of mine. 8-)

Title: Re: Old hard drive questions
Post by TrevorKlein on 01/13/15 at 09:10:22

yeah Visa really ain't so good better upgrade it to like windows 7 or 8 and then for sure it will work

Title: Re: Old hard drive questions
Post by engineer on 01/13/15 at 15:00:04

I always move data in my desktop units by simply opening the case and adding the old drive as a second drive using the appropriate cables for the drive type and then copying the data over. From there the data can also be transferred to a flash drive or a backup drive and transported to any any computer including a laptop.

Title: Re: Old hard drive questions
Post by Kris01 on 01/13/15 at 16:53:13

That's what I'm doing except the drive stays external. It's connected via a USB adapter. Works great (except now! >:() and I don't have to open the case.

Ok, I tried a Win7 PC and had the same bad luck. Any thoughts?

Title: Re: Old hard drive questions
Post by engineer on 01/13/15 at 17:46:20

I don't know what could be causing your problems with the external transfer. Maybe your device needs a driver that Vista does not support. I have used Vista on newly built computers and had no problems with it in moving data between drives. But the older Vista machines used USB I ports which are slow, very slow. Does the Vista computer mainboard still use the ribbon type HDD cables or does it use the SATA cables for the drives. If it uses ribbon cables and the old drives use the same style cable I would open the cases and try it that way. Setting the older drives up as second drives might mean manually setting the jumper on the old drive to the "slave" pins.

Maybe you'll have to borrow a computer and do it with your USB device and then transfer the data via flash drive back to your Vista computer. Staples was selling 32GB flash drives for about $12 before Xmas. Good luck and I would like to hear about how you get it done.

Title: Re: Old hard drive questions
Post by Yonuh Adisi FSO on 01/13/15 at 18:35:30

You might try buying an updated adapter set up. When my old adapter broke I baught a new one and it works fine on my Vista laptop. You can get one off of ebay for a good price.

Title: Re: Old hard drive questions
Post by Steve H on 01/13/15 at 19:21:10

Most of the external USB drive adapters require the drive either be set to master or cable select since it is the only drive on the controller. That might be some of your problem.

Does vista acknowledge a USB device being connected? Make sure the drive has power before connecting it to the pc.

This may help

http://www.techspot.com/community/topics/troubleshoot-windows-wont-recognize-usb-hard-drive-fix-unassigned-drive-letter.122125/

Title: Re: Old hard drive questions
Post by old_rider on 01/13/15 at 20:06:26

It will also require an older USB adapter, I do not believe Vista accepts USB 2.0 or higher... not sure... i'll have to fire up one of the old systems to see...but then, I don't have your cable setup either....

Title: Re: Old hard drive questions
Post by TrevorKlein on 01/14/15 at 14:22:11

windows 7 and still same problem hmm what I think is that the HDD u got the externals are corrupted ones maybe not sure or maybe even the wires u try to connect are bad not sure but do let me know

Title: Re: Old hard drive questions
Post by Kris01 on 01/14/15 at 17:37:50

Thanks for the link Steve.

I'll get back with you guys about this if I get it working. All my flash drives (and anything else that is USB) work fine. I think the problem might lie in the HDD being old.

If I test the HDD power connector, what pins should I test and how much power should I get? 5 VDC, right?

Title: Re: Old hard drive questions
Post by Steve H on 01/15/15 at 04:18:22

http://www.playtool.com/pages/psuconnectors/connectors.html

Everything you ever wanted to know about pc power connectors. It has pinouts and voltage ratings for all standard power connections.

2.5" and smaller IDE get their power through the interface cable. I don't remember about the tiny SATA drives, sorry. I've got one in an external box but don't have the time to open it right now.

Title: Re: Old hard drive questions
Post by Kris01 on 01/15/15 at 15:32:27

That's exactly what I needed! I'm going to test the output of the power cable. Hopefully all that's wrong is that it's bad. I'm thinking it's probably ok though. Thanks!

Title: Re: Old hard drive questions
Post by ToesNose on 01/15/15 at 18:30:02

Are there any differences in the way the HD was formated? NTFS/Fat32? especially since you are talking about older HD's ::)

Title: Re: Old hard drive questions
Post by Kris01 on 01/15/15 at 20:56:14

I really have no idea what that means but NTFS kinda rings a bell. Would it make a difference?

I'm going to install them internally when I get a chance to see if maybe my USB/SATA adapter has died.

Title: Re: Old hard drive questions
Post by verslagen1 on 01/15/15 at 21:17:24

ntfs is the newer better file system
and
fat32 old window crap.

Title: Re: Old hard drive questions
Post by Kris01 on 01/25/15 at 19:25:10

Ok, I "borrowed" a WinXP computer from work. Shhhhh...don't tell anyone! Turns out with XP it worked just fine -- just like I thought.

Tried it again at home and now it works just great. Turns out you have to plug the connector in the right way. It only fits one way and apparently I got it to fit the wrong way. Ummm, bad day maybe? Maybe I'm just an idiot? I think some days that Murphy was an optimist. Oh well, at least it works now.

Title: Re: Old hard drive questions
Post by old_rider on 01/25/15 at 22:02:56

#1 pin (usually the one with the red line) goes to the left side, I believe...
LOL, now i'm going to have to open up one of the ones in the garage....

Good deal...glad ya figured it out!

Title: Re: Old hard drive questions
Post by Steve H on 01/26/15 at 03:25:19

Many of the USB kits don't have the key on the connector.

Glad to hear you got it figured out and working.

Title: Re: Old hard drive questions
Post by Pine on 01/27/15 at 07:27:58

Kris.. maybe some insight might help:

When you say that Vista ( or win7) cant read the drive.. specifically what do you mean?

Here's a story of mine:
I have a computer with one hard disk drive ( HDD) as the "root" or "C:" or "BOOT" drive. I bought another PC and was just going to copy the contents of the old drive to the new PC HDD. But I could not. The reason? the OS recognized the that the OLD drive was a BOOT drive and refused to give me access to "protected" data of that drive. However if, replaced the drives so the the OLD drive was now the BOOT drive on the PC I could then see it and access it just fine ( had to log in locally).

So the fix for me was to clear out a spare drive ( or use a big flash drive or two). Then install the old BOOT drive as the main/only drive and copy what I need from it to the spare or flash drive. Then reinstall the REAL boot drive and copy from the spare/flash drive to that.

NOTE: secondary drive ( non-BOOT) drives do NOT have this issue. Knowing this... I generally always have at least one secondary drive on any PC I have OR I copy stuff off the BOOT drive to a spare drive that i then would want to move somewhere else.

I hope this helps.

PS: I mentioned this somewhere else. But currently my PC has 3 internal HDD and a 4-bay hotswap HDD kit with another 3 HDD that I swap in and out as I need it. I have had all 6 drives going at once.

Title: Re: Old hard drive questions
Post by Kris01 on 01/27/15 at 19:17:52

Wow! You must need a lot of space.

It wouldn't recognize it as in the plug was backwards and couldn't be read. Completely my fault.

Title: Re: Old hard drive questions
Post by Skiprrdog on 01/30/15 at 10:33:40

NTFS stands for 'New Technology File System', which was a completely new file system ushered in with Windows NT and Windows 2000, huge improvement over FAT16/FAT32/DOS.
IMHO Microshaft really dropped the ball with that piece of bloatware known as Vista. I only ever had it on one computer, and the problems it caused me reminded me of the old 'Plug n Pray' days of Windows95!