External Hard Drive Not Recognized

I'm trying to pull some data (namely pics and music) from my old Dell's hard drive I have it hooked up like this



to my dv9000 and it never shows up under my computer but oddly enough if I go to the safely remove hardware function it lists a USB mass storage device and I can disconnect it (although it takes quite some time).

It's not making really funny sounds or anything but it does sound as if its trying to read and cant.

What do you guys suggest?

 

If thats what I think it is then you are going to need a power source better than usb. I had one of those to get the data off of my old lappy drive. The one I used had space for an IDE and Power supply. The power supply hooked into the wall and ide cable when to my old firewire case. It looks like you have the IDE portion but I don't see the power supply anywhere. I may be wrong but I don't think usb power will turn that thing on.

 

Btw, the drive shows up because it does recognize that you have something in the USB port, but without the right power only have of the job is done.

 

Thanks alot brotha! I do have three other of these types of drives and they do work but I suppose it is a very real possibility that you are correct. Where do you suggest I get one with external power like yours?

 

did u check if windows actually recognises the drive under computer management (or the vista equivalent). it may recognise the drive but not any partitions in the drive to show in My Computer. A USB 2.5" shouldnt require an external power source but who knows. id suggest u check computer management first. also see if the bios even recognises it. if it has an OS present see if you can boot from the USB drive too.

 

So what does that mean?

 

well it means that windows does indeed detect your drive but doesnt detect any partitions on it. Perhaps the file system or partition table is corrupt. It could even mean the drive is broken. I dont know if anything like partition magic is available for Vista. right click the drive where it says unreadable and also where it says unallocated and see what options u have. perhaps theres an option to fix or scan.

 

The only available options was properties which didnt do much good. It does look as if partition magic is only available for XP. I'll look around for something similar any suggestions?

 

what happened to the laptop this was pulled off of? if its still around u cud test to see if it works. what brand is the drive? u cud download the diagnostic tools for that brand and see what happens.

 

The laptop it was pulled off had bad memory and I just got a new laptop and the old one sat around for like a year without power I think that might have something to do with it. I'll google that diagnostic tool idea and see what I can come up with. Its a 60GB Hitachi Travelstar 4200RPM

I found this Drive Fitness Test not quite sure how it works though do I do the create CD option?
http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm#DFT

 

yup u create a CD and then restart your laptop and boot from the CD to start the tests