Why is my 3.5" external HD enclosure not working?

[sorryociffer]

I have an external 3.5" CoolMax HD enclosure that my dad bought for the 30 gig IDE HD I gave him (it was NIB). I installed the HD according to instructions (it was not my 1st one) and plugged in the power plug and the USB cord then plugged it into the USB on both his and my computer.

Nothing happened, neither computer recognized a drive being plugged in. Why? We are both running current versions of XP on modern computers.

The HD spins up to speed but no lights on the case to indicate anything like their should be.

Could I have a defective enclosure?

S.O.

 

[evongugg]

Did you plug in the IDE connector?
Try using different USB ports on the computer. Sometimes there is a non-working USB port.

If it is still not working take the hard disk out and hook it up to a computer. If you can read the hard disk, then the enclosure is bad.