IDE 2.5 to USB 2.0 am I getting enough power?

[halomaster56]

I have one of those drive recovery kits with the sata, IDE, power cords and all that. So i figured i would be able to get some of my old stuff off my laptops IDE hard drive. Obviously its not that same size as a ide for a desktop so theres no place i can see to plug power into it. When i plug it in the computer realizes a new drive is in, but it will not come up when i open my computer, any suggestions on how I can get to work?

 

[Paperdoc]

I'm not sure what kit you have. Laptop drives are different, and their power supply connections are part of the only connector on them, along with the data lines. No doubt that is why the computer can see it (so it must have power) when you plug it into your kit.

Now, does the kit's instructions tell you anything about installing software or a driver for it on your computer? I do not know whether it is supposed to make anything you plug into it just appear in My Computer, or whether you need to use included software. Just what "kit" do you have, and what do its instructions tell you to do, and to expect?

 

[halomaster56]

It is the Ultra USB 2.0 to IDE/SATA Cable adapter
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3276554&CatId=3770

 

[Paperdoc]

Hmmm! That Tiger Direct website basically says there are no drivers or anything to install. It's just supposed to make your drive appear in My Computer right away. The only glitches I saw in user review notes was one about power connections to a desktop 3½" IDE drive (you don't have that situation) and a note that it seemed to want the drive jumpers set to Slave, which again you don't have.

Only suggestion I can offer now is to check in Disk Management whether the drive is showing in its LOWER RIGHT pane as a hardware device that is present with a defined Partition that does NOT have a letter name assigned. If that is the case, sometimes you can RIGHT-click on the Partition and Change or give it a letter name, exit out of Disk Management, and reboot for the change to take effect. IF it shows as a RAW format disk or tells you to Format the drive, do NOT do that - doing so would wipe out all your old data.