Very OLD hard disk drive to USB

[xaris_sm]

hello,
i am wondering why i cannot use two very old 2.5" hard disks (from 90's) with my external usb/ide adapter in order to access data on windows 7
the disks are
Seagate ST9420AG 420 MB
Seagate ST9145AG 128 MB

is this something to do with hardware/firmware usb commands (if they are any?) on the side of the disk? or drivers from the side on Windows?the windows show no device no activity at all when i connect them.

no need to say that my my external usb/ide adapter works fine with ide disks from GBytes generation,
also these 2 old disks working fine when attached to an old laptop and both of them are boot ok

any ideas?

 

[xaris_sm]

any ideas at all?

 

[mdd1963]

DO you have a molex power connector connected to the drives in question, and, if so, can you hear the drives spinning up when the adapter or it's power supply are powered on?

 

[xaris_sm]

DO you have a molex power connector connected to the drives in question, and, if so, can you hear the drives spinning up when the adapter or it's power supply are powered on?

i forgot to mention that both disk are spining when i connect them to my usb/ide adapter, power is not the issue here

thanks