Recognizing ATA to USB internal HD

I found out by opening my case on my piece of **** dell that i only have one bay for a HD. So my only choice is to go external. Well my dad and I figured out that it would be about $40 cheaper if we bought an internal HD and a case that would convert IDE to USB instead of an external drive. I bought an internal 80G Seagate HD for $50 at CompUSA(It was on sale, sale ends Jan.3) and a Bytecc IDE to USB drive converter case. We got the drive into the case no problems. But when I tried to install the device on my WinXP machine it will notice a new device but cant install it. The DiskManager Cd that came with the HD is no help because it can only install it if it is connected through IDE or Serial. The software that came with the case is no help either because it only installs the USB 2.0 drivers which i already have installed. The directions that came with the case (by the way were written by someone without a h.s. dimploma, or a foreigner) say that WinXP should recognize it as a USB Mass Storage Device which is bullshit. I tried the Add New Hardware and selected the Unknown Device; didnt work. I also looked under Device Manager and, get this, it sayed the unknown device was "Working Properly." How does WinXP know the device is working properly when it doesnt know what the hell it is? Anyway does anyone have any suggestions besides Tech Support?

You could try to uninstall everything, and disconnect the device!

Re-install the USB2 software from the CD that came with the converter case, then try connecting the device. I would expect it to show up as drive "G"

What model of DELL is it ?

Just because you have the USB 2.0 Hub etc drivers doesn't mean that you have the drivers appropriate to a specific device.............IF YOU DO NOT INSTALL THE DRIVERS FIRST IT WON'T WORK ;)

Try uninstall and re-install.

Cheers

I can only offer what my USB2.0 HDD is detected as...

1) It should show in Unplug or Eject Hardware as "USB Mass Storage Device" as your manual says...
2) It should show up as a drive letter (normal HDD, not removable media) after formating it. Also if it is preformated, as many HDDs are.

I never ran into the problems you had when I connect it to Windows 2000 systems. They automatically installed it after detecting it. So, like nihil suggested, reinstall the drivers. After you get Windows to detect the ATA to USB Adapter thing, then finding the HDD shouldn't be a problem.


Edit: Just incase you didn't, make sure you plug in the External HDD Case into AC Outlet - there is no way a 500miliwatt USB Port can supply enough power to power a full size HDD.

You didn't mention the dell model but if you are using a 2.0 device and the motherboard only supports 1.0 then it may not recognize properly. Should default to a lower speed but that has not always been the case. My USB 2.0 DvD drive had similar issues until I added a 2.0 PCI card.

I just read your post again. The software that comes with the HD would only supports IDE or serial? That's what you bought. The bytech box would have the USB drivers but they have the same drivers installed. Does the thing (box) have power? The USB IDE conversion probably does not have enough power to supply the drive if not. /edit sorry Tim didn't see your post about the power.