Can't access drives connected via an EIDE-to-USB kit

I have an older, non-functioning PC that has four internal Western Digital Caviar EIDE hard drives (WD1200, 136AA, and two 450AA). Before I donate the PC and drives, I temporarily removed the drives; I want to examine them to make sure they don't contain any sensitive data.

I have a simple EIDE-to-USB connection kit that I was hoping to use to view the contents of these drives from my Windows 7 PC (a Dell Studio XPS). I connected the first drive. Windows detects the drive upon connection but it doesn't appear in Windows Explorer. "Devices and Printers" lists the device as "USB Mass Storage Device" but the properties don't say much; on the General tab the manufacturer, model number, and description are all "Unavailable". The model is "USB Mass Storage Device". The category is "Storage device". On the Hardware tab, Device Manager listed the drive as "Unknown device".

I tried the Windows Troubleshooter tool, but it says that it 'couldn't identify the problem'. I tried the other drives and had the same result. I also tried numerous USB ports on my PC and had the same result.

How can I make Windows 7 see these drives? Is a special driver needed to view drives connected via an EIDE-to-USB connection kit?

Have you looked for the drive in Disk Management. Click on start then right click on Computer and select Manage.

In the window select Disk Management under Storage and see if the USB connected drive is in the list. If it is, right click on the box where it has the Drive number and select "Online".

If the drive does not appear there you might need a Bios update, but beware, updating the Bios can be dangerous. Make sure you get advise first.

Thanks, DocBrown and MarkJ. The drives are all set to 'Master'; I came across that on a forum search earlier. I just checked; the drives do not appear in the Disk Management tool.

Hmm, good question. I purchased the kit a long time ago; I don't remember the vendor or the manufacturer. The kit came with a power transformer, a cable that connects the transformer to the power connector on the drive, and a USB cable with a blue, plastic EIDE connector on the end. The connector simply says "IDE USB". Perhaps I should spring for a new kit?

On second thought, I've successfully used this kit with other drives in the past--so the kit may be ok.

I posted a similar message earlier, on another forum. After I listed the model numbers, someone responded: "I don't think you'll get drives that old to work on a USB adapter - they're CHS mode drives not LBA, and need the Cylinder, Head & Sector parameters set up in the BIOS at boot for device I/O. As far as I'm aware it won't be able to be done on the fly for them to work as USB mass storage devices."

That might explain why I'm not able to detect the drives. What do you think?

Good to know; thanks.

FWIW, my four drives' sizes are: 14 GB, 45 GB (2), and 120 GB.