WIN 7 can't recognize IDE to USB external hard drive. Please help.

Hello Windows 7 Forum members,

For some reason my HP Laptop (Win 7 Home Premium) can't see/recognize my usb external hard drive (seagate). When I start/restart my computer and connected the usb cable into laptop, it shows the icon on bottom taskbar (safely remove hardware and when clicked on the usb icon, I see "open Devices & Printers and Eject USB to IDE bridge), but I can't see my drive at all when I click on "my computer"?

I can only see it under "right click Computer, Manage, Device Manger, Disk Drives," it only says; "generic USB Disk USB Device". And when I expanded the USB controllers via Device Manager, I can see it under USB Mass Storage Device. Sadly, I can't do much there/here unless Win 7 can see/recognize the drive under "My Computer".

<> HD is 40GB IDE Seagate (enclosure is PowerSpec 3.5 IDE to USB 2.0)
<> Drive is only storage for data, documents, pictures and softwares/programs, etc.
<> Drive is/was not formatted

Again, this drive was never formatted, only for storage purpose (i.e. pictures, documents, data, etc.). I can see it on my old computer when connected internal via IDE cable.

Please someone help me because I have a lot of my newborn daughter's pictures and my wife has a lot of important documents on the drive. All I want is to be able to see and open this drive again.

Thanks for your time and any help is greatly appreciated.

I had almost the same problem with my old Fujitsu Siemens Laptop, (Using desktop now) but I fixed it! The difference is that I had no documents on it; the problem existed already when I plugged the hard drive in for the first time! I formatted it and then it worked. Your problem is that you can't format it, since the files would be removed. I don't think I can help that much this time...

DanRex said:

I had almost the same problem with my old Fujitsu Siemens Laptop, (Using desktop now) but I fixed it! The difference is that I had no documents on it; the problem existed already when I plugged the hard drive in for the first time! I formatted it and then it worked. Your problem is that you can't format it, since the files would be removed. I don't think I can help that much this time...

I know that's the sad part which I don't want to format this drive at all cause I all want is mainly for storage only.

Sardonicus said:

You may need to add or re-add the drive letter, which can be done from Disk management.

I tried that already and it won't let me re-name/re-add to a different letter. I can see it under "Disk Management", but it won't let me do anything. This really is a pain cause I need my documents and daughter's pics/videos.

I can post a pic via Disk Management if you would like to see?

Dasviv said:

Your best bet will be;

1. buy another usb interface cable, adapter or casing.
2. try to find out the name of the manufacturer of the usb interface and download their drivers
3. if all else fails, then you can try replacing the hard drive

hope it helps,

Amir

I just got a similar behaviour until I found that I hadn't plugged my IDE connector correctly. A mechanical key is supposed to prevent any offset from the correct alignment, but mine didn't. After plugging it correctly, everything went back to normal. So you might want to make sure that your IDE connector is correctly aligned. Good luck!