Using old hard drive for external hard drive

I am trying to set up the hard drive from my old computer as an external hard drive to my new computer. I can see the old drive under disk management. It is marked as not initialize. When Initialized is clicked the message is "The device is not ready". How do I find out what is causing the drive to be not ready? I have the jumper pins on the old drive set as per Weratern Dtigial's instructions. The old computer's OS was win XP and the new compter's OS is Win 7. Any ideas on how I can get access to the data on this old drive?

Jumper should be set to master.

How do you have the PATA jumpers set?

1) The old drive is in an external enclosure with a USB connenction.
2) Will try the master pin setting ( WD has said to use the single setting?).
3) Explain PATA junper set??

ahsmithjr said:

1) the old drive is in an external enclosure with a usb connenction.
2) will try the master pin setting ( wd has said to use the single setting?).
3) explain pata junper set??

pata = ide.

Additional data that may of some use:
The internal hard drive of the new computer the file system is NTFS. The external hard drive , from the old computer, has a file system of FAT32.Could this be the problem? Can windows 7 work with a FAT 32 file system?

Below is the recommended way to Move disks - the fat 32 filing system shouldnt be causing the problem:

This section describes the steps to take and considerations associated with moving disks to another computer. You might want to print this procedure or write down the steps before attempting to move disks from one computer to another.
Backup Operator or Administrator is the minimum membership required to perform these steps.
Verify volume health
Use Disk Management to make sure the status of the volumes on the disks is Healthy. If the status is not Healthy, you should repair the volumes before you move the disks.
To verify the volume status, check the Status column in the Volume List view or under the volume size and file system information in the Graphical view.
Uninstall the disks
Uninstall the disks you want to move using Device Manager.
To uninstall disks
Open Device Manager in Computer Management.
In the device list, double-click Disk drives.
Right-click the disks you want to uninstall, and then click Uninstall.
In the Confirm Device Removal dialog box, click OK.
Remove dynamic disks
If the disks you want to move are dynamic disks, in Disk Management, right-click the disks that you want to move, and then click Remove Disk.
After having removed dynamic disks or if you are moving basic disks, you can now physically disconnect them. If the disks are external, you can now unplug them from the computer. If they are internal, turn off the computer, and then physically remove the disks.
Install disks in the new computer
If the disks are external, plug them into the computer. If the disks are internal, make sure the computer is turned off and then physically install the disks in that computer.
Start the computer that contains the disks you moved and follow the instructions on the Found New Hardware dialog box.
Detect new disks
On the new computer, open Disk Management. Click Action and then click Rescan Disks. Right-click any disk marked Foreign, click Import Foreign Disks, and then follow the instructions on your screen.
Additional considerations
When moved to another computer, basic volumes receive the next available drive letter on that computer. Dynamic volumes retain the drive letter they had on the previous computer. If a dynamic volume did not have a drive letter on the previous computer, it does not receive a drive letter when moved to another computer. If the drive letter is already used on the computer where they are moved, the volume receives the next available drive letter. If an administrator has used the mountvol /n or the diskpart automount commands to prevent new volumes from being added to the system, volumes moved from another computer are prevented from being mounted and from receiving a drive letter. To use the volume, you must manually mount the volume and assign it a drive letter using Disk Management or the DiskPart and mountvol commands.

If you are moving spanned, striped, mirrored, or RAID-5 volumes, it is highly recommended that you move all disks containing the volume together. Otherwise, the volumes on the disks cannot be brought online and will not be accessible except to delete them.

You can move multiple disks from different computers to a computer by installing the disks, opening Disk Management, right-clicking any of the new disks, and then clicking Import Foreign Disks. When importing multiple disks from different computers, always import all of the disks from one computer at a time. For example, if you want to move disks from two computers, import disks from the first computer and then import disks from the second computer.

Disk Management describes the condition of the volumes on the disks before they are imported. Review this information carefully. If there are any problems, this will tell you what will happen to each volume on these disks once the disks have been imported.

If you move a GUID partition table disk containing the Windows operating system to an x86-based or x64-based computer, you can access the data, but you cannot boot from that operating system.


You can convert a fat32 system to NTFS for better performance:

To convert a hard disk or partition to NTFS format
Close any open programs running on the partition or logical drive to be converted.
Click the Start button , click All Programs, click Accessories, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.
At the command prompt, type convert drive_letter: /fs:ntfs, where drive_letter is the letter of the drive you want to convert, and then press Enter. For example, convert E: /fs:ntfs would convert drive E to the NTFS format.
Type the name of the volume you want to convert, and then press Enter. You must use the existing name of the volume or the conversion will be canceled. You can view all available volumes in the Computer folder under Hard Disk Drives.
Click to open Computer.
If the partition you are converting contains system files—which would be the case if you are converting the hard disk that the operating system was installed on—you will need to restart your computer for the conversion to take place. If your disk is almost full, the conversion process might not succeed. If you receive an error, try deleting unnecessary files, or back up files to another location, to free up disk space.

Whest excallent instructions:
But the hard drive was not unstalled before its remova lfrom the old computer, and the old computer is gone, dismatled ,junked. Is there a work around to get past this point and have this hard drive be ready for thte new computer to initialize it. Also preserving the data on the old hard drive while doing this.

Can you post a screenshot of Disk Management? (with the exteral drive pluged in)

https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...en-forums.html