Problems with a USB hard drive enclosure - suggestions?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Some time ago I bought a cheap hard drive enclosure. It worked OK with my spare Ultra ATA 100 40 Gb hard drive, so I assumed it worked and I put it in a corner until I was going to need it. Now I am trying to put another hard drive in it, a Samsung Ultra ATA 133 400 Gb, so I can use it to back up my stuff.

But there’s something funny happening: when I plug the data cable and the power cable, the drive keeps mum and doesn’t even turn on. If I unplug the data cable, however, and power up the device, the hard drive happily turns on and starts to spin - but of course I cannot access it.

That is quite odd. The enclosure still works with the old hard drive, so I suppose it’s not faulty. The drive itself, by the way, works ok in a PC, so that should not be faulty either. The instructions of the enclosure say I should set the jumpers of the HD to make it be master, which I did, but apart from that there’s nothing helpful there. Google didn’t turn up much useful information either.

So once again I turn to the superior wealth of knowledge of my fellow Dopers. What should I check before admitting defeat and buying another enclosure?

2

Is it possible that the enclosure is not compatible with the ATA 133 drive? Just a WAG. Do you still have the specs handy?

3

This isn’t one of those cases where there is no missing pin or key lug on the connectors to prevent you from inserting them upside down, is it?

4

The drive may be waiting for some Sync Start signal that your enclosure does not supply.

Si

5

Answers to your questions: the documentation doesn’t mention anything about compatibility. There is a missing pin on both male and female connectors so it is not upside down. And the hard drive starts when the data cable is not connected, while it’s dead when the cable is connected, so I’m not sure it’s a problem of some signal not being supplied, or I reckon it wouldn’t start at all when the data cable is not plugged in. Or should it? Gods, I’m getting a headache.

6

I think the next step in the diagnostics has to be to install the drive temporarily directly to a computer’s IDE interface - this will tell you whether it’s just failed somehow, or if it’s a compatibility issue between the USB enclosure and the drive - it may be that it doesn’t support drives that big - if so, it might be possible to update the firmware in it - if the manufacturer’s website can be found.

7

If you know the drive is good, then look torads the power plug that connects into the drive (molex). I bought a Morning Star enclosure with the same problem, and it turned out the power REALLY had to get jammed in there. Also, there may be a missing wire connection IN the plug.

My brother is a network geek by trade, and he was the one that fixed it & informed me.