Need more help with external SATA hard drive

So I bought a 200 gig WD Serial ATA hard drive and put it in a Serial ATA enclosure. I also bought a Serial ATA PCI card to support it.

I have everything installed, but Windows won't detect the hard drive. Do I have to format it first?

Runnin Windows XP, SP 1
2 Hard Drives already, in ATA
512 megs ram
P4

 

did you install the PCI card drivers? get the latest from the manufacturers website.

then,
with the drive attatched, go to start>run and type Diskmgmt.msc and press enter (alternatively, go to control panel>administrative tools>computer management>disk management)

the drive should be located there and labeled RAW. right click and format it

 

It's not there.

 

?

also, how is the drive powered right now? do you have a standard ATX plug in it? or an SATA power connector?

 

SATA power connector, fed by the enclosure that's plugged into my power strip.

And yes, I installed the PCI drivers.

 

try running the Wester Digital Data Lifeguard tools or the WD DLG DIagnostic on the drive and see if its even being recognized.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download2855.html

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download3505.html

if those dont recognize it, its either not plugged in right, or dead.

also, if you have another available PCI slot, try plugging the card in there instead?

 

It says, during the WD diagnostic tools, that their are "no open positions for a SATA\EIDE drive."

Doesn't detect it all all though.

I'll try changing PCI slots tomorrow.

 

Yes you need to fdisk and format. before you mount the drive in the external case, I've always found that the case.

 

Fdisk? I have to go through DOS to do that right?

Will it find the hard drive even though windows does not?

 

Another crazy thing, when I turn on the external hard drive, the computer gets really slow, but if I apply pressure to the top of the hard drive, it speeds back up to normal. What in the ef does that mean?

 

you may want to try what he mentioned--plug the SATA drive strasight into the card you installed and see if you can use thw Western Digital tools to format it prior to putting it in the enclosure.

Fdisk isn't recommended at this point--as it lacks a lot of features that a more advanced tool (like the WD tools) do automatically.

 

Thanks so much for that tip, friend. It recognized it after I took it out of the case. Thanks.

Thank you too, InYearsToCome. Much appreciated.

 

glad you got it working. I havent had experience myself with external encolsures, so its a good thing foogoo dropped in to share his experience.

 

Hey thank you all.. I appreciate the ack.
I am into the external case thing - love them. I am usually in here spouting off above a website called cooldrives.com, they have a heck of a selection, if anyone wants one, and no I don't work for or get any $ from them.
Enjoy!