modifying an external cd burner?

Hi Guys,
I have enjoyed "lurking" and have learned bunches. Now I have a question that maybe you will find interesting. I have an old Que Fire external cd burner that I no longer use. I want to replace the burner with a hard drive. when I put the HD in, it spins up and lights come on on the external case, but my computer doesn't see anything. I have tried all the different jumper settings, with the same results. when Iplug the burner back in, the computer sees it right now. the HD is a Maxtor 20gig at drive. Any suggestions would be great.http://forums.majorgeeks.com/images/smilies/cool.gif

 

Welcome to MG in the first instance.

When you say the HD in not recognised, do you mean just in Windows or in BIOS or both?

 

In an external case the hd must be jumpered as master.

The Que Fire burner is for Apple computers. Are you trying to use a hd formatted for a PC and get it recognized in an Apple?

 

Thanks Yargwel, this is truly a great site.
To answer your question;
"When you say the HD in not recognized, do you mean just in Windows or in BIOS or both?" The HD does not show up on the device manager. I do not know how to check the BIOS.

plodr,
I am trying to use a HD formatted for a PC. the computer is a PC running XP pro sp 2. I had used this Que Fire with this system for a couple of years before getting a different burner.

 

Well the easiest way is to watch the screen as the PC boots and you should see it detect whatever hard drives you have connected. The usual way to get into the BIOS is to press a key such as the del key or maybe the F2 key - it all depends on the type of BIOS you have - it will normally tell you what key to press as the PC boots.

Somewhere on one of the BIOS screens it will tell you what drives you have connected and what the BIOS thinks they are.

 

Thanks Yargwel, I went back and insured that the HD was set to master. Neither BIOS or the Device Manager sees the HD.:confused

 

I take it that if this drive is external it is a USB connection - yes?

 

Sounds like the drive is dead if the BIOS doesn't see it.
But before you completely write it off, attach the external hd to another computer. If you don't have a 2nd computer ask one of your friends if you can test your external hd on his/her computer.

 

Yargwel this is a fire wire connection.

plodr, I hooked the HD to a friend's external box and it worked just fine. I tried the origional burner in the que fire box, and it worked just fine.
What is the difference in the way a computer sees a HD and a burner?

 

In the device manager do you see the firewire device listed (it'll be under IEEE 1394 Bus Host Controllers)?

 

Yargwel, Good idea! I will check that when I get home (at work now).