I have a Serial ATA HARD DRIVE, 80GB When connect to my Laptop through USB connection, it is recognized, installed and say it is ready to be used. I cannot see it displayed in My Computer

You need a data recovery. This guy does it remotely and only asks for donations. http://FreeDataRecovery.us

Mine did the same thing and after searching through countless google searches, I was ready to take it back. However, when I opened it up to take out my old laptop drive I noticed that the drive was not connected properly. It is possible to simply slide the old drive under the proper connectors where it will seem like it is connected fine. You may notice that it sticks up in the back a bit. Remove your drive and make sure that it slides in and connects flush. Once I did this, I plugged it in before screwing the case back together and my computer recognized it right away. I plugged the red USB into my PC only. Good luck.

You would need to use a "usb" to hard drive cable. It looks like this: http://gizmodo.com/168149/brando-sataeide-to-usb-20-cable

Then, it is simply a matter of "cloning." The other alternative is to find a pc repair shop with a hard drive duplicator. It will copy much faster.

Please rate if you find this helpful.

Spend the money and go with a 7200 rpm drive, 160, 320, or 250 gb hard drives are all under 100 bucks these days.

Unless it's windows 98 you don't need a driver. If your computer can't see it, it's probably broken. Try plugging it in to another computer and see if it can see it

Hi,

No the drive is not customized at all. It is a standard SATA Data and Power connector. However, if it was already mounted in a laptop chances are the laptop manufacturer may have put an adapter on the connector end to allow for tight right angle insertion into the laptop chassis which isn't possible with the stock connectors without leaving the drive loose in it's slot.

If this is the case grabbing the connector and pulling straight away from the drive should pop it loose and reveal the stock SATA connectors under it.

If you're having troubles removing this peice, comment back with the make and model# of the laptop it came out of and I'll see if I can pull a diagram for you.


Chris

I would temporarily attach it directly to your laptop and go into recovery console and do a chkdsk /r on that drive

see if that helps, if not then there are things you can do.

post back for more info

Install your previous hardrive as a slave, secondary drive to your new one, or easier still, buy an external enclosure for it and connect to it via usb

pull out the hard drive and look on it see if it's an ATA or SATA
the brand does not matter, just the connection type I stated.

best place is here


Also, go to DELL.COM and support, type in your tag# and look for your system specs, it will tell you there what kind ok HD it has BUT best way is to pull HD out and look at the label.


this is a very simple job to do. just take your time.

This is the maxtor 4 installation utility: http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?locale=en-US&name=MaxBlast_4&vgnextoid=7add8b9c4a8ff010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD Overview: MaxBlast 4 is a one-step, ATA/IDE hard drive installation utility. MaxBlast 4 makes hard drive installations and upgrades hassle-free for novices and professionals alike by automatically identifying, partitioning, and formatting any Maxtor ATA or SATA hard drive, making it data-ready in minutes. MaxBlast 4 replaces all previous versions of MaxBlast and MaxBlast Plus. Powermax 4.23: http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?locale=en-US&name=PowerMax_4.23&vgnextoid=a37d8b9c4a8ff010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD Overview: The PowerMax utility is designed to perform diagnostic read/write verifications on Maxtor and Quantum hard drives. These tests will determine hard drive integrity. The PowerMax utility is effective on all ATA (IDE) hard drives with a capacity greater than or equal to 500 MB. Maxtor recommends the use of this utility for troubleshooting potential hard drive problems. These problems include, but are not limited to the following: * Potential hard drive surface problems (e.g., bad clusters, bad sectors, partitioning/formatting problems, etc.). * Drive recognition problems (e.g. hard drive that is not recognized by the operating system). * Software removal.