IDE to USB adapter

mgushee · 2009-03-16 03:36:23

Hey yall--

I have an old laptop that I want to revive, and given its minimal hardware, the only reasonable way I can think of to install an OS is to plug a hard drive into my desktop PC using an adapter.

So I bought a Vantec SATA/IDE to USB 2.0 Adapter and started plugging things in. Now, I have a bunch of old 2.5" hard drives, and most of them are completely hosed, but there are 4 functioning ones. What's strange, though, is that when I plug in the known-good drives, 2 of them are readable (and presumably writable, though I haven't got that far), and two are not. When I plug in one of the readable ones, it shows up as /dev/sdc, with one or more partitions /dev/sdcN. When I plug in one of the unreadable ones, those device nodes never appear. And unfortunately, the ones I want to use are the unreadable ones--and yes, I know they are working; I tested them today.

I'm just wondering if anyone has troubleshooting suggestions, or knows of some config file that I might be able to tweak to be able to see those drives. Thanks in advance for whatever info!

Odysseus · 2009-03-16 03:56:47

I'd check the master/slave jumpers.

mgushee · 2009-03-16 12:05:08

Odysseus wrote:

I'd check the master/slave jumpers.

There are no jumpers set on any of them. Which I suppose could mean different things for different drives, but FWIW they came without jumpers (remember these are laptop hard drives) and I have never added them.

whompus · 2009-03-16 14:18:13

I've found some old drives require an extra usb point for power (5v side I think) some of my leads are 'Y' type 2 into one to give an extra boost.

Arch Linux

#1 2009-03-16 03:36:23

IDE to USB adapter

#2 2009-03-16 03:56:47

Re: IDE to USB adapter

#3 2009-03-16 12:05:08

Re: IDE to USB adapter

#4 2009-03-16 14:18:13

Re: IDE to USB adapter

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