Re: Hard drive caddy
 

Post up the make and model of the drive Phil, then we can get rid of any questions over whether it's SATA or IDE and whether it has jumpers hidden somewhere. If when you say there is no branding on it did you mean the drive? If so there may be something to identify it on a chip or on the circuit board.

What do you want to use it for and how big is the drive? You can pick up a 500GB USB drive in PC World for 35 quid now. You may just be wasting your time.

Re: Hard drive caddy
 

No its an IDE drive, i meant the caddy had no branding on it.
Because the drive has a lot of photos etc on it and i had the caddy already i thought i would use it as a external hard drive for back ups etc.

Re: Hard drive caddy
 

Does the remove external hardware tab appear in the bottom tight hand corner when it's plugged in?

Have you got another computer to try it on?

Re: Hard drive caddy
 

Make sure the USB port you are plugging it into is enabled, so go into My computer - right click, properties, hardware tab - device manager - USB controllers at the bottom. Make sure there are no red crosses. enable any if there are

Could be a duff USB port or as I had, a duff caddy, (most likely a duff circuit board)

Re: Hard drive caddy
 

You can buy cheap IDE - USB cables + power supply for the drive from Maplins.

You don't need a caddy, its a cheap way of checking the drive works

Re: Hard drive caddy
 

YOU NEED TO LOCK THE CADDY WITH THE KEY - THIS TURNS THE HARD DRIVE ON. IT SHOULD THEN SHOW UP ONCE ITS POWERED UP.

It will just sit there no lights nothing until you lock the caddy.

Re: Hard drive caddy
 

Did he say its got a key :confused:

None of my caddies have ever had a key :confused:

Just an on - off switch

Re: Hard drive caddy
 

No key on mine. My pc is quite new so I'm sure the USB is fine. Could be the caddy itself I guess.

I'll try it on my laptop later, if not I'll bang it back on the old machine and take the data off it that way.