Problem adding IDE WD drive in Enclosure to SATA Media Center computer

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tboneman

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I am trying to add a hard drive I took out of an old junked computer (Western Digital 250gig) to my Gateway Media Center computer. It has an SATA 250 gig HD, running XP Pro. The computer runs great.

I first tried to add the new drive internally. That didn't work. So I'm now trying externally, using an Enclosure and a USB connection. The IDE drive is formatted with Win2K and has 150 gb of files on it. I installed the drive into the enclosure and hooked it up.

The computer seems to see it. I get that di-doo sound when XP sees a new device. But that's all it does...makes the sound. When I try to find the drive on Win Explorer, it's not there. So, on Control Panel/System/Hardware/Device Manager/ Disk Drives, there are 4 USB devices and an USB drive, ID'd as ST3250823AS. This is probably the SATA system drive (Seagate)

Under Properties, the Device Type is Disk Drive, Location is Location 0 (0), Device: working properly. Under Volumes, Disk= 0,
Type: Basic
Status: online
Partition Style: Master Boot Record
Capacity: 238,473 mb (gb?)

and then, down below, Volumes, it identifies (correctly) the drives (C, D, and Acronis backup), and under Details, it identifies the Seagate drive (ST3250823AS). But again, the computer doesn't seem to see the IDE drive

There is one other drive that shows up in Disk Management. it's labeled Disk 1 Removable (H) No media. I'm not sure what this is. When I click on it in Win Explorer, a window opens asking for a disk to be inserted. Right clicking on it brings up a menu. Change Drive letter and Path, Properties, and Help. "Eject" is grayed out. Under Properties, its identified as Generic USB SD Reader. Device type is Disk Drives, manufacturer is Standard Disk Drives, and Location is 0. And, the device is working properly. ???

Bottom line: the computer does NOT see the IDE drive, even tho it 'di-doo's' when I turn the IDE drive in the Enclosure on/off.

I can't use the newly installed IDE WD drive unless the system sees it and assigns a drive letter. How do I make that happen?

FWIW, the Enclosure came with zero docs. When I first connected the power and the USB cables, there was a blinking alternate red and green LED. The Enclosure has an on/off switch. I turned it off, waited 30 seconds, turned it back on, then rebooted the computer, twice, hoping it would see the new drive and give it a letter. All that happened was, the blinking red LED stopped blinking. Now I have a steady on green LED.

Appreciate your help.
 
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