Tech Question: Setting HD Jumpers to Master

So, my HD crashed a while ago, and I bought an enclosure to try to get the data off before sending the defective one back to Dell.

I believe I have all of the cables plugged in properly - connected to power and USB, but the drive is not recognized.

One of the troubleshooting tips is to make sure the old HD has the jumpers set to "Master". I don't know how the heck to do this.

HALP!

It's the master/slave relationship.... very colorful language, eh?

if you only had one hard drive in your computer, then it was already set as the "master." But if there are jumper blocks (which there may not be), you could look up the diagram for the HD online -- or usually there's one on a sticker right there on the drive itself.

Seems like you would actually want this as a "slave," though... no? Secondary to the HD in the functioning computer you've hook this up to? Or is it related to the "enclosure"?

well, I have the old HD hooked up to an enclosure and then plugged via USB into laptop. I want to get the data from the enclosed drive onto the laptop.

So, which one is the master?

I don't see any stickers and even when I see diagrams, I don't know how to change the positioning to the right position. Am I supposed to manipulate the pins somehow?

I'm confuddled!

Flexichick wrote: well, I have the old HD hooked up to an enclosure and then plugged via USB into laptop. I want to get the data from the enclosed drive onto the laptop.

So, which one is the master?

I don't see any stickers and even when I see diagrams, I don't know how to change the positioning to the right position. Am I supposed to manipulate the pins somehow?

I'm confuddled!

if its connected via ISB the master/slave pins shouldnt matter...as it will see it as an additional drivew, the master slave will matter when u login to show which one to use to boot the operation system off of (Windows)

Keep in mind not all enclosures will work with all hard drives. First step is to check the maufacturers site for firmware updates and compatibiity issues.

If the drive actually crashed then you may not be able to recover it regardless of what you do- does the laptop BIOS at least recognise the drive correctly?

Dell might have jumper info for the drive as well
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/storage/P111454/jumpers.htm
in the above example no jumper = master

Can you identify and post the manufacturer and model of the drive?

USB enclosure is an extra layer of complexity that might or might not work. I would start by hooking it up as a secondary in a spare machine, see if the bios can work with it, see if an NTFS boot disk can access anything on it...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000HJ99DI/ref=ox_ya_oh_product

that's the enclosure.

drive is Hitachi HTS722012k9a300

It doesn't show up at all on my XP laptop. On my Vista, I can see it under disk mgmt, but it says the drive is unreadable. It's possible that this HD is just toast.

Hitachi is legendary for mechanical failure. Are you getting a clicking or scratching sound when the drive spins up?

Nope. I am guessing it's toast - which sucks. I've tried 3 enclosures