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rob_roy

3 Posts

14283

April 12th, 2007 01:00

New Hard Drive in NexStar 3 USB 2.0 Enclosure - won't recognize, won't initialize

After reading many posts online, I am trying to upgrade my 40GB hard drive to a Seagate 100GB Ultra ATA (ST910021A).  Read great things about it on newegg.  I also purchased a NexStar 3, Usb 2.0 enclosure to make the transition easier.  I have placed the new drive into the NexStar and have tried the following to initialize: (1) used Acronis Migrate Easy to try and clone my current drive...this failed (I chose NTFS, primary, and just copied the same 3 partitions over to the new drive proportionately) and I have been getting blue screen after this on occasion (tried restoring computer to before install of new HD drivers, but will not restore with windows).  (2) Also tried using the windows disk manager to initialize the disk...it does show up there (with 93 GB) but there is an error when I try to initialize.
 
The drivers did load for the new drive.  Tried running the seagate diagnostic but could not get it to run anything on the new HDD. 
 
Thought I might also try and just stick the New HD into the computer and see if I start afresh, but am not sure how to do this.
 
Any help out there would be great as I am not sure what to do next.
 
Dell Inspiron 8600, purchased 2.5 years ago.
XP, service pack 2 (all critical updates applied)
BIOS version A11 (any use in trying an update, and if so how??)

jackshack

6.4K Posts

April 12th, 2007 18:00

To properly clone the original drive you must choose to do that.  Copying individual partitions will not copy the tracks that contain the boot records so the drive will not boot.  In order to get disk management to do anything with the drive you need to first delete the existing partition(s) and start again from the beginning.  If you decide to mount the new disk in the computer you will need to either change your boot order to make the CD ROM drive first in the list, or alternatively you might do ok with tapping F12 at the bios splash for a one time change in boot device.  Boot the Windows XP installation CD and ask for a new installation of Windows so you will get to the tools needed to delete and create partitions.  Delete the existing partition(s), make new, format, and choose to install Windows.  You will also need the drivers for the devices you have in the computer.  Find these by going to Dell Support Tools found on this page at lower left, select Drivers and Downloads, put in your service tag or select the model of your computer, and download the necessary files.
 
According to the list in Drivers and Downloads A11 for this computer was released in October 2004.  You should look at each successive update to determine if a problem that affects you was fixed.  If you find something important you only need update to the latest, A14, as the updates are cumulative.  If there is nothing that is crucial to you, an update on an out of warranty system is not recommended as there is a possibility of wrecking the computer with a bad flash.  The bios you have should support drives at least to 120 GB.
 
 

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