Old laptop hard drive not being read by desktop via USB connection. Anything I'm doing wrong?

Question

I have an old 200 MB laptop hard drive that I'm trying to connect to any of my more recent computers via a USB adapter.  Ultimately what I'm trying to do is set up a Windows XP laptop to boot up in DOS mode so that I can run on it a professional PCMCIA MIDI card whose manufacturer stopped writing driver software for it after Windows 95, and the old hard drive has all the files I need for that.

As far as I can tell the hard drive adapter itself works fine, because the hard drive powers up, but none of my computers, which between them run Windows Me, Windows XP and Windows Vista, will read the drive or even recognize that it's there, even if I plunk in the driver software for the adapter when running from Windows Me.  What might be happening here?  Is the hard drive too old, or is there a BIOS or file system (i.e. FAT/FAT32/NTFS) incompatibility issue?  The old hard drive originally came from a Toshiba T1950 running MS-DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.1.

(BTW, the solution isn't as simple as "plug the hard drive back into the T1950 and access it from there"--the T1900 series laptops have apparently become notorious for a problem in the power circuit, with the result that users have to press the power button literally hundreds, if not thousands, of times before the laptop will finally kick in.  There's a possible repair for the power circuit problem--see, for example, http://www.electronics.dit.ie/staff/bredmond/tosh486fix/index.shtml --but this is too advanced, let alone time-consuming, for me to try myself, and I'd rather be making music than soldering circuit boards.)

Also, what I'm thinking of doing is ordering an IDE adapter so that I can try plugging the drive directly into my Win Me computer's disk drive system.  Are there any foreseeable problems along this line?

Bon Gart · Accepted Answer

First... hard drives have a shelf-life of between 3 to 5 years.  The platters are coated with the same stuff (roughly) that was used in Video Cassettes ... an iron oxide magnetic material.  Newer drives don't use iron oxide, but instead use a cobalt based material... but you can GUARANTEE that your 200mb drive was using iron oxide.  

This material breaks down over time.  It does.  It doesn't take all that long, and that 200 MB drive is probably more than 12 years old... more like 14 or 15 years old.  Chances are, the drive is just too old to function properly any more.

It isn't a FAT/FAT32/NTFS compatibility issue, when you consider that modern flash drives and external drives are formatted FAT, to be as compatible as possible with all systems.

If the drive functioned, then you would be able to read it just fine.  You would be FAR better off getting a copy of Windows 95 off Ebay, and installing that on a new drive to use with your Midi PCMCIA card.  In fact, why not partition your current drive, and dual boot to XP and Windows 95, so you can easily, and at any time, reboot and use that card?

end of line

Lisa · Answer

i like the chart that baudkarm posted...it really tells you what you need to know. The usb 2.0 deivces will max at 12mbs....most ethernet drives use a low-end 10mbs nic. So, it really depends on what you need it for...the ethernet drive will function as a NAS box accessible to anything on the network. The usb drive might end up being quicker and more portable, but it's functionality will be limited.

cn2572 · Answer

Old systems hard ware is not compitable for the new systems b'cos  the BIO's are very very deferent
versions from the new.

Old laptop hard drive not being read by desktop via USB connection. Anything I'm doing wrong?

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