My computer is a Dell E520. I’m going to put an old IDE HDD in an enclosure and use it for storage and backup, but I was told that I would need to change the jumper so that it would be the master. That seems backwards to me. I would think that the drive (C:\) in my computer should be the master and the external HD in the enclosure should be the slave. Do I need for the exterior HDD in the enclosure to be the master?
It should be master, as Master/slave is for drives using the same cable, not just for all drives (that's what Primary/Secondary is for instead) Since the one in the external is the only drive in the external enclosure, it needs to be master.
Indeed, it's WD drives I use, however, since the drive came OEM without a jumper fitted, I had no choice with that
It is a Western Digital HD. Does that mean that I should leave it at the default (cabal select) setting?
Default should be master I would think, but put it this way, I have a WD with no jumper in a USB enclosure myself, and it works just fine. For ref, it's a WD1600BB.
My IDE HDD is (right now) set at Cable Select. I assumed that was the default. Everybody's saying the jumper should be changed to master - except for ddp. (But I'm not clear on ddp's meaning.) Should I just wait till I get the enclosure and follow the instructions that come with the enclosure? And does the characteristics of my present HD make any difference?
if the wd drive is by itself on the ide cable then the jumper is usually off or connects 2 pins horizontally instead of vertical. btezra, try all 3 methods as in jumper off, jumper on master & on cable select to see what works for you.
Right now, I'm inclined to think that [jumper off] would be the way to start out. Then I'll try [master]. Thanks everybody.
I had decided on one but then I found out that it isn't compatible with Vista. But a reviewer said . . . I have Vista. Is this something I could do or should I just wait and order an enclosure that's Vista ready? I couldn't figure out how to go to "disk management".
That's because he put a new drive in the enclosure. Initialise has nothing to do with external enclosures, it's something you have to do to any brand new hard disk drive when you first get it, whether it's internal or external. The box is clearly compatible with XP and Vista.
I will try it (get it later today) and see if I can get it to work. If not, I'll have to order one from Amazon.
It's a done deal. I now have the old HDD in the afore mentioned enclosure and my computer accepts it. I just got through using Acronis True Image Home to back up my HDD (compressed - with exclusions). That was a transfer of 22.3 GB. Now I'm glad I spent $40 because otherwise I probably would have gotten one that would have burned out in no time. I am not mechanically inclined so a person doesn't have to be mechanically inclined to do this. (But I am lucky there was never any static electricity. A person really should always use a grounding strap when handling these sorts of things.) Thanks again!!!
