i have a seagate hard drive, however no computer right now. If i buy a laptop would it be possible to use the hard drive on the laptop?

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spasms!!!

It would possible if you use an external drive device. I know they have these devices that connect to the computer using USB and then you just connect the IDE to this device and then to the computer and you should be able to use the drive.

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If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker that came along would destroy civilization.

To add to that, these external cases can be found in Firewire and/or USB 2.0 varieties (the Firewire ones have slightly higher benchmark scores). You shouldn't require any drivers to get them to work. Just be careful what size case you buy; they come in 2.5", 3.5", and 5.25" versions depending on the size of drive you want to use. Some of them also have a HD size limit they will support. Here's a quick link for your comparision shopping: http://www.xpcgear.com/enclosures.html.

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Common Sense v2.0-Striving to make the world a little bit smarter.

Following on from your suggestion to pcxgamer, can these enclosures be used either for CD/DVD or HDD? I have a 5-1/2" ICZ enclosure that I am thinking of using with a backup HD (at present I have a DVD writer in it). It came with a pair of 3-1/2" adaptor brackets & a front bezel for use with a HD, so the answer to my question would seem to be, obviously yes!

However, when I fitted a rather old 1.7GB drive I had lying around, it was not recognised by the PC. I don't want to spend money on a new drive if I am going to have the same problem.

AFAIK, you can only use these enclosures w/ CD/DVD drives if it allows you to open the disc tray. Some are designed for it and some aren't.

Why you system didn't recognize your other HD, I can't say. You might want to check the connections, including the ones inside the enclosure. Does it work when it's not connected via the case?

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Common Sense v2.0-Striving to make the world a little bit smarter.

Thanks for the reply. I didn't explain my situation properly - the enclosure works with the DVD writer, the problem occurs with the hard drive. It is a pretty old 1.7GB drive, and I am not actually sure of its condition.

But you have basically answered my question, and I take it that I should be able to put a hard drive in the enclosure and expect it to work if everything is as it should be.

The reason for my uncertainty is that the manufacturer's documentation for the enclosure (such as it is) refers only to CD/DVD drives, and doesn't mention hard drives. On the other hand, they supply 3-1/2" to 5-1/2" adapter brackets and a blank front bezel, so the failure with the old HD I put in left me confused. (Not an unusual situation for me)

A good idea for external enclosures is to set the jumpers to cable select on the drive you are putting in. It alleviates any guess work, or errors setting the drive as master or slave.

That's right. In fact I tried every damn combination possible, but without result.

The enclosure uses 80-wire ribbon cable to connect to the drive. I suppose there would not be any compatibility issues with an old drive. Does the drive connector "know" the difference between 40-wire & 80-wire cables?

I don't think the drives know the difference with the cable ( i think the controller sets the speed), but i know that some ide controllers will send out and error if your hdd supports a faster ata xfer speed and you use a 40 pin cable. It could be that that hdd doesn't like the auto setting. It might have to be manually configured to put in the exact cyls/heads/sects.
Older BIOS versions didn't just auto detect, you have to manualy enter the values which were usually on the top label. It may be that the controller on the hdd doesn't support the auto setup function (like spitting out the correct cyls/heads/sects info to the enclosure controller).

Thanks, that is useful information (it also confirms I should accept my limitations). I think the best thing for me to do is to stop fiddling around with a pensioned off drive. It's not as though 1.7GB is of any use these days...

At least it's good to know that you guys are willing to offer advice & assistance to us amateurs in our time of need. Thanks.