Hi,

I have a Dell Dimension XPS B866r, that I purchased back in May 2000. It came with Windows 98 SE. Last month I made an upgrade to Windows XP. When I did this, I swapped out the hard drive and replaced it with a reformatted one. I then wanted to use an enclosure for the old hard drive (to transfer data). The enclosure is USB 2.0. When I plugged in the enclosure, I got no response.

Does anyone know if the only reason it is not working, is due to the fact that my computer might not be USB 2.0?

Please note, this enclosure has worked on another computer.

Thank you in advance for all the help.

Could be. Many/most are backwards compatible...that means they would still work on an older USB port, but at a slower speed.

The question is, though...is USB working at all?

Run Windows XP Upgrade Advisor (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/upgrading/advisor.mspx) to see if it reports any hardware/software incompatibilities.

Hi,

I believe my computer should be able to convert the USB 2.0

My computer just does not seem to acknowledge my enclosure. It has worked in the past on another computer. I do know that the hard drive in the enclousre, is Windows 98. My computer is now XP. The plug and play did not work right on the hard drive in the enclosure in the past. Any suggestions?

Thanks...

"that I purchased back in May 2000"
So it has USB 1.1 hardware.

"It came with Windows 98 SE"
You would have needed a Win98SE driver for the USB 2.0 enclosure's USB circuitry [and possibly the USB hardware inside the PC also], but because of your USB 1.1 hardware it would only have worked at that capability.
What I did was to buy a PCI to USB 2.0 controller card, and installed the Win98SE USB 2.0 drivers supplied with the USB 2.0 "Smart Cable" [the USB 2.0 circuitry was inside the plug on the cable] that came with the enclosure, and all of that worked.
I then upgraded to Win2000Pro, which had its own USB 2.0 drivers.

"I made an upgrade to Windows XP"
XP would include USB 2.0 drivers.

"I swapped out the hard drive...then wanted to use an enclosure for the old hard drive...The enclosure is USB 2.0"
So the HDD in the enclosure has an "active" [FAT32?] primary partition, formatted, and includes a Win98SE installation?
No problem there I believe.

"When I plugged in the enclosure, I got no response"
If you look in "Device Manager" with that set to display "By Connection" [then highlight the PC at the top and click "Numlock + *", then "Numlock" again (to expand the tree and reset "Numlock")], what do you see?
See the image below of what mine displays.

"I believe my computer should be able to convert the USB 2.0"
I believe [I'm no expert] WinXP would have installed the necessary drivers for USB 2.0, which would have been backward compatible with your USB 1.1 hardware, so all should have been well.

"My computer is now XP"
The file system in use on the partition in the enclosure would need to be able to be read by the OS [WinXP] you are using to try to read it.
But WinXP can read both FAT and NTFS file systems, so all should be OK.

USB 2.0 is hardware. Yes, there should be drivers included in XP for your USB 1.1. No, using USB 2.0 drivers won't make USB 1.1 hardware USB 2.0 hardware...

Sylvander,
It doesn't matter if XP has usb2 drivers if the enclosure it is installed into only supports usb1.1

Also, not sure about SP1 but original XP does NOT have native usb2 support but my XP w/SP2 does. Remember XP has at least 3 versions out there. besides 2003 OS

Quincy,
What is this enclosure? Does the manufacturer claim it is usb1.1 compatible? Are there drivers on their site? Also please note how the jumpers were with the drive that worked in it previously and setup the 98 drive to the same specs (not position of jumper but master or slave)

Since installing XP has the usb ports been confirmed to be working? Device Manager, other usb devices, etc?

My ViPowER VP-9208AT2 USB 2.0 "Smart Cable" only has drivers supplied on the CD for DOS [DUSE.exe] and Win98 [SE I believe; they aren't listed as Win98SE, just Win98, it was an important issue at the time].
I was forced to upgrade to Win98SE [they wouldn't work with Win98] and installed that driver to get the use of the external USB 2.0 HDD enclosure.

When I later upgraded to Win2000Pro I didn't need to install a new driver; I believe the Win2000 driver was included in the installation files.

See External USB2.0->IDE HDD: Problem bringing into use (http://www.pcguide.com/vb/showthread.php?t=36519&highlight=VP-9208AT2).

I was forced to upgrade to Win98SE [they wouldn't work with Win98]
Not surprising. It's a known thing that anything prior to 98SE is usb 'challenged'...

As to the rest, sure, your enclosure works and it is a usb2 'ENCLOSURE'. This does not prove the fact that it is being used at usb2 speeds. With your self proclaimed 'older' pc, it is most likely being used at the throttled down speeds of usb1.1 due to what they are connected 'to'. That is, unless you've installed a pci usb2 add-on card as well.

"unless you've installed a pci usb2 add-on card as well"
I did indeed supplement the built-in USB 1.1 capability by installing a PCI to USB 2.0 controller card to serve the USB 2.0 encosure.
But although I have experienced nothing that would make me want to complain about anything [in particular any lack of adequate data transfer speed], I do suspect it is running well below USB 2.0 speeds.
I can play MP3's and avi files held there without any skipping.

Hey Quincy, does any of this help at all?