I just picked up a 2.5" hdd that is SATA II. I also got a usb enclosure for it. I tried to use it on my laptop via usb port, device manager sees it but i can not access it and vista wont assign it a drive number. I am running an IDE western digital hd (one touch) and it was assigned a drive number. Is it the SATA issue or is there something else that is the trouble. ps my xp machine does the same thing. what to do?

So even if both machines are IDE it should not matter because of the USB interface?

Is your drive enclosure made for an SATA drive?

Typically it doesn't matter to Windows what type of drive it is, because it recognizes it as an USB disk.

What you should try doing is going into disk management. Right-click on Computer, go to Manage and then choose disk management in the list.

If you can see the disk, there's a good chance it doesn't have a partition yet, and you'll have to create one.

You can also assign a drive letter in there.

that worked like a champ!!! Thank you for all the help, you saved me from a big headache.

:D Had to say:

I love it when people say thanks.

--
Mike