Topic: Rocketfish RF-HD35 3.5" Hard Drive Enclosure (Read 17999 times)

Capt_Bearslayer_XC · « **on:** November 07, 2007, 07:03:57 pm »

I recently purchased a Rocketfish RF-HD35 3.5" Hard Drive Enclosure to gain access to a 160gb HD that was in another machine.

It was never a system drive, but contained all my music, pics, and pr0n....

Anyways, I hook this thing up thru the USB port and was expecting to just hook up like a flash disc.... no go.

I get the 'safely remove hardware' icon... but no where can I find the drive...

The drivers allow me to 'save' to the hard drive, but I don't want to do that... I just want to access what is already on there....

Any ideas?

I am running a Dell 2.66Ghz & 1 GB of ram with XP home edition SP2.

Javora · « **Reply #1 on:** November 08, 2007, 04:53:47 pm »

I had a USB key drive that had "drivers" on it, when I removed the "drivers" I was able to access the drive like a normal hard drive. Usually when you plug in any storage space to the system the OS should be able to recognize what it is and act accordingly. But before you uninstall the drivers look and see if you can find some sort of "control panel" and see if there is a option listed that allows you to access the drive space normally. Hope this helps.

Just plain old Punisher · « **Reply #2 on:** November 13, 2007, 03:31:25 pm »

The drive might need to be initilized by the OS.

Control panel: Admin Tools: Computer management

Then double click on "Disk Management" on the left hand side.

With the new drive plugged in, check to see if it's listed. Right click on the new drive (it will probably say unallocated space) and then click initilize.

Nemesis · « **Reply #3 on:** November 14, 2007, 07:30:08 pm »

I have been thinking of this and wonder if you may have run up against NTFS security. I think that when Windows accesses the drive it checks to see if it owns it and if not refuses to access it. If the original system that the drive was in is available you might want to try connecting it and if it can access it use the eject media function before disconnecting it. Then try and connect it to the computer you want to use it on.

Alternately you might test the USB cable in case it is defective.

I've never used such a drive enclosure so I have no experience and am guessing. Good Luck.

IrishGrey · « **Reply #4 on:** November 25, 2007, 10:45:38 pm »

Hello,

I am having basicly the same problem. Although with one twist, the first (Master) drive I put into the enclosure had Windows 98 on it, when I plugged into my HP Pavilon it saw it no problem, I was even able to get some files off it that I had forgotten about. But when I switched it out for the slave drive, plugged it in and turned it on, my computer was no longer seeing it. I have tried all the suggestions in this topic and nothing is working. Any other suggestions as to what I can to do to access my additional data on the slave drive would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
IrishGrey

NJAntman · « **Reply #5 on:** November 26, 2007, 08:56:25 am »

I use a CP tech unit that connects via USB and I always set the drive to cable select ( although not listed as a requirement in the sparse use manual ). Works that way fine on 2 WD Cavair 20GB and 1 DeskStar 20GB drives.

Hard drive enclosures.. a geeks way of stashing porn in plain sight.

Nemesis · « **Reply #6 on:** November 26, 2007, 07:35:31 pm »

A true geek disables the "porn drive" in the BIOS after encrypting and hiding the partition.

NJAntman · « **Reply #7 on:** November 27, 2007, 08:44:33 am »

Being a slave to Windoze I wouldn't entrust it to keep anything hidden even with encrypted partitions. I damn well know it would email the whole dang collection to my entire address book with the click of a button for some unforseen reason.

On a technical note, is it faster to plug in the external HD or unlock the hidden drive (batch command perhaps)?

Gone are the days of Playboys in a box in the garage, now its all those HDs which aren't thrown out cause they're still usable.

Just plain old Punisher · « **Reply #8 on:** November 27, 2007, 02:51:27 pm »

Quote from: NJAntman on November 27, 2007, 08:44:33 am

Being a slave to Windoze I wouldn't entrust it to keep anything hidden even with encrypted partitions. I damn well know it would email the whole dang collection to my entire address book with the click of a button for some unforseen reason.

On a technical note, is it faster to plug in the external HD or unlock the hidden drive (batch command perhaps)?

Gone are the days of Playboys in a box in the garage, now its all those HDs which aren't thrown out cause they're still usable.

Even the most basic encryption methods will give you protection that is beyond 99.9 percent of the populations ability to decrypt.

Nemesis · « **Reply #9 on:** November 27, 2007, 08:27:50 pm »

Quote from: NJAntman on November 27, 2007, 08:44:33 am

Being a slave to Windoze I wouldn't entrust it to keep anything hidden even with encrypted partitions. I damn well know it would email the whole dang collection to my entire address book with the click of a button for some unforseen reason.

That is why I specified use the BIOS to hide the drive.

You might also use an older version of Windows that does not have the phone home stuff.

One of my friends used the BIOS disk hiding option on his dual boot system. He was surprised that though Windows didn't see the Linux drive, Linux DID see the Windows drive. Somehow Linux accessed a drive that the BIOS ignored.

Quote from: NJAntman on November 27, 2007, 08:44:33 am

On a technical note, is it faster to plug in the external HD or unlock the hidden drive (batch command perhaps)?

Most likely the external is faster.

IrishGrey · « **Reply #10 on:** November 27, 2007, 08:43:03 pm »

I like my porn as much as the guys, but it’s no fun when my computer can’t see the extrenal drive. Help Please. My next option is to make sure that I have everything seated properly and try again.

Please let me know what other options are available.

Irishgrey

Javora · « **Reply #11 on:** November 27, 2007, 11:03:39 pm »

I take it that none of the suggestions have worked for IrishGrey or Bearslayer?

NJAntman · « **Reply #12 on:** November 28, 2007, 09:18:37 am »

Quote from: Punisher LordOfBacon on November 27, 2007, 02:51:27 pm

Even the most basic encryption methods will give you protection that is beyond 99.9 percent of the populations ability to decrypt.

I worry more about my 17 month old son and his ability and determination to reach the keyboard. He has slammed down key combinations that have XP doing things I didn't think possible.

NJAntman · « **Reply #13 on:** November 28, 2007, 09:20:50 am »

Quote from: IrishGrey on November 27, 2007, 08:43:03 pm

I like my porn as much as the guys, but it’s no fun when my computer can’t see the extrenal drive. Help Please. My next option is to make sure that I have everything seated properly and try again.

Please let me know what other options are available.

Irishgrey

When you set it up again try setting the jumpers to cable select.

Arcusan · « **Reply #14 on:** February 08, 2010, 10:57:21 pm »

I'm having similar issues... It's been 3 years since a post was made here, so hopefully someone responds...

Have had a WD 1TB MyBook for several years, it has mine and my girlfriend's life on it. Pictures, videos, documents, etc. This hard drive was never used as a system drive, just as an external storage. We just moved and something happened to the MyBook, so I decided to put the drive into my Rocketfish RF-HD35 3.5" Hard Drive Enclosure to see if it was the hard drive or the MyBook. The hard drive was recognized and was working just fine. I log onto my computer the next morning and it stopped working. I'm using an HP Presario C700 laptop with Windows 7. I was going through some of the suggestions on this forum and I checked in the Disk Management utility and it sees the hard drive, but it won't let me initialize it. Below are the screen shots of what it was telling me:

Any suggestions?

Rod ONeal · « **Reply #15 on:** February 09, 2010, 02:15:20 am »

Have you checked WD's site for support? Possibly a Win 7 compatibility issue, since the drive's a few years old.

Bonk · « **Reply #16 on:** February 10, 2010, 05:35:05 am »

Make sure you aren't booting up with the external drive plugged in if it was formerly a system disk (at any point in history). But plug it in after bootup. Or remove any boot records on the drive.

Arcusan · « **Reply #17 on:** February 10, 2010, 07:14:21 am »

It's always been used as external storage. Once part of a MyBook Essential enclosure, it was removed from that and put into my Rocketfish. I checked out WD's website and they had some software that I downloaded and both programs couldn't see the drive. Didn't see too much more information on their website that would have been helpful at all. I'm at a loss of what to do. I think it's a Windows 7 thing to be honest. I'm going to be loading it up in an XP machine to see if that makes a difference.

wulf111 · « **Reply #18 on:** February 10, 2010, 09:12:29 am »

OK i think i know what is going on with these some enclosures somehow mount the drive almost as a virtual drive in its firmware as unallocated space thus you will have to re-initialize and format the drive in disk management to be able to use it but it will forever wipe out anything that was on the driver before. other enclosures (ei..Coolmax) just act as a pass through converter. i have a Zonet enclosure that i paid $45 that does that and my Coolmax enclosure $15 that works normally so i usually tell people to buy the cheap ones LOL

Arcusan · « **Reply #19 on:** February 10, 2010, 06:53:19 pm »

I don't even get the option to format the drive...

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Topic: Rocketfish RF-HD35 3.5" Hard Drive Enclosure (Read 17999 times)