Hi. In a futile attempt to save money, I purchased a 1Tb hard drive online. It is a "white label", which I am told is a generic for non-name branded computers. Aparantly, the harddrive is fora a computer that is sata, and my computer only has ata ports (I believe), so I bought an external hard drive case that accepts sata drives and uses a usb cable to connect to my computer. The problem is that it does not show up in my computer. The power light goes on, and I hear the drive spin. The usb port it connects to reads "Location 0 (USB to ATA/ATAPI Bridge)" and the entry in the device manager is "WL1000GS A1672 USB Device" and it says the device is working properly. I just can't figure out why I can't see the hard drive. Do I have to do something with the jumpers on the drive? Does the USB driver need to be changed so it reads USB to SATA? How would I do this? Thanks!

The BIOS of your machine could not recognize the new high massive storage data. May only capable to see below the 1st Terabite. Try update BIOS, prior the advice from manufacturer Web site because the BIOS upgrade is a dangerous task. You could kill your machine if inapropriate procedure...

The BIOS of the computer has nothing to do with the problem. Go the Disk Management and see if the drive shows there. You need to partition and format the drive and possibly assign a drive letter, if that isn't done automatically. All that can be accomplished in Disk Management. Right click on My computer and choose manage> storage> disk management.

"The BIOS of your machine could not recognize the new high massive storage data. May only capable to see below the 1st Terabite." There is no 1 tetrabyte limit. If your mboard bios recognizes a hard drive larger than 137gb manufacturer's size (= 128gb in your bios, and in Windows) it will recognize the size of any hard drive - there is an upper limit, but there is no currently available hard drive size anywhere near that limit, and there may never be any. If your XP version includes at least SP1 updates, it will recognize the size of any hard drive including those larger than 137gb manufacturer's size (= 128gb in your bios, and in Windows). "Dell Dimension 4600" There are used 4600s on the web with larger than 137gb hard drives installed, so the mboard and bios support recognizing any size of hard drive. Your model is a lot more likely than average to develop problems with it's original power supply. If the power supply fails completely, it has been reported that it somtimes damages the mboard while doing that. The 10 Worst PCs of All Time http://www.pcworld.com/article/1298... You DO NOT have to replace the power supply with a model specific to your Dell model - DO NOT replace it with exactly the same one - it uses a standard PS/2 sized ATX PS - any used or new decent standard ATX PS with a 250watt or greater capacity can be used. Dimension 4600 specs http://reviews.cnet.com/desktops/de... You have both IDE and SATA drive controllers. The original hard drive is probably 80gb IDE (or 40gb IDE, according to hits on the web) , and at least one and probably both of your original optical drives are IDE (at least, they were both IDE as reported here by a user - a CD burner/reader drive, and a DVD-rom drive (reads CDs and DVDs, only). If you install, or have installed, an IDE DVD combo drive (which can burn and read CDs and DVDs) capable of 16X or greater DVD -R or DVD +R, the drive must be connected to an 80 wire data cable - if the original optical drives were on the same data cable, they only required a 40 wire data cable. You could have installed a SATA drive internally. The onboard SATA controller is limited to 150mb/sec max data burst speeds - a SATA-II drive may be detected when connected to it, or may not be detected at all (see below). .... "Aparantly, the harddrive is fora a computer that is sata, and my computer only has ata ports (I believe)" It doesn't matter that the external drive enclosure has a SATA drive controller and a SATA drive, and your mboard has no SATA drive controller - it only matters that the external enclosure's circuits be recognized by Windows - it sounds like it has been...... "the entry in the device manager is "WL1000GS A1672 USB Device" and it says the device is working properly." There is probably also a mass storage device entry for it listed under the USB Controllers heading in Device Manager. ..... Most external drives that come with a hard drive, and all new hard drives you buy separately, have no data or operating system on the hard drive, and you must partition and format the hard drive in order for it to show up in My Computer or Windows Explorer and for you to be able to place data on it. ..... "Do I have to do something with the jumpers on the drive?" SATA drives do not have master/slave or cable select jumper settings. If the SATA controller in the external case supports recognizing SATA-II drives, it will recognize a SATA (150mb/sec max data burst speed - e.g. most if not all 80gb or smaller drives are SATA) or a SATA-II drive (300mb/sec) no problem. If the SATA controller in the external case supports recognizing only SATA-drives (150mb/sec max data burst speed), depending on the controller, it may recognize a SATA-II drive as a SATA drive (limiting it to 150 mb/sec), or not recognize the SATA-II drive at all. If it doesn't recognize the SATA-II drive, some SATA-II drives have pins you can install a jumper on to get the SATA controller to recognize it as a SATA drive, some do not. If the controller does not detect a SATA-II drive and the drive has no pins to limit it to SATA (150mb/sec) you have to use another SATA-II drive that does have the pins, or connect the drive to a controller thatdoes recognize SATA-II (300mb/sec) drives. "Does the USB driver need to be changed so it reads USB to SATA?" No. It only matters that the external enclosure's circuits be recognized as a mass storage device by Windows. The USB drivers are built into Windows - it supports USB 1.x controllers in any case. If your mboard has USB 2.0 controllers, they are backward compatible with USB 1.1, and each USB 2.0 controller has (a) USB 1.1 component(s) that is(are) detected by XP. If the mboard main chipset drivers have been loaded, and if XP has at least SP1 updates installed, Windows will recognize the USB 2.0 component of the USB 2.0 controllers. ...... It can make a difference which USB port you connect the external hard drive enclosure, or any USB connected device, to. See response 3 in this: http://www.computing.net/answers/wi... External hard drives cannot get enough power (current; amperage; milliamps) from one USB port alone. 3 1/2" drives in an external enclosure require an external power adapter be connected to the external case. 2 1/2" hard drives in an external enclosure require TWO cables with TWO USB connections on the computer end, one cable only needs two wires for 5v power, or the cable that needs only two wires can be connected to a an external power adapter meant for supplying up to 500ma at 5v, such as one with a USB port for powering an MP3 player.