My Laptop doesn't see my external Hard Drive

[Grantdt]

Hi there. I have a LG dvd recorder with 80 gig Seagate ATA hard drive. I can download mp3's onto the recorder, but then discovered I cannot download it back onto my laptop via USB. So I took the hard drive out the recorder, bought me a Nexstar 3 External Harddrive Enclosure, with the usb cable & power supply, & connected the recorders harddrive to the external enclosure.
My problem is when I connect this to my laptop (via usb) my laptop doesn't 'see' the external drive. Nothing comes up under My Computer. Why doesn't it 'see' it ?
Additional info: The jumper on the recorder harddrive is set to master; The light on the Nexstar is working (bright blue); When I put my hand on the Nexstar & switch the power supply on, I can feel the hard drive is working/spinning; When I insert a normal flash into my laptop then it reads the flash, so the port is working; My laptop is windows xp.
Please help. thank you

[guns1inger]

Right-click on My Computer and select Manage form the menu. On the tree down the left-hand side, click on Disk Management. Chances are you will see the disk listed, however it will not be accessible. The drive from your DVD recorder will not be formatted in a manner that Windows can simply read from. Usually DVD recorders use a linux type file system. You may be able to mount it if you use a linux Live CD and boot your PC from that first. Most distros have a Live CD version.

The next problem will probably be in trying to make sense of the file structures being used.

Edit : You might get lucky and be able to access it with this driver : http://linuxhelp.blogspot.com/2007/03/mount-ext2-or-ext3-partition-in-windows.html and http://www.fs-driver.org/

[wtsinnc]

Probably the simplest way at this point to get the mp3s to your computer hard drive is to burn the files to a CD and transfer those files to the desired folder on your laptop hard drive via your computer's optical drive.

If your DVD Recorder supports USB transfers from it's hard drive, you could move the mp3s to a flash drive, then plug the flash drive into your laptop and complete the transfer from there.

Finally, why don't you just download the mp3s directly to your laptop ?

[Grantdt]

thanks for replying guys.
Unfortunately that software doesn't recognise the external hard drive either. & no my dvd recorder cannot burn cd's & it cannot transfer mp3's back to usb, only from usb to dvd (it can however transfer pictures back(i used to find that strange)). I know the hard drive works because I put it back in the dvd recorder & it plays the songs etc.
Anyway, my nex step is to test if there's anthing faulty with the external casing,i.e. the usb cable etc. Sine I don't have another hard drive to test it, I'll have to take it back to the store for them to test. Or i wonder if i email LG themselves if they can assist..... I'll keep you guys posted! thnks

[handyguy]

Some computers don't have enough power on those USB ports to power certain things. I have one of those types of computers.

My Seagate external HD came with two USB power cables & that way it works.

[hech54]

Anyway, my nex step is to test if there's anthing faulty with the external casing,i.e. the usb cable etc.

That will be most likely be a complete waste of time.

The drive from your DVD recorder will not be formatted in a manner that Windows can simply read from.