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Computer Won't Assign Drive Letter to IDE Hard Drive Enclosure

I have two hard drive enclosure devices (IDE) and a new Western Digital 160MB internal drive that I've tried to install in each. When I connect the USB enclosure, Windows tells me that a USB mass storage device has been installed, and usually (but not always) I can see in Device Manager that it recognizes the device as containing a Western Digital drive. However, I never get assigned a drive letter and can't access the drive through My Computer, so there's no way to put data on the device. This is true for both USB enclosures. A separate USB external drive (integrated, not a standard internal drive installed in a separate enclosure device)I own has no problem being recognized and assigned an additional drive letter. Please help.

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Lee W, MVP

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justasking

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My prior coment escaped before I finished it. I did not format. Can that be done while the drive is in the enclosure, or do I have to do it the way I would if I were formatting it as a replacement drive and open the computer? I received no Windows messages telling me I had an unformatted drive.

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SysExpert

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Lee W, MVP

Unformatted drives will usually get drive letters. UNPARTITIONED drives will not. Go to Disk Management and create a partition and then format it.

justasking

ASKER

Thanks. Disk management did the trick.

justasking

ASKER

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