# R Driver III



## Tdoggy187

I finally messed around with my R Driver III. I watched some you tube videos and still can't get it to work ;-( I even moved the little white things to make it "master" and not slave... Has anyone used this thing??? Does it work? i'm not using any laptop Hard drives. Just desktop. I thought this would be a lot easier to use lol :facepalm:


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## JimE

The jumper on the HDD doesn't matter. Simply connect the HDD to the adapter, connect the HDD power cable, and then connect the adapter to the computer.

If it's not working, I'd suspect the unit is faulty or the HDD is faulty.


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## kendallt

First thing to do is see if it is registering on the computer, open the start menu and type in Diskmgmt.msc , then run it to see what drives are detected on the system. 
If it is detected, you may have to partition and format the disk. (or set as active)

Otherwise, What power source are you using? desktop drives take 12v and USB is 5v as I understand. 
Most often when I have seen a sata>usb adapter of that style in use, there was either an external 'wall wart' type power supply, or a wire running out of the computer case. My view, if you are going to have wires coming out of case to power an external drive, why not run the SATA cable out as well? enable the hot plug option for sata and call it good. No recommended for IDE, unless you power down before connecting/removing a drive.

Another issue is that many (not all) external adapters/housings use a slightly different method or style of partitioning and formatting a drive that is not always directly compatible with the onboard drive controller or even with other externals. You can't always swap a drive that was set up on the computer or in another external back and forth, they need to stay with the external adapter/housing they were set up on. Otherwise you end up a message saying that 'you need to format drive x before you can use it' , if it's even recognized by explorer.


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## Tdoggy187

I'm going to take out a "working hard drive" from one of my old dell desktops and i'll try it on that. I could of sworn that when I 1st hooked up the power cord I saw a green light light up. I'm not seeing that anymore. So could be indeed faulty equipment. I see their are much better ones out there then this basic one. I'll post tonight what happens.


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## kendallt

oops, forgot to mention that while you are in disk manager, if the disk is set up correctly and disk manager shows it as having the correct file types etc, assign it a drive letter that is not in use by another drive. It's rare, but happens often enough to try it while there.


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## JimE

I'm using a cheap one as well: Vantec SATA/IDE to USB 2.0 Adapter CB-ISATAU2-Newegg.com

Unless I'm mistaken, it has a light when it is connected and one for HDD access as well.


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## Tdoggy187

I just picked up the Vantec Sata/IDE to USB 2.0. Adapter CB-ISATAU2 ;-) Hoping this one works. Should I hear the hard drive I am trying to operate running at all? Any noises?


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## kendallt

most drives are pretty quiet these days, but may hear a low hum and feel a very slight vibration if you touch the top.


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## Tdoggy187

I got 2 hard drives to work so far ;-) And yes I am hearing a slight noise and feeling a vibration. I love this tool ;-)


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