Hi All:

I haven't had a lot of luck with these external enclosures in the past but decided to give one a try b/c the primary 2.5 HD on my Dell D600 crashed (the dreaded hal.dll error) Fortunately, I had a backup HD and got the system running again but I need to get the files from the original which won't boot for a work deadline asap) and I'm literally on an island with very little re: resources. However, I did find a Manhattan 2.5" USB 2.0 external enclosure, mounted the original and plugged it in to the laptop's USB port. The light on the enclosure lit so I assumed the hd was powered on but then Nothing.

XP didn't see the drive anywhere and I looked everywhere: C.Panel, Admin/Storage/Disk. Aargh.

The unit came with no AC adaptor but it did have this weird DC power connector for the back of the unit (DC in 5v) that is corded to a USB-A-Male connector at the other end (and pigtailed to a PS/2 pass-through ? why I don't know & neither the instructions nor the manufacturer's non-existent web support tell you).

This was frustration dumb but I hooked up the power connector and now XP saw something & reacted immediately and reported a power surge in an Unknown USB hub and there it was in Device Manager, Unknown and demanding that I unplug it.

Any thoughts w/b most appreciated. TKU.

RAH