IDE to USB problem

[Alien Bay]

I just bought a IDE to USB cable and accompanying power supply for a hard drive.

I have 6 old drives that I wanted to expore but I can't get any of my running PCs to see these drives when attached to the USB.

On one, after rebooting the computing I get the balloon that says 'finding new hardware', then 'new hardware Maxtor xxx found' then 'new hardware is ready for use' !

Fine but when I double click my computer to explore, the new drive doesn't show up. Any thoughts?

I'm ready to take the "new" parts back. They did come in an open back (reduced price) and the instructions talk about Windows 2000 and Windows ME but don't even mention XP. But isn't a drive a drive to Window XP. Can't see why an older cable and power supply would care what Windows version is running.

Help appreciated.

[Chewy]

if you are taking a usb cable from your computer to the adapter hooked on the hard drive, it should be plug and play with xp, the adapter or power supply could be bad?

[doctorhardware]

Or the hard drive is hosed. I have some that do that where you can see the new hardware is available but can't see the drive.

[Alien Bay]

I don't think that's it as I have six hard drives that I tried out and I know I didn't keep any bad drives.
I did return the IDE to USB kit today and came home with a brand new cable and power set but with the same result. The one success I did have was with a SATA drive (this capability was included with the new kit). My PC saw the SATA drive right away but still won't see any of the IDE drives with the exception of an old 2 1/2" drive.
I still can't see any of the 3 1/2" drives.

Thanks for the response.